Old Pumping Station, Kings Gardens, Southport
The former pumping station at King's Gardens has more recently been used as a storage unit for the council’s Parking Services section, but according to local reports, the council have been looking to dissolve itself of the responsibility to pay for repairs and rent the building out for a ‘peppercorn rent’ in exchange for the lessee taking on repair and maintenance costs. A ‘peppercorn rent’ is where a property or piece of land is leased out for a nominal fee – usually £1 – to make the rental legally binding. Rumour has it that there are developer’s interested in turning the building into a restaurant, bar and cafe. This image was photographed with a 1970s Canon AE1 35mm SLR film camera using Kodak colourplus film which I developed myself. The negative was scanned into my computer on photo paper in order to add texture and an ageing effect. In post-production I converted the image to black and white.