ZX-Blue Plaques?

[p13z]

Durell Software are still operating from the same address in Taunton that appeared on their Speccy cassette inlays.
They (he?) currently seem to do software for estate agents.

[XTM]

I saw this thread and read it from the start. This reminded me of a topic I had on WOS, called Places of Speccy interest in Google Street View which fits well with this thread here. I'm sure some of you have seen it before but to those who haven't it might prove interesting.

Back in November 2018 I made one of my usual "stalker/detective work" posts, this time about 43 Gravel Hill in Ludlow, which is where Crash also had offices. I linked to one of the excellent articles by @jdanddiet as it contained a photo of the spot mentioned. There wasn't any response from the WOSsers as usual - maybe some of you guys might like it.

Let me know if you'd enjoy having a topic like this here on SC

[R-Tape]

14 Rathbone Place, London surely?
I did head up there once, but couldn't find any numbers on the doors in the right range.

Going by streetview, I think it's Joe's Juicebar.

[R-Tape]

Let me know if you'd enjoy having a topic like this here on SC

Yep, or you could list them here so we could build up the blue plaque list. But as TMD noted further back in the thread, maybe best not to include ones that are just regular houses—unless they're the real biggies.

Ludlow has already had a mention in this thread.

[Rorthron]

Gremlin Graphics/Just Micro shop. Alpha House, Carver St, Sheffield, S1 4FS.



Also drawn in the Potty Pigeon cover art.

[Rorthron]

Office of the original Imagine, 5 Sir Thomas Street, Liverpool, L1 6BW

[Rorthron]

There were a lot in Liverpool. Bug-Byte were at Mulberry House, Canning Place, Liverpool, L1 8JB, but it looks like it's been demolished and redeveloped.

[Rorthron]

There is a mini-Matthew smith pilgrimage:

Holt Road, Birkenhead, CH41 9EN. He and other Software Projects programmers lived there. Also referred to in JSW2. I don't know which number.

His mum's house in Wallasey somewhere.

His school: the Mosslands School, Mossland Drive, Wallasey, Merseyside, CH45 8PJ

[XTM]

Some nice posts there, Rorthron. I think it was that particular b/w photo of Just Micro in Sheffield someone posted on WoS many years ago that actually made us look up the places nowadays. In that specific case, the front of the building had changed quite a bit over the years, but thanks to a few details on the pavement that still were the same, we managed to figure out where the shop entrance had been. This and much more is all on my WoS thread

By the way, you can just check out any place on Street View and move the camera around until you like the view, then copy the current URL in your browser and post it here, that way we'll get exactly that view.

Edit:
In the very 1st post, R-Tape listed Ultimate Play the Game headquarters, so I dug 'em up.

They were first based "in a small office above the drugstore owned by their father" at The Green in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, but no house number so I'm not sure in which building. Street View of the area.

Later when they became Rare, they moved to a building related to Manor Farm in Twycross. I'm not sure which building that is either, but when I checked on Street View I saw a building with a blue plaque ... sadly the footage isn't detailed enough to see what it says. Anyway, here's the Street View link.

Rare apparently is still based in Twycross after all these years, but of course the Stampers aren't part of Rare anymore.

[Rorthron]

I think it was that particular b/w photo of Just Micro in Sheffield someone posted on WoS many years ago that actually made us look up the places nowadays. In that specific case, the front of the building had changed quite a bit over the years, but thanks to a few details on the pavement that still were the same, we managed to figure out where the shop entrance had been. This and much more is all on my WoS thread

I've just looked at the thread. It looks like the paving has been redone since then, but to judge from the drainpipe, it is this spot:

22 Carver St
https://maps.app.goo.gl/5ZEDJKu6vj7igbbu9

[Rorthron]

It seems the main entrance to the Gremlin offices were just up the street from Just Micro here:

12 Carver St
https://maps.app.goo.gl/JzrQgs77QHTy1xX2A

(Apparently the offices were over Just Micro, which had a back door into the offices, but the main entrance was separate.)

[Rorthron]

Software Projects were at Bear Brand Complex, Allerton Road, Woolton, Liverpool, L25 7SF, but it seems it was demolished in the late 1990s and is now a Tesco.

[Rorthron]

Then and now:

[Rorthron]

Odin seem to have been round the corner from Bug-Byte at The Podium, Steers House, Canning Place, Merseyside, L1 8HN. It has also been demolished.

[Rorthron]

Continuing with Liverpool...

Fuller Micro Systems were at The ZX Centre, Sweeting Street, Liverpool, L2. Surprisingly this street isn't on Google Street View. I doubt the address is still known as "The ZX Centre"!

The shop Micro-Digital was at 25 Brunswick Street, Liverpool L2 ... or 14 Castle St ... or Dale St.

