THE NEW EPICENTRE
A change for the better
by John Henshall
Stuck in a massive traffic jam on the way into London one day, I began calculating how much of a commuter's woken life is wasted on polluted roads or in sweaty underground carriages. It could be as much as twenty percent of every working day for a whole working lifetime - four whole years of your life sweaty strap-hanging or sitting in a car breathing carbon monoxide. When two delegates from Manchester arrived two hours late for one of our courses in Brentford, midway between London and Heathrow Airport, having 'got lost' in London, I decided that it was time for a change - of location. Why, in these days of ISDN, Motorways and InterCity 125 trains, should any information technology company have to be sited in a main population centre, adding to cost and time-wasting?
So we moved to the beautiful Vale of White Horse in Oxfordshire. Still only an hour from London, we are also an hour closer to Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and Manchester - and much easier to find, without traffic jams. We 'exchanged' a semi in Twickenham for a 1640s listed house with courtyard for a dozen cars and a semi-derelict stable block. We even rediscovered the Milky Way, the air is so fresh and clear.
After two and a half years of planning, listed building consent and building work the PortaKabins, which were the EPIcentre home for two years, have finally been craned out and we have moved into our newly converted stable block. The blending of stone walls and old beams with the latest technology, communications and security imparts a special ambiance - tranquility and tradition - while we explore the changes which are taking photography, and other forms of communication using images, into the twenty first century.
