# 27 The Harbour Masters Building

The Harbour Masters Office

There is a building in Lincoln on the Brayford Pool called the Harbour Masters Office that I suppose has been hanging on for dear life for some time now. I think it was still being used as an office, but it was basically a remnant from the old dock days when boats would deliver goods to Lincoln.

Since then Brayford Wharf has become something of a promenade lined on one side by the Marina and on the other by a succession of faceless branded restaurants. And now that the Doubletree by Hilton hotel has opened up at the end, curiously next to the Holiday Inn, the area has more of a foreign resort feel to it than a functional town that is about as far from the coast as you can get in these parts.

But last week the demolition men moved in and now only an outside wall and some interior features remain. It's going to be yet another restaurant apparently - a small one I don't doubt. But sitting right opposite ASK, Zizzi's and the Lincoln Odeon cinema I'm sure it wasn't a necessary addition.

We accept the demolition of our heritage with resignation these days, that we know eventually everything is going to look modern and built in concrete. I remember thinking this in days of old when I used to go to London a lot and saw old Victorian streets flattened for Sainbury's or modern apartments. I guess it's a sign of the times. You can't stop progress. Unfortunately however, once these places have gone, they've gone. You can't get them back and it's a shame that so often progress cannot meet with the past.

Brayford Pool - Victorian times

The same view now