Runcorn is a small industrial town in Cheshire, situated in the North West of England. It runs along the side of the Mersey opposite Widnes. It is connected to Widnes by a large green bridge now known as The Silver Jubillee Bridge.
This town is like a beautiful girl you knew during your school days, that you bump into years later and has changed into a rough, drugged up goth with facial piercings.
Runcorn makes those little tubs of spices you get and zippers - its got a YKK factory. The other highlight of Runcorn is the 'Halton Lea Shopping' centre better known by locals by it's old name 'Shopping City'. Like a large white nest of maggots with pulsating red veins along which buses enter and exit, Shopping City glistens in the rain. For a long time Shopping City really was the 'in' place to go, for one important reason: there was nowhere else to go. It still leads the nation in smelling like urine.
Teenagers in white track suits, baseball caps over shaved heads, infest the area, puchasing platinum Playstation 2 games whilst elderly women can be seen buying tins of peaches for their pudding. You may even catch a glimpse of an obese young mother choosing a greetings card in a discount stationery outlet.
But.
It can be beautiful.
A Victorian water tower looks out towards the remains of Runcorn castle. The way the sun catches the leaves of the trees lining the small bridal path to Preston Brook. The weary little brick bridges over the Bridgewater, warm in the sunshine. Fleeting though.
Turn a corner and you're faced with a building site for a new factory. Followed by acres of brand new semi and detached homes. Undulating foam now oozes its slippery way along the waterways. And a white tower (housing a nuclear particle accelerator) mushrooms overhead.
What's worse, the vanishing green belt or the recall of memories of taking your dog for a walk along the canal amongst the vanished fields?