South East Kent

[SuperTimo]

Welcome to this, my second Mayor Diary/City Journal

Some of you may have recently seen a couple of my pictures around this site one of which recently made it into the HoF. Since most of my pictures are from the same city and region i decided i would make a showcase of them, and begin to inject a bit more creativity into the story behind them.

As such i have started this MD south east kent. This is basically my re-imaging of the area of the most south eastern county in England, which is an area most of my relatives call home.

So far the majority of my region is barren, however i have started on some elements of the countryside. The main area i've been focusing on is my re-imaging of Ashford, which in reality is a town. However in my version it is a metropolis and when finished will sprawl throughout the northwest of my region. After this i plan to expand the countryside and build a large town in the current site of Folkestone

My first few updates will be specifically about Ashford.

For now im going to post many teasers of what's to come in Ashford, and of the images already on the site.

Hopefully ill get my initial update up tomorrow and create the history of my region.























Stay tuned

Thanks

Timo

[nbvc]

Great start.

[Orange_o_]

Effectively, good start 

[citybuilderx]

Thats a lot of pictures,.... and a great start to your MD!

Being a Brit (Scot) myself, I am looking forward to more.

[Yan077]

Very nice start, really good photoshopping in picture number 5 

[travismking]

awesome, ive seen some of these before

[ecoba]

Wow, a very nice start here, my friend ! 


Ethan

[callagrafx]

Nice to see you've captured the essence of Stanhope  

[SuperTimo]

Nice to see you've captured the essence of Stanhope  

Oh yes, I couldn't miss out such a vibrant community

[tooheys]

Good start SuperTimo. I like the use of the terraces in the mosaic, nicely done 

Looking forward to seeing more.

Dave

[SuperTimo]

Cheers to everyone that commented

And so onto my first proper update. And I shall begin with the city centre.



As a relatively modern city Ashford does not have a defined ancient city like Paris or London, however it is generally considered that the central business district stretches between the two main railway stations, and is enclosed by the dual carrigeway; Parkway. However due to several sky-scraper booms in the late 20th century and early 21st it's boundries have become blurred as high rises now sprawl far and wide. There are few buildings older than the 1960s in the centre as most were demolished to make way for concrete brutalist buildings, many of which have been demolished themselves. The oldest building is the Bank of the United Kingdom which was built in the mid 19th century.

The population of the city centre is approximately 25,000 inhabitants in the highrises in southwest of the district. The majority of the buildings in the centre are high wealth offices, however there are some high wealth shops and in the very south there is Parliament House, home to the government of the UK as well as Ashford city hall.

Ashford public transit has four underground stations in the area which are all connected with underground passages to each other and to the two main railway termini, of these underground stations Tufton street, with it's large entrance and park, is the largest serving millions of commuters every year. . Traffic is considered a major problem in the city centre as the majority of the roads are single carrigeways, and in some parts there are single lane one way streets. Most people therefore opt to use public transport to get into the centre.

Enough talk, Pic time.

First a mosaic from one edge to the other, starting at the top with the bank of the UK an ending at the bottom with St mary street tube station.



St Frax Hospital with the edge of Parliament house on the right



The Bank of the UK again near the dual carriage, Parkway, as it curves round into the main City Centre.



An overview of the area.





A shot showing some of the old surviving concrete buildings



A night shot of Parliament House



Tufton Street Tube



Parts of the underground passage ways are sunken Plazas such as this one.



And to finish another night shot.



Stay tuned for another district next time, i'm also working on a tube map

[Tomas Neto]

Great start on your MD, and fantastic update!!! 

[SuperTimo]

Next update is going to be a fair distance away as im away for part of the week, but as soon as i get back i'll get straight on it

[Battlecat]

Great start!  You've created a fantastic looking urban area!

[samerton]

It's great to see a British MD!! Brilliant start!

[Skimbo]

Oh, a nice MD, great startup, great first update... I will keep an eye on it 

[wallasey]

Oh yes, I couldn't miss out such a vibrant community

Stanhope? Which Stanhope are you guys thinking of? I only know of one in County Durham which is rather attractive!

Great start and first update there! It is good to see another UK MD on here!

[callagrafx]

Stanhope? Which Stanhope are you guys thinking of? I only know of one in County Durham which is rather attractive!

Great start and first update there! It is good to see another UK MD on here!

It's a district of Ashford in Kent... the locals call it "No Hope". 

[wallasey]

Callagrafx: Thanks for enlightening me! To be honest I have never been south of Bermondsey! Kent and South East England is a uncharted territory!

[zero7]

Always nice to see a British MD appear; they seem to be a little out of fashion with the MD/CJ community at the moment.  Ashford is looking pretty good and recognisably a British city - especially in its chaotic mix of old and new architecture and the way the layout looks evolved rather than planned.

The 'Stanhope' picture is really excellent. Nice use of the sunken plaza with the HSBC building, too.