24 June - Preston

I've mentioned that we're big fans of Mowgli street food restaurant. Don't know if I mentioned that they have a bit of a promotion called the Mowgli Passport.

Every time you visit a new Mowgli (there are 18 of them around the country so far) they stamp your passport. When you get five stamps you get $25 off your meal. When you get 10 stamps you get $50 off. We found out that there's a Mowgli in Preston, so we decided to go there for lunch and get stamp #9. We took the train, leaving our fate in the hands of the Northern Rail line. We saw that there's an informal strike going on through 27 June, so we kept our fingers crossed. Bruce noticed this sign in the rail coach

Even with a change of trains there were no problems (cue cheering) and we arrived at Preston Rail Station. I love this place because they've really embraced its Victorian style.

When I first visited Preston about nine years ago it was a very dreary, down-at-the-heels place which was sad to me because this is the city from which my father's family emigrated. At the time, I thought it perfectly understandable that he would leave because it was so depressing. Of course, the more I learned about the history of the mills in Lancashire and the terrible conditions the workers faced, I realized that the looks of the city were probably the last consideration for emigration. My grandfather worked at mill and left to go to the mills of Fall River, Massachusetts because the conditions were so much better. In the last nine years a lot of money has been invested in the city, in large part because the University. It now has a fairly vibrant high street and the Harris Museum is being refurbished. This, of course, means that it's closed, so I'll just have to come to Preston again.

While Bruce visited a pub, I wandered around town and found Preston Markets. There's an outside market, the structure of which reminded me a little bit of the Iron Market in Haiti.

It only had a few traders, but the indoor market was thriving.

The entrance to the market features a wonderful sculpture of Wallace and Gromit (actually Wallace, Gromit and Leo, but he's not a permanent feature.)

Kinky Boots' assertive brother:

By the outdoor market I saw a series of posters that made me smile. It's hard to see, given the choice of the color of the lettering, but it says "Preston is My Paris"

In the town square, near the Harris, there is a very grand, if phallic, war memorial

and a wonderful old building with weeds growing out of its facade that seemed to me to just be begging for someone to make it into something grand.

I was getting hungry, so Bruce & I met up at Mowgli, aglow with fairy lights as always.

After lunch, Bruce went off to find more pubs. I walked around town a bit more. Though we entered from the street side, I saw that Mowgli is actually in the Miller Arcade which was Preston's first indoor shopping center. It was constructed in 1899 and modeled after the Burlington Arcade in London. It retains its vintage store fronts and tiles and is very

appealing.

Preston Minster is in the middle of town, quite near the bus station, but isn't open to the public except during services.

Love the name of this street!

My train wasn't due for a while so I stopped into Brucianni's Cafe. It was built in 1932 and has such an over-the-top interior.

I think I might adopt this as my new nickname.

And this will definitely be my new look:

As I walked by the Lancashire Council Offices I saw a piper. I asked if he was off to play somewhere nearby and he told me that he had just played for a ceremony in the Council building.

He then suggested a selfie, at which I am rubbish.

I passed a bit of street art,

caught the train without incident (hurray!) and made it home.