Flora & Fauna

Floricultured king
Demoted by hairless apes'
Opposable thumbs


This débutant à Debenhams is 'FloraLeo', by artist Jeff Banks.

I found this Lion of Bath prowling around outside the entrance to the new Debenhams store just opened in the Southgate, the retail development between Bath Spa railway station and the centre of Bath. FloraLeo was a late entrant and so doesn't appear on the safari map of Bath.

I like the new Southgate development. It was illuminating watching how it was constructed from pre-fabricated façades fixed to steel girdered frames. Some find it a pastiche of the predominant architectural style of Bath but, as they are often those who complain most strongly against modernist architecture, this just goes to show that there's no pleasing some people.

What I like most about the new Southgate centre is that the new street plan is so open yet integrated into the rest of Bath. This is not some sort of enclosed or gated shopping community like an American-style 'mall' but an organic extension of the street plan in Bath. It's inclusive; you walk into this development as you would stroll freely into and through any quarter of the centre of Bath.