The sun has gone down on 2013. There follow pictures of some of the new Abingdon buildings of 2013…

The new Science Centre at St Helen and St Katharine is progressing well.

New flats have been built on Marcham Road.

Audrey’s Flower Shop was once on this site on Ock Street, but now it is Audrey’s Court.

A new Design and Technology Centre opened at Our Lady’s Abingdon in October.

Bridge House, a Care Home between Waitrose and the Abbey Gardens, also opened earlier in the year. This was once the site of the Abbey Press.

Campion House, next to John Mason School, was demolished, and replaced with Retirement Apartments in 2013.

I intended going to a Town Council meeting for this evening’s blog report, but it has been postponed. So this is a very short report.

Town Council staff will soon move from Old Abbey House to the building above the Registry Office in Roysse Court – its back view is still covered in scaffold. Those upstairs offices have been ‘To Let’ for some years, while owned by the Vale of White Horse District Council, and are being brought back into use by the Town Council, as recent planning applications show.

On 5th November there was a planning application to remove lath and plaster to allow treatment of common furniture beetle, and death watch beetle in the timbers.

On 10th December another application was put in to remove and replace the existing chimney.

The window at The Beaconsfield has been hidden behind scaffolding for almost a year. The Beaconsfield Working Mens Conservative Club once occupied part of this building.

The window has been transformed.

The Earl of Beaconsfield, the Marquess of Salisbury and Sir Stafford Northcote look much the same as before.

A year after the first residents moved into the new apartments next to the Old Gaol, work has begun on refurbishment of the buildings on Bridge Street …

including: the Old Police Station, the one time tourist office and music centre, and some cottages.

The Old Gaol itself will then be converted into 10 rented apartments, with groundfloor restaurants and riverside gardens for the public.

The Abingdon Bridge young people’s centre will move into part of the Old Police Station from one of the cottages.