My favourite buildings

There was a couple of people climbing the Clifton Suspension Bridge on TV last night and I got all nostalgic about one of my favourite places.

The views were terrific, and I remembered the very early sunny morning when I was new to Bristol, and Mick and I cycled to the then nascent balloon festival, and got to the bridge in time to see a couple of balloons dare each other to fly under it (a manoeuvre banned ever after).

Then, at the end of the TV show they said they were off to St Pancras, which is my favourite building in London. Anne and I once went round the old hotel on one of those Open Day things and I desperately hope they do as good a job on restoring that as they have done on putting the railway station together.

Which got me thinking about my other favourite buildings, and once I'd got half of New York out of my head I came up with:

The Circle - long before the south bank of the Thames became a playground for rich bankers, and strolling tourists, it was a complete shit-hole. Anne used to walk down Tooley Street to work, and all it consisted of was cafes and tramps. The Circle was one of the first footprints towards the pleasant Saturday afternoon experience visitors can enjoy these days, and still seems to me the best fancy development of them all.

The Severn Bridge. The old one. I realise the new one is much more pleasing on the eye but this one is redolent of much that has been good in my life. A little known biographical fact is that I actually lived in a caravan on that island/spit on the Welsh side, whilst my dad built the thing. No wonder I felt linked to it through the Lampeter years - every journey stuck at Aust, either as part of the 10 hour National Express ride, or stood there for nearly that long with my thumb out.

Similarly, I've always loved the other end of the line - the elevated section of the M4. Lucozade bottle, touching distance from halfway up green-glassed office blocks, Brentford wastelands stretching away beneath you, and the feeling of going/coming home whichever way we approached it, first Bristol, then London.

What's your favourite memory-laden building?

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