Postmodern Alienation: Bleak House - 3rd December 2005

Whilst recent photos seem to emphasise the destruction of parts of Diss, there is of course, elsewhere, commensurate building to make up for it. The problem is that whilst the odd new building here and there tends to blend in unnoticed to existing infrastructure in something of an organic way, slapping up entire estates in one go is doomed to create a soul-less wasteland of bleak, identikit boxes. And so it is around Mission Road on the outskirts of Diss, where Yet Another Housing Estate is seemingly prefabricated from concepts straight out of "The Big Book of House Design 101" and dumped whole onto a muddy field. For me, they somehow sum up - especially on a cold, cloudy day - how much of modern life is rubbish. But, before all that, there are a few photos of Nosher's old work's building - the former BPCC Printec (Development Workshop/Anglia Web/Polestar) - once part of Maxwell's printing empire and now abandonned when production moved down the road to Severall's Lane in Colchester.

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These are cropped thumbnails. Click on an image to view the full photograph.

BPCC Printec's front door. Nosher's old office is above, to the right, of the entrance. Office was alive... office is dead.	A flag, left behind and shredded to bits by years of wind, hangs limply	Entrance door to the former heatset printing hall
Vinces Road industrial estate	Subterranean access pipe	New roundabout on Saw Mills Road and the re-routed Mission Road
The remains of the now-disused part of Mission Road	Little boxes, little boxes...	A drain cover, slightly proud of the ground
Anonymous box	Signs of life: a builder crosses the road	Another brick in the wall
Portaloo in the middle of nowhere		Coning off the old Mission Road
Wrecked Saw Mills Road sign	Subterranean service pipe pops up by a cone	Coil of pipe