1905-2018 Runcorn High Street. The most noticeable change here is the disappearance of the Scala ballroom on the right which was used as a club until 1987 hosting the likes of the Beatles on numerous occasions until it was converted to a bingo hall, closed in 2006 and was demolished six years later. Another criminal loss of local history made worse by the fact that all that's replaced it is bushes and weeds that somehow warrants permanent security fences.

1934-2015. My first one of the year is more of a 'then & then' tribute than anything else. This was once the main entrance to Whittingham asylum in Lancashire, UK. Whilst more than a hundred psychiatric institutions were established during the 1800s across the country, this was the largest. In total there was up to four thousand persons here during its peak including staff and patients. That's almost four times the size of a modern day city hospital, and when it closed in 1995 what was left behind was essentially an entire self contained village. Nowhere else I've ever visited has ever felt like this place - I still have memories of wandering it's corridors with the chilling echo of hundreds of crows in the distance who never seemed to stray far from the site right up until its last days when these few remaining buildings were torn down in 2016 to make way for new housing. This photo was taken on the day I decided to go and pay my last visit to what remained of this formidable place. Gone, but not forgotten.