This Semester has been a busy one that is for sure. Whilst we haven’t had many formal lectures it has been non-stop writing with the dissertation and a few smaller tasks in the Contextual part of the module taking up the time at the start of the academic year.
The Practice part of the module has been busy too, there have been many shoots for me all around the country. I’ve focussed on Shirehall in Shrewsbury for my practice project and have been taking drone photographs, digital, film and even pinhole photos as well as a session of making prints from the texture on the wall of the building.
Shooting
I’ve had trips to London, Manchester, Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Birmingham, to make pictures for my library. Subjects from Street Photography, Architecture, Nighttime, Low Light, Portraits and some urban landscape style images. I did a shoot for Wooden Dog the band from BIMM that we collaborated with last year and really enjoyed some of the images that came out of that evening.
I’ve been to some exhibitions too, to help me with my studies and keep my brain working and mind open. Lee Miller at Tate Britain was amazing, with a Banksy exhibition and a Frameless immersive experience also. Exhibitions in Shrewsbury museum and Wolverhampton such as Wildlife Photographer of The Year, and Shrewsbury Arts Trail. Smaller exhibition at Bear Steps for the Shirehall “Too Good To Lose” and then also my involvement with the Shropshire Visual Arts Network where I have work in the gallery and volunteer to keep the place running.
Practice Project
I’ve made contacts through my practice project too, by placing a callout on Facebook and had some testimony from some ex workers or users of the Shirehall buildings, including an interview with a former worker of nearly 40 years. As part of this I was contacted by the Shrewsbury Civic Society to exhibit in the new year at another Shirehall based exhibition in the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery and have also been invited to their planning meetings to observe how they discuss the planning applications in the town to ensure an objection is raised if there are questions about the value or suitability of the changes to the towns landscape.
I have done less film photography this semester as my drone and digital work at Shirehall has taken precedence, but with the end of the semester and a recent delivery of some Harman RED, redscale film I plan to get out and make some images that I might be able to print in the dark room after the Christmas break.
In terms of the group I’m studying with I have got to know a few of them and also knew some from before too. I’ve been with this group for two years (at the end of Semester 2) and for the academic year 26/27 I’ll change over to another group for completion of my final year and the degree show. I don’t know many of these students, that are currently studying on level 5 this year, but I’m sure I’ll get to know some of them during the last part of the degree course.
Exhibition
The exhibition opening and Christmas party was on Wednesday this week and it was a buys evening with a few of the students imbibing some proper alcohol and even the tutors had a glass of wine with us all. The secret Santa was successfully carried out too, with only one present missing off the table at the time of the swap. I had a present from Nikki, one of my classmates, which was a tile that featured a hand drawn recreation of one of my photos that I presented in the review. It took me a minute to figure out what it was but the blue squares and the long blue rectangle tipped me off to what it was, you can see the original picture underneath the picture of the present.
Secret Santa
My mission for secret Santa was to buy our tutor Gavin a gift, but I looked around at a few charity shops but didn’t see anything I wanted to gift to him, so I spent a fiver on a Toblerone and then also made a 3D Printed Parakeet. I then painted the model to appear similar to his own parakeet, with the use of Instagram images of his bird. Gavin seemed to like it and he took it home, I didn’t own up that I had been his secret Santa supplier though as I was unsure as to whether he still had his bird at home and didn’t want to upset him if the bord had recently died or something. That is my usual luck, I’m quite adept at buying a dog collar for someone who has just had their dog put to sleep or similar.
Next Semester
Moving into the next semester in 2026 I can see from the module details in the Canvas app that I am scheduled to only be in on Wednesday but have asked Euripides and Gavin for some clarification in case there has been a mistake due to my part time student status. It appears that there is little contextual work and mostly practice based work. If correct I will need to continue preparing images, between 8 and 12, that could be considered for the degree show. Obviously my work will not be ready for degree show until June 2027 so I have time before then to continue refining my practice and selection of works.
Balancing university studies with my full time work has been much easier since changing back to my IT role and the flexibility of my employer is amazing as per usual. I don’t stress so much about having my day at uni and am not working ’til late most nights now so I have plenty of time to carry on with my journal and dissertation etc.
Now it is time to get on with making some more photos, visiting more exhibitions and generally having a laugh until Uni starts again in January. I’ve got a 3D Printer that I’d like to do more with and have recently picked up a gel plate for printing as well as a cheap airbrush for painting the 3d models I’m making… Just time to get some creativity in. Looking forward to it immensely.
Shirehall Project News
I like taking pictures of concrete buildings, not generally pictures of the whol ebuilding but some of the abstract features of the buildings. As a result of this I have been interested in photographing the Shirehall estate in Shrewsbury for a couple of years. I have walked around many times with different cameras capturing photos, ranging from a Holga WPC120 Pinhole camera, a Canon A1, Leica M6, Bronica ETRS, Canon 5D MkIV and Leica Q2 and Q3. Recently I have been taking my drones around there too.
