The old Abbey Press works on Thamesview, just over the fence from the Abbey Gardens, look as if a bomb has hit it.

The old print works have been ‘To Let’ since the Abbey Press moved to near Fairacres about five years ago. Some of the adjoining building was used until recently. I think it was an MOT centre. But now the whole lot is being demolished – quite possibly for a care home.

The war memorial area has been reopened and the area around looks bright and clean in the early May sunshine. The memorial has been stabilised and cleaned, and the surrounding area improved.

Anybody who has been near the NET Young Peoples Centre – off the Stratton Way – will have seen that a lot of building and decoration work has been carried out in the last two months. As I understand it the upstairs area is being converted to offices for various youth and child services. Presumably the 1970’s observation hole in the middle has been filled in to allow this conversion.

Other youth centres in Oxfordshire are threatened with closure in the hope that the ‘Big Society’ will take them over, but the NET is being converted to what is termed a HUB. As I understand it, the downstairs area will continue as a youth centre – in the evenings at least, but the emphasize will be on targeting those most in need, and offices for people involved with such work.

I see there are lights brightening the front of Twickenham House as you go down East St Helen Street.

It is part of the same development as the Old Gaol.

There is now a large crane positioned there, and the steel frames for concrete structures are growing to the left of the Old Gaol.