We all know that nothing stays the same and the only constant is change itself and as a result we must learn to go along with it.
It occurs in business, our personal lives and even the very geographical area in which we live, which brings me to my subject for much has changed in our city over the years and once in a while I do think it is beneficial to take a nostalgic trip down memory lane and reflect.
Sunderland pays homage to its roots in new buildings; for example Monkwearmouth Colliery, which was once the largest in Sunderland after 800 years of mining, is now home to 49 thousand spectators within the Stadium of Light. The name of the stadium itself is symbolic link to thousands of miners emerging from darkness back to the surface into the light every day. A Davey lamp monument stands at the entrance to reflect the coal mining industry that brought prosperity to the once town.
Likewise The North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) celebrates 20 years in helping to build business success in the region and the BIC must ensure it moves with the changing times, growing in phases over the last two decades.
Prior to the BIC opening its doors at Wearfield, the site where it now presides was a derelict site, the location of the former Austin & Pickersgill shipyard and the BIC also pays homage to its past with a mural; one side representing the sites shipbuilding heritage and the other representing the advances in technology that occupy the site today.
And only recently I read that the former meeting place for the Miners of Silksworth is now operating as a professional recording studio. Built in 1893 how wonderful that the building can be still be used and can be beneficial to an emerging music scene in the city today.
Everything at some point gives way and nothing stays fixed and history is always there to remind of this fact. A fact none the less which should be embraced for without the past the future could not grow.