Dismantling Descalzos - Part 5

Hello everyone,

It's the last day of September (and the big ship is sailing on the alley-alley-o) , the sun is still shining, the temperatures are still in the high twenties, and the dismantling and rebuilding of the Calle Descalzos in Pamplona continues. 

The alarm clock of hammering, banging, clanging and collapsing walls begins at 8 o´clock sharp and continues all day, and the dust comes flying in the window, giving my house the aspect of being out on the moors with Sherlock Holmes in Hound of the Baskervilles.
This is how the demolition looked on the 12th September:

Check out our friend beavering away through the hole in number 51.

 We can see how this develops over the course of the next few days. Firstly, on the 14th September, look at the staircase from the old 'loft apartment' we spoke of earlier in the blog, and check out the black stains on the wall of the Hostal Eslava. All the fires that have stained the chimney wall with soot:

14th September 2013.

Moving forward to the 16th, there's not a lot of difference, although we can see that the roof of number 53 has now been removed if we look closely:

16th September. Roof of Number 53 has disappeared.

Over the next few days very little can be seen of the work in progress. The workmen were inside the buildings, erecting metal structures to pin supports to the buildings that will remain in order to stop them collapsing when the middle buildings were removed. Lots of noise but little work visibly going on then. Here is a pic from the 23rd September: 

Drilling holes to attach the supports. 23rd September 2013.

And one final photo showing the metal beams being put in place:

Dismantling Descalzos - Part 4

11th September. A night time shot this time, the scaffolding now complete. Let the real demolition commence!

OK, breakfast, consisting this morning of umpteen espidodes of 'Charlie & Lola', and a swiftly swilled cup of coffee, is over, and I've just had a look to see the constructors hard at it, moving around and clanking lots of pieces of metal. From this shot, taken a few minutes ago, we can see the scaffold is fully up, and alot of the roof of number 51 removed. I'll stay on the case throughout the day.

12th September 2013. 08.10am

Dismantling Descalzos - Part 3

Well here we are again then, and not exactly sure why we are here or why we are so obsessed with the demolition. Not just of a series of old, run down, uninhabitable buildings, but the demolition of a way of life, and the dispersal of the people that were residents here, along with their families over the last 200 years, that has made way for 21st century architecture, and new blood, that will no doubt have little to do with the old. A change of clothes and a change of identity for the Calle Descalzos, Pamplona.

First thing Tuesday 10th September, and the trucks arrive with the scaffolding.

Up she goes.

That super sexy 'loft apartment' on number 51 is now nothing but a memory, that only a few long term residents will remember. Like a dead language that no-one speaks.

Dismantling Descalzos - Day Two

Monday 9th September. Obviously there was no action over the weekend, but the boys are here, revving up the generator a little after 8am on Monday morning, and it isn't long before we get to see a small hole appear in the side of number 51.

You will also notice that the roof of the dodgy er..'loft apartment' has now been removed.

Dismantling Descalzos - Day One

Bloody hell, they are certainly taking their time. It must be over five years ago now that the council here in Pamplona announced the demolition of a large number of houses in the Calle Descalzos, an old medieval street in the heart of the old town, that has been allowed to decay to such a point that most of the properties have been rendered unfit for human habitation and must be knocked down and replaced.
Since the announcement was made, I have been looking out of the window each morning, trying to spot signs of activity, and slowly, very slowly, some of the buildings have now started to come down.
In 2010 the buildings 23,25, and 27 were dismantled and then rebuilt on the same site, followed by number 24 earlier this year (2013). A start was made a few days ago, at the beginning of September 2013 on the desmantling of 47, 49, 51, and 53, and it is this demolition that we are going to follow.
How long will it take? Will the workmen spend more time having a coffee and a pintxo in the local cafés than they do working on the demolition, or will it come down in a matter of days? I'll be uploading a photo every day that the company (Erri Berri) come to work on the building, so that we may follow the (hopefully swift) progress, and to see if we can get a glimpse of the secret building that had been illegally constructed in the patio space of one of the existing buildings.

Here are the first couple of pics. Getting the preparation work done.

The morning of 6th September, 2013.

Well, we all need a bit of fuel in our engines if we're going to get physical.