La Belle Époque

No not a reference to the Spanish film with my own little secret vice of Penélope Cruz in it; nor that 'Beautiful Era' of French art history; but a emergency blip continuation of my occasional architectural blip-tours of home-town Knutsford. Here is the lovely restaurant of the same name, where in the 20+ years I have lived here, I have eaten once. (Bitter - Moi?)

Like my earlier blipped Ruskin Rooms, the Belle Époque building was originally created in the 1900's by eccentric designer Richard Harding Watt. The building first housed the town council and a coffee house, with his signature being an eclectic Italianate style with a touch of Arts and Crafts thrown in. Of two towers, one is a memorial commemorating writer Elizabeth Gaskell. You can see her bust over on the left no un-PC puns intended. Gaskell lived in Knutsford and her novels on Cranford were based here.

Saturday would have been my dad's 81st birthday, and so we are over to mum's tomorrow in Silsden to keep her company for the day. Sunday we are off to Anglesey for a couple of days as J's new Beau called Jake is coming over from Birmingham to stay - We've not met him yet. He's a Villa fan it seems, but hey, no one's perfect.

Postscript: Further research has just uncovered the fact that the building originally also had a social purpose - in that it aparently provided newspapers and a library, as well as concerts and musical evenings in an attempt to wean the working man away from the pub. Mmm