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This is the Basingstoke page
London Street Basingstoke about 1900 before developers got there hands on it. Now you can stand still for months and never see a horse and cart.
Basingstoke in Hampshire is the magnificent town where I live, eat and sleep along with several thousand other people. For a variety of reasons it's long been one of the most maligned towns in the south of England and as far back as the 19th century was referred to by some guide books as "a town with little merit". In the early sixties, much of the towns heart and soul was demolished to make way for a dramatic modern shopping centre - ready to catapult the town into the next century.
Now we are well into that next century, much of that fine new shopping centre has been pulled down and replaced by a dramatic modern shopping centre that will catapult the town into the next century.
I have to say I was a little disappointed with this new multi-million pound redevelopment - "Festival Place" they call it I searched high and low for any sign of a festival but it seemed just to be a load of shops. Anyway, here are some local links to entertain and illustrate the charm and character of our gay little town:-
Basingstoke not Boringstoke - Basingstoke is really, really interesting. Brookside's Shelia Grant left our Bobby to stay with her sister here about ten years so it can't be all bad.
The Basingstoke Gazette - The long established local paper that's about as exciting to read as it's title suggests.
Overton Primary School - Not strictly Basingstoke as Overton is a small village about 8 miles to the west but its where I lived and used to go to school back in the 1970's. The building in this link was erected during my time at school there and replaced some old wooden army huts that we had previously been taught in just a few hundred yards away. The new building had rather more modern facilities than the draughty huts, but not quite the same character. During my time there I particularly remember enjoying English with Mrs. Knight, along with country dancing, playing marbles in holes in the playground and being the first person to climb to the top of the Geodome! Thank god that outdoor swimming pool is heated now!
The Cannon Cinema - A building that most thought safely demolished, but which now - thanks to the awesome powers of the web, you can once again reminisce about queuing outside of from the safety of your own home.
Old Basing - A little village on the outskirts of Basingstoke which, despite having far more than it's fair share of interesting local features has so far managed to remain stubbornly independent of it's bigger neighbour. Old Basing was once known simply as Basing until somebody added some buildings to the other side of the valley and then started calling that bit New Basing. The folks in New Basing quickly tired of telling people that the interesting bits were somewhere else and so changed the name of New Basing to Basingstoke. According to legend, buried treasure from the civil war is hidden somewhere in the ruins of Basing House in Old Basing, I haven't found it yet otherwise I wouldn't be doing my own website.
Enjoy all the drama, the glamour and err..... the shops in the new shopping centre at Festival Place
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