Castles in the air

Castles in the air.

I had it in mind to make a good thing better. We’d been doing that since first setting eyes on the place. Trying to eradicate nagging dissatisfactions, the warts. This led in the end to trying to fit quarts into a pint pot and Brighton thinking into an underdeveloped dockyard, an end-of-the-line nowhere to go failure. A drudge pudge that wouldn’t budge determined to stay in a hush, an all-in and everything’s bother political will not obeying an age-old masterplan.

So, we embarked on an expansion plan using the backyard ugliness to build on. Of course, we had no cash so leaned heavily on Bartercard. The architect was paid by Barter and the plans satisfying the bureaucrats were eventually approved by the elected.

We gained an offer of the equivalent of £100,000 from Barter members and all we had to do was persuade the banks to lend us a further £700,000. The scheme featured a lift, a swimming pool, an owner’s flat and more rooms, some with disabled facilities.

It didn’t seem to me too grand at the time. It would have meant more stars and undeniable respectability. I thought it achievable and more than that, necessary to survival, however I lost my nerve.

It would have course continued the ‘Charlie in the chocolate factory’ model with continuous development into an all-enveloping art experience with maybe a libertine spin. I could dream on and will.