Singing the blues

[Loving the real flowers outside The Saracens Head]

There’s nothing like a stroll through the city centre under a blue and sunny, early-autumn sky.

One that includes a couple of chats with people doing their bit for new businesses.

I can confirm that, finally, after 3 decades, work IS underway at the old KES School in Broad Street.

There’s undercoat on the old school gates and plenty of activity within the building, which is still due to become a restaurant and mini hotel under the ownership of Sam Smith’s Yorkshire-based brewery.

It seems it could take two to three years, but after so long, I think most Bathonians will be pleased that something is happening at last.

I then passed one of the Broad Street entrances to Milsom Place, which is soon going to revert to its old name of Shires Yard. A name that comes down from the city’s Georgian period, when this was a working stable yard.

It’s under new ownership and is due to get a relaunch on October 15th. There have been quite a few new businesses moving in of late, and more to come.

This unit at the Broad Street entrance is due to be a flagship store for Gieves & Hawkes, the iconic British menswear house, and RM Williams, an Australian footwear and clothing brand, which will be taking over the former bank building on Milsom Street.

Elsewhere in the city, reconstruction work is not moving at quite the same pace. I am sure the Thermae Bath Spa cannot wait for the damaged stone column in front of their entrance to be repaired.

Meanwhile, the city holds its breath in anticipation of something happening at the old Mineral Water Hospital, where the Fragrance Group have yet to get going on turning it into a hotel.