Quote Originally Posted by chasevans View Post
Of course you're not having that.
Living through the architectural disasters of this *area I must say this guy's got a cheek to say the above.
My heart bleeds for him and his fellow arch itects- sorry, I meant to type arch enemies- oh ****, enemas...well that's close enough. What a fine bunch of chaps they must be, sharing the blame for the social engineering mistakes of "others".
Peter, you know you'll never get the chance to live on the Radcliffe estate, it's gone. Good riddance. Those who refuse to learn from the past are liable to keep repeating it's mistakes. A lot of your posts are full of holes, not unlike the Radcliffe estate's roofs.

*area
(City centre, Gillmoss, Everton, Walton, Everton, Birkenhead, Norris Green, Toxteth, and for the past 30 years I've lived in Anfield).
Chas
Now I could be... rude, and say that there's lots of people out there, all too ready to put the blame for their own inadequacies onto others but no, I won't do that. I won't even call them enemas. And I'm not taking the blame for anyone's mistakes.

***

And what 'social engineering'? The aim was to provide housing not control what people do.

And if you look at the history of it, there's a long record (in Hansard for one) of the city asking for money from government so that there could re-house the people in decent accommodation. There's an equally long history of government telling them that they were asking too much. It's not surprising that housing got cheaper and cheaper and cheaper.

Much as the Garden Tenements were loved, loathed and loved again, they couldn't have been built even as early as the late 50s - too expensive. Economics built 'streets in the sky' and the economics of hooliganism pulled them down again.

The only way we've afforded the housing that has been built recently is via government subsidy. That's what the Housing Market Renewal Initiative is. The artificial propping up of the housing market by people living in houses they can't afford at current construction costs or at the current market price. Wholly unsustainable (because government borrowed too much to do it - another Labour government mugged by the City of London). And now the money is gone.

And what did architects do in all that? Design homes that could actually be built for the money available and get people out of low-grade and often insanitary conditions? What tw*ts.

***

I'm just astonished that all those so-called failures are suddenly re-born as highly desirable places to live just for want of people who give a flying fig to live in and look after them. In retrospect perhaps I shouldn't be.

You're right the Radcliffe has gone but not before it was trashed by its occupants. And why was that exactly? What where the defects in its design that drove them to it? Because the cars were a hundred yards away? ok.

[Here's a clue - At the time, the Radcliffe was said to be 'un-policeable' ie., too many scallies bent on crime and destruction, too many exits for them to get away and too many 'safe' pavements (where police cars couldn't go). It seems that's why we now have 'safety by design', police on bikes, cul-de-sacs and half the streets in North (and South) Liverpool blocked off]

So who did put the holes in the roof (if there were any)? And elsewhere, who did drop beds from the 20th floor (and TVs). And, put holes in the walls and the refuse chutes and p*ss in the lifts and smash the light bulbs and rip out the plumbing and fill up flats with gas and blow them up...? Eh? Do you want to tell us or just hide behind your 'angry face'?

***

Ok, I'll give you even more room to have a go and ask (since you've lived in all those areas) what your experience of architectural disasters are. In detail - what went wrong? But one thing - only those that were architect-designed, all right?

No, I'll tell you what. Have a go at them all and we'll apportion blame later.

Or here's a better idea, let's ask everyone what they think of all housing then, and now - particularly now, and then let's see if we can do something about not repeating the same 'mistakes'.