Elite

Anchor House, Anchor Road, Aldridge, Walsall, WS9

The spiritual home of this blog is Anchor Road, Walsall. I've written before about my long fascination with the artwork on Elite's 1987 job advert and it's Gerry Anderson-esque vision of Anchor Road as the Moonbase Alpha of the Midlands. A trip to Anchor House was inevitable at some point. It just took slightly longer than expected because The Great Petrol Panic of autumn 2021 put paid to my first set of plans. It's going to be a while before the Travel Tube brings us to Anchor Road and before that address, before in fact Elite was even called Elite, the company had a more humble origin.

Melbourne House

Castle Yard House, Castle Yard, Richmond, TW10

Melbourne House was my first stop on an August 2021 trip across London, the day after Argos failed to deliver my washing machine (this bit is not relevant and would be removed by any decent sub-editor). It was my second full day of scouting old offices but only the first time I'd actually done any sensible planning. The first trip was done on an impulsive basis, like one of those films where Mickey Rooney suddenly goes "hey why don't we put on the show right here."