Opinion : Is ‘DentBox’ the worst eyesore in High Wycombe?

Have you visited the Baker Street area in High Wycombe recently?

If so you may have seen the new building being constructed for the local artist community in High Wycombe. A news report on the building appeared on this website a few days ago entitled ‘Construction starts on DesBox project in Baker Street, High Wycombe‘.

Made of 135 recycled shipping containers, the construction has been named ‘DesBox’ presumably due to it being located in the DESborough area and is made of BOXes.

Yours truly has heard about the building from my friends so during my regular lunchtime walk around the town centre today my good self decided to venture to that part of town and take a look at the new development for myself.

What I saw shocked me.

The containers look resplendent having all been painted in a semi-glossy grey and the modern windows look smart and chic, however unfortunately some of former shipping containers are severely dented (see picture at the top of this blog).

With all the dents it looks as if the building has either been pelted with bricks from the outside or perhaps someone with a sledgehammer was trying to escape after being trapped inside?

If it wasn’t for the high number of dents this would be quite a good and innovative construction. But the dents surely leave anyone passing by asking the question ‘Is ‘DentBox’ the worst eyesore in High Wycombe?‘.

Let’s hope the dents can be removed, but unless someone can find a panel beater who is also one of the worlds strongest men your humble servant fear the dents may be with us for the twenty year expected lifespan of the building.

One of my friends, who is a taxi driver, happened to tell me that passengers are even getting in his taxi and asking to be taken to the ‘DentBox’ building in the Desborough area.

Once again another flagship development in Wycombe turns into farce. The concept is good but the apparent execution is perhaps not so good.

If this sort of development is cheap then perhaps something similar could be used to give the homeless people of the town a place to live?

Next time you are in the Baker Street area why not take a look at the new development and see for yourself?

What do you think?

UPDATE 8th November 2018 : A spokesperson for Wycombe District Council has said the following in response to this blog :

‘DesBox is made out of recycled shipping containers, not new ones, so they will have a few dents in them.

We’ve just had delivery of the first quantity of units this week, and over the next couple of months DesBox will be growing quickly with each new delivery of containers.

The plan is to affix large cut out letters to some of the units and (potentially) affix coloured panels/panels for murals to others. So it’s work-in-progress.‘

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*Photo supplied by Wycombe Today and not taken by my good self.