Domino Sugar Factory...

The Domino Sugar Factory is a bit of a landmark along the river. The big chimney, the graffitied walls, the old smashed windows and the fantastic old yellow lettering hanging up on the side... I love it.

It's a bit of a ghostly building, I'm not really sure how long it's been empty, but I think it must be a pretty long time judging by the state of the place.

When I first moved out here there were things on the internet saying that the whole building was going to be turned into luxury apartments, they were planning on cleaning the whole thing up and keeping the old signage on the walls... but then that all went quiet.

I also heard a rumour that there are gigantic rats inside the old factory that have been living off all the old sugar and have grown to be the size of dogs... but I don't think that's true somehow.

Anyway, I'd been wanting to get a good view of the front of the factory for ages - you get to see it from the J train as it goes over the Manhattan Bridge, but the only way to really get an proper look at the whole building and the brilliant signage is from the river. Luckily the East River Ferry goes right by it...

 It doesn't really look like much, but I really love it.

It's fascinating to think of what Brooklyn must have been like when all these factories were in operation, they used to make Gretch Guitars in Williamsburg - now that building is fancy flats. There's a huge industrial launderette called Cascade at the end of our road with a fantastic chimney... I think that building would make some brilliant shops and apartments.

It's funny, Brooklyn's gone from having all these huge industrial sized factories, to now having lots of small little industries, like brine companies, or micro breweries and distilleries or chocolate makers. It's a really industrious place still, just on a much smaller but perhaps more exciting scale.