Swanage with a hint of Andalucia?

The term Andalucia is a hispanicised version of the Arabic "Al Andaluz", meaning the land of the Vandals. Vandals were at work here in Swanage some thirty years ago, when the Grosvenor Hotel was torn down to make way for a development of 100 flats and a marina for the town.

These outlandish dwellings, locally nicknamed "Eldorado" (after the short-lived TV soap opera of that name), are the only part of the development to have been finished. They would look very much at home on the Mediterranean; they don't in Swanage. But they provide a photo opportunity - as do the skeletal remains of Swanage's old pier, of which more will perhaps be said in a future blip.


The "Wellington Testimonial Clock-Tower"

The incongruous* tower at the left of the development was initially a clock-tower built at the southern end of London Bridge and intended to house a statue of the recently deceased Duke of Wellington. The statue never materialised. The tower was demolished, and reerected in Swanage in 1867 without its clock.

(*I use this term ironically... but could you imagine a worse clash of styles?)


Beyond El Dorado: power and gold in ancient Colombia

An exhibition under this name has just one month more to run at the British Museum. Well worth a visit.