Marwood House

At 12.40pm I went to visit the thirteen Signpost flats in Marwood House, up at 60 St David's Hill, Exeter.

Devon & Cornwall are redeveloping Copplestone Drive so it's probably time to 'move on', as they say these days (but this time literally). It may be possible to remain at Copplestone but it means months of noise, disruption and uncertainty while they convert the three big blocks to larger flats. And that's after a year of building up at Highcroft, at the very top of the drive.

In fact, there is far too much building going on in Exeter these days altogether. The old Birkbeck Halls - just two hundred yards away - have now been demolished, reduced to a big pile of rubble. The University have just built enormous student halls right at the top of the hill beside Highcroft, as well, all visible from miles away. Why they used bright, yellow bricks instead of dark, green or brown bricks is beyond me; from Exwick these buildings are a terrible eyesore. What can you expect?

There're hundreds of houses going up at Southam Fields, by Middlemoor; The Higher Barracks have dozens; Isca Place by the Central Station has 167 flats going up; Princesshay - the ghastly, money-inspired scheme in the heart of the city - has another 200 flats going up, too. What will the population of Exeter be in ten years' time? (about 120,000 at least).

Anyway, Marwood House is a pleasant surprise. Really, some of the flats at the very top of the building - an old office building - are like modern, trendy loft apartments, the type you'd pay a lot for privately. They have skylight windows, a superb, modern interior with fitted kitchens and plenty of space and, all-in-all, are large and bright.

From the top floor, you can see way out towards the Haldon Hills on one side and Bury Meadow and Exeter College on the other side; very appealing. They've spent a fair amount of money on the place and they're very tempting. I may well move there, if possible.

Below is Walnut House, one of the oldest houses in the St David's area of Exeter, dating back to about 1790. Nearby is the St Davids Community Centre, an excellent place for evening classes and various other activities (it now even has a cafe).

The most spooky thing is that when I worked at EBC Group (now Rok) back in 1987, at Queens Terrace, I used to deliver the wage slips to the head office which was actually in this same building, Marwood House. The Signpost official showed me around the entire building today - 13 flats, spread over four floors - and it was just like returning to 1987, walking around the entire building delivering the payslips to all of the office staff.