[Rorthron]

Automata were at 27 Highland Rd, Portsmouth, PO4 9DA

https://www.google.com/maps/place/27+Hi ... -1.0693389

Then and now (Automata replaced the Dorothy shop, according to Mel Croucher):

[MatGubbins]

14 Rathbone Place, London surely?
I did head up there once, but couldn't find any numbers on the doors in the right range.

Going by streetview, I think it's Joe's Juicebar.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5170355 ... 384!8i8192

That big 14 above the door might give us a clue.

[R-Tape]

There is a mini-Matthew smith pilgrimage:

His school: the Mosslands School, Mossland Drive, Wallasey, Merseyside, CH45 8PJ

I popped along with my camera this morning, just before 9.

Now, it may not have been the most enjoyable day trip, but I will say that police response times are excellent these days.

[Rorthron]

I will say that police response times are excellent these days.

You'll be grateful for that when you get to Holt Rd.

[BertyFromDK]

Sinclair User was published by ECC Publications Ltd (April 1982 - August 1984), then EMAP (September 84 - May 1993).

ECC Publications lived at
30-31 Islington Green,
London N1 8BJ

EMAP Lived at
Priory Court, 30-32 Farringdon Lane,
London EC1R 3AU

[PeteProdge]

Shortly before lockdown (yes, hi, everyone, I'm back from doing the charity thing and just about ready to plunge back into retrogaming - bear with me!), I had a stand-up gig in Telford, Shropshire. Takes me a while to get there, so I had the afternoon off and I have been planning a video feature on the three main Spectrum magazines, so I thought I'd record all my links outside Crash's former HQ in King Street, Ludlow.

In Crash's heyday, the ground floor was a branch of Victoria Wine, a chain of liquor shops that went under about a decade ago. Nowadays it's some health food and vitamins store called The Grape Tree, as you may have seen earlier in this thread. I popped in for a snack on my drive over to Telford (and that was quite a way away).

I've been in 14 Rathbone Place for a job interview, for what it became after Dennis Publishing vacated it - the HQ of Nickelodeon UK/Paramount Channel. All their admin and television studios were crammed into that small multi-storey place, and by spooky coincidence, the chap interviewing me was Eddie McKendrick - the former publisher of Crash, who told me he had been one of the many Lloyd Mangrams. (Also going for the same job was Paul Rose/Mr Biffo of Digitiser fame - he told me of the tiny salary on offer, glad I didn't it!)

Despite SU being in north London, I've never been anywhere near their former HQ, not even when in my clubbing days down at Fabric, which isn't far away.

I popped over to the Baron Of Beef after visiting Cambridge Centre For Computing History at the Spectrum's 35th anniversary...


I occasionally have to travel through Kempston on the way to work. Not that I've done that lately (mostly WFH), but could manage a photo of the Kempston joystick place this week. (Ironically, a company that used to make peripherals for the Spectrum and many other 8-bit and 16-bit computers back in the day, is one of our clients, and it's nothing to do with Kempston.)

I sometimes run round the Finedon Road Industrial Estate in Wellingborough, and my usual 5K route takes me round one of the many UK bases Activision had - Units 3 & 4, Lloyd Close - in the 8-bit era. However, I don't think it was a hub for programming, more like admin. The skip outside it used to have many returned cassettes, regularly raided by kids from the nearby council estate. You'd see a lot of children with Hacker badges.

At some point in the 1990s, Sir Clive Sinclair was selling small kit radios using an address in Wellingborough at the Denington Industrial Estate. Can't think where now, but, wow, that's a come down. Everything there is grotty, circa 1960s.

[5MinuteRetro]

Then and now:

Oh man - I so want to visit the Style Bar next door!

[PeteProdge]

I forgotten about my promise to head off to Kempston this morning. When I finished work, my manager handed me the April 1986 edition of ZX Computing, something he had found while tidying up his house and he knew was into the Speccy. This reminded me to pop over to Kempston, and sure enough, a full page advert in the inside front cover showed the address - 1-3 Singer Way.

It's now occupied by a company called Parrott Construction...

https://twitter.com/ReheatedPixels/stat ... 0508427268

Incidentally, that edition of ZX Computing is VERY Kempston heavy, as they review the Kempston and AMX mouse devices that had come out, both retailing for £69.95, as well as profiling them as a news piece in their own right.

[Mpk]

Blue Plaques? Pff. I'll bet that Chris Sievey is the only Spectrum game programmer to have an actual statue in his honour.

[R-Tape]

Blue Plaques? Pff. I'll bet that Chris Sievey is the only Spectrum game programmer to have an actual statue in his honour.

Closely connected to the Speccy enough for me. I've added it to the original list. This is turning into quite a road trip.