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“They were very slab-sided, and looked like tanks.”

Talk to sport fishermen or old-timers living back along the deep holes of the Skagit River, hoping for a slab-sided Chinook to put in the smoker.

This slab-sided building, known as Bolshoi Dom – “the Big House” – had an infamous reputation, having previously been the offices of Stalin’s secret police.

The Ox, a slab-sided, flatpack vehicle designed to bring mobility to the developing world, just took one step closer to reality.

So, when the owner of Carondelet Court sold the plot, the new landlord, Steve Kanji, was free to set about pushing the tenants out so they could demolish it to build a similar development to the one they have already built next door; a slate grey, slab-sided five-storey behemoth.