Why am I taking photos of this place? It’s been a part of my life since childhood and now in my early fifties it is now under threat of demolition. As a kid, I used to go and play hide and seek around the buildings, jump in and out of the pool with the fountains, and go up the Lord Hill’s Column to look out over the town. Later in my life I did a charity abseil down the column, a charity zipline from the top of the Shirehall building, and also used the area to learn how to ride a unicycle, using the steps and ramps as ideal training obstacles to pick up some street skills. A few years after this I was back riding around on a Onewheel electric skateboard, again using the smooth surfaces and steps etc to learn balance on a different item of equipment. I’ve been in and out of the building to register births, marriages and deaths as well as completing a jury duty spell too.
It’s been there for a long time, and now I’ve started appreciating the concrete forms and the architecture with the glass and all of the engineering that makes the buildings possible I’ve found it a draw to go back and capture as many angles of the building as possible.
But
They are now talking about demolishing it and making the land a mixed use site. Not 100% a surprise as when I started my year 5 at uni the council, whose headquarters it was, had moved everyone out to the Guildhall in the town centre or to work from home, then mothballed it.
It was wound down and emptied due to the costs of running a huge estate for a few employees, and the upper floors were shut for a few years after the fire regulations were non-compliant. Resolving this would cost it a lot of money so they had closed the floors down, people were talking about the inevitable death and destruction of the buildings.
A few weeks ago 19th November, though there was some promise of a new life for the buildings in the Abbey Foregat area of the town. Newspaper headlines professed that there were the beginnings of a plan to move out of the Guildhall and back into Shirehall to save money. Saving money is quite important as Shropshire Council are in terrible financial state at the moment, so if they could sell the Guildhall for apartments and then move back into a slightly refurbed building it would be beneficial.
Only yesterday 11th December I noticed a few posts on the local news websites stating that the costs of moving back into the buildings was likely to need refurbishment works costing £54 million so there was now a scheme to demolish all of the buildings and turn the land into mixed use.
Shropshire Council have released a Shirehall Strategic Report on 11th December that gives us more information about the decision making process.
It’s noted that the cabinet declared a financial emergency on 10th September 2025 and as such were looking at ways to save money and still meet the objectives of the Council. They looked at “retention, refurbishment, sale and redevelopment” options to meet the needs of the local population, minimise environmental impact and maximise public value.
One point mentions the option of retaining the Council Chamber (the oval shaped building at the front) at a projected cost of £3 million, this joined with the building of a new 4000 sqm building would take it up to around £20 million.
The recommended option is to “seek outline planning permissions to full demolition and a mixed-use development, including offices, a medical practice, mixed tenure residential units and affordable extra care housing.”
The new planning application should be lodged in early 2026 according to the strategy for option 11 which is demolition of entire contiguous site. In the Risk assessment section it does mention that “insufficient engagement may lead to opposition or reputational risk.” and they will mitigate this with “ongoing public and stakeholder engagement”
In 2026 when the Certificate Of Immunity expires, there can be opportunities for other agencies or organisations to apply to have the buildings listed or registered to protect the structures so the council will need to immediately renew this when it expires if it does want to destroy this estate.
Other organisations are keen to keep the buildings in some form or another as they are considered to be Shropshire’s most prestigious piece of Brutalist Architecture. Shrewsbury Civic Society recently held an exhibition called Too Good To Lose and in the website for the marketing they say “The Civic Society maintains that the impressive building in the photographs should remain as a bold 20th Century architectural statement – yet one adaptable for reuse by generations to come. “
The 20th Century Society have also expressed their wishes to keep the structures in some shape or other as it would be a waste to lose them now. Their website quotes Pevsner and Newman’s work ‘The Buildings of England, Shropshire’ (2006) which says that the Shirehall is ‘The major monument to post-war Modernism in the county’
Conversely it sounds as though the decisions have already been made. Heather Kidd. The Council’s leader said “We moved out of Shirehall for the right reasons – it just became too big and costly for us, especially following the pandemic. Unfortunately, due to the cost, it would never be an option to refurbish it for our use.
The Strategic Review can be found here on the Shropshire Council Newsroom.
Timeline
As part of my earlier networking on this project and the connections I have made at the Shrewsbury Civic Society I have been invited to a planning meeting on Monday which will look at planning applications from the town, including a brief review and discussion of the Shirehall Strategic Review. It should be interesting and enlightening on the processes that take place in the background to work out what is best for the town.
So what next for my project then, it looks like I’ll continue to document the place, whether with film or digital, ground based or aerial. Ill ask again about getting inside to do some documenting before they tear the place down, if that is the outcome agreed by the rest of the council and the planning committee.
I’ll keep an eye out for further news on the future of the estate and try and do my best to get in with the people who may be able to help me.
More to come in the future, stay tuned.
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