The former O2 office building at 1 Brunel Way, right next to Slough Station. For people arriving at Slough it is the first building they see on leaving the station, and what a welcome! There’s nothing like a filthy, rotting, abandoned office complex to announce, to any who had hoped to evade the reality, that you are now in Slough. With its central stairs and setback floor levels, all covered in mould and weeds, it looks like an Indiana Jones-esque forgotten jungle temple built by an extinct civilisation; as it happens, Segro (owners of Slough Trading Estate) owned the building and O2, the god this temple was dedicated to, is now based in more salubrious quarters along the Bath Road. If you look carefully you can still see the neon O2 sign in the centre of the building that used to light up in electric blue each night. Even more cynically, in the foreground you can see a banner advert for, er, O2.

The building is currently in the process of being demolished as part of Slough Borough Council’s ‘Regeneration’ project. It is to be replaced, of course, by another office complex. Let’s hope that whatever follows provides a more charming introduction to the town for visitors stepping off the train.