In recompense for my forgetfulness yesterday, I’ve got a small collection of photos today.

If you’re thinking that the above looks like someone has built a house on top of a block of flats, you’re not far wrong. It’s CIAC, or community in a cube, a new residential development in Middlesbrough’s shiny new Riverside One development. It consists of a block of flats of various sizes, with a couple of luxury houses on the top. It’s a fully sustainable development, and architecturally interesting to say the least.

This shows the same building from a different angle, showing both “perched houses”. Also notice the bizarre Playschool-esque windows in the cutaway portion.

Walking round the back of the building, this whole other surprise awaits: a strange inset geometric patterned wall, and paving resembling a jumbo zebra crossing. Oh, and a lamppost at a decidedly jaunty angle.

On a related note, the surrounding naked streets are the first I’ve driven on, and it’s certainly a disconcerting experience that forces you to slow right down – especially at junctions.

There’s no denying that CIAC and the whole Riverside One development is distinctive, and also modern. But it isn’t quite to my taste. But perhaps you’re asking yourself what the sales office for such a distinctive development looks like… Well, it certainly isn’t your usual portacabin or converted garage!

I’ve spied the new BHS on Newcastle’s Northumberland Street this afternoon. It’s in the building vacated by Next after they shuffled off into Eldon Square, and is a few doors up from its previous home, which has been subsumed into the expanding Primark.

Graham Soult has some great before-and-after comparison shots to see the impressive scale of the building’s transformation.

On my visit, my eye was drawn to the cafe on the second floor with floor-to-ceiling windows, which strikes me as a little vertiginous. I’m also not entirely keen on having two BHS signs above one another – I understand the logic (the higher one isn’t terribly visible from the doorway), but couldn’t they just have put a logo on the doors? There were six big visible logos on the frontage on my visit (four on posters), and it really cheapens the brand.

Anyway, I’m being picky. It’s a nice looking shop from the outside – certainly moreso than the old, unloved Next – and it’s a relief to get rid of some of Northumberland Street’s scaffolding!

My 100th photo is of the war memorial in Lincoln. It stands in St Benedict’s Square in the city centre.

I tried to take a picture if the Stonebow, which was built in the 16th century and marks the position of the original Roman gate allowing access to the south of the city. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a disaster, not least as I took it from the back:

Still, it’s the 100th day of the year, and my 100th photo-a-day, so I must be doing something right!

St Leonard’s Hall at the University of Edinburgh’s Pollock Halls. I don’t really know anything about it, but it’s a building that looks like it has a history!

It’s not the most original shot, but the Ross Fountain seemed appropriate given that it’s only a couple of days since I was in England’s capital: it came from London to Edinburgh following the 1862 World’s Fair in South Kensington. Unlike me, it took a decade to make the journey, and is originally French.

Interestingly, Edinburgh Museums claim it was bought at the Great Exhibition of 1862: a claim that’s repeated on many other websites. As a bit of a world’s fair buff, I think they’ve confused the famous Crystal Palace Great Exhibition of 1851 with the Great Exposition of 1862 – the latter was funded by the profits of the former – but then I’m no historian, and might be confused myself.

I don’t really have anything interesting to say about Edinburgh Castle, other than pointing out that the £15 admission price seems excessive to me: you can visit Alnwick Castle for a whole year for less if you really want to go to a castle…! Though, I guess, that advice isn’t a huge amount of good if you’re in Edinburgh!

Today’s photo shows the old bus station on Worswick Street in Newcastle. It’s been disused for almost 15 years, and is now something of an unofficial, and presumably rather inefficient, car park.

This whole area of the city centre has been ear-marked for regeneration for a long time, but nothing seems to have happened as yet…

This is the “restaurant directory” outside the flagship store of the Fenwick chain on Newcastle’s Northumberland Street. Listed are the ten restaurants in the store: the Northside Diner; the Terrace Restaurant; Café 21; Johann’s Coffee Shop; the Majorca Café; Tivoli; Pret a Manger; Yo! Sushi; Caffé Nero; and the Patio Restaurant.

I reckon that ten restaurants within a single department store must be close to a record. I know that Harrods famously has 25 restaurants – not that I’ve counted and independently verified the claim – but I can’t think of any UK department store other than Harrods or Fenwick with anywhere near ten. Can anyone else think of any?

Local legend has it that this branch of Fenwick is the most profitable branch of any department store chain in the UK. The Sunday Times Rich List is often the cited source of this information, but I can’t see it under the Fenwick family’s entry in any of the Rich Lists in the Times’s archive, so I’m not absolutely convinced.

The flagship M&S virtually next door – which houses five restaurants of its own (an M&S Cafe, Kitchen, Restaurant, Deli and Food on the Go) – has a food hall which is frequently authoritatively cited as the chain’s most profitable, so the claim about Fenwick isn’t as outlandish as it might first appear.

Anyway, as interesting as all that is, I thought the picture was a bit rubbish. So here’s a bonus one of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge now that the ugly bollards have been removed.

This is the Infinity Bridge across the Tees in Stockton, so called because it looks a bit like a ∞ when reflected in the water. I first wrote about this bridge when its design was still being decided and I was studying at the University of Durham’s Queen’s Campus, eight-and-a-half years ago:

The new design for the bridge in Stockton has been decided. Five designs were drawn up for the bridge (which will go from the university campus to the other side of the river, where there is currently – well, nothing, actually). These designs were then put to a public vote, via post, phone and online. The overwhelming winner of the vote was design ‘D’. So they’re building design ‘C’. No, I didn’t understand either.

Here’s a BBC Tees article from the time, which shows all five proposed designs. It’s interesting to see that the artist’s render in this case stands up very well to comparison with the finished product. But I’m still quite fond of the design the public voted for.

It’s also worth noting that, all this time on, there’s still very little on the far side of the bridge!

St Mary’s on Gateshead quayside is over 900 years old. It’s over 30 years since it was last used as a church, having been an auction house, a tourist information centre, and now – appropriately – home to Gateshead Heritage.

It caught my eye because of its plain glass (rather than stained glass) windows, which give it an unusual sort of ethereal quality… which, I suppose, is appropriate for a former church. I think this photo might just be a little too light to really show it, though.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the bollards around the Gateshead Millennium Bridge (or the “Vessel Collision Protection System”, to use the proper name) were to be removed. As I walked past this evening, the Forth Sentinel was beavering away at that very task.