Fontenoy Gardens.
Thanks Ged.
Great photos.
The Sally Army's Arden House is on the first pic.
Max, they probably looked ugly to you because they were derelict, but I think it was a shame that Tesco didn't build their store with the same dramatic curve, and put the car park at the back.
Last edited by PhilipG; 01-09-2007 at 11:32 PM.
Ged, these pics are fantastic mate!
Thanks
Tesco looks like heaven compared to those kind of building.Originally Posted by PhilipG
Gididi Gididi Goo.
Give me brick built community based housing over bland corporate tin sheds any day of the week.
Or even worse, a great big car park in front of it.
A big empty space like that has completely ruined what was once a vibrant built up area.
They need a great big boring concrete car park for it because they shipped the people out that far and wide from St. Oswalds house and gardens and Hurst gardens that you'd need a car to shop there.
This artwork is just outside the 'Bullring' and reads:
THE EYE CANNOT SAY TO THE HAND 'I HAVE NO NEED OF YOU' NOR AGAIN THE HEAD TO THE FEET 'I HAVE NO NEED OF YOU' ST. ANDREW'S GARDENS 'THE BULLRING' EST. 1935
I must reiterate my comments here (I ate a dictionary for breakfast )
... after watching the video about the tennies I have to admit that they did look smart when they were new. The lady watering the plants which lined the balcony - it reminded me a bit of the apartment blocks in Spain with the plants tumbling from the verandas, and the design of communal living being a bit similar.
... but the tennies I remember were in their latter days and were deteriorating. They became drab and ghetto'ised for want of a better word.
The remaining ones that have been refurbished, like the old Bullring and the block in Old Swan (can't think of the name - opposite Tescos) look great now.
The Tennies when they were brand new reminded me of something like this : (Spanish apartment blocks having similar landings, stairwells and communal entrances)
Last edited by lindylou; 01-10-2007 at 12:57 PM.
As Paul points out in his film though, it was council policy at the time to neglect repairs and the updating of these properties and he describes this best when he says: 'it's as though the council wanted these properties to be put of 'their' misery' - their meaning the council's. If they were once fit for kings in the 30s (and remember, people were still using outside toilets in the 70s) then there's no reason why a spruce up including central heating and possibly security / gates as in Wavertree Gardens, Gt Richmond st or the Bullring couldn't have been a vision for the future, especially when some were only demolished to leave vacant land (Chaucer House, The four squares, Lawrence Gardens) or for a supermarket (St. Oswalds House and Gardens) or a petrol station (Wilbraham House) or a road widening scheme (Gerard Gardens and Crescent)
Many petitions sprung up to save these communities that were being uprooted and dispersed. The Scottie Road action group, The Vauxhall Neighbourhood Council and The Eldonians are the ones that spring to mind and the films Us and Them and Homes not Roads show the residents saying how they like living where they are thank you very much. The Eldonians preserved most of their community in the end, over the other side of Vauxhall Road.
I personally think it was such a vibrant time and place to live and even some of my mates who lived in houses in Old Swan, Norris Green and Huyton used to come down to play in these squares as it was what they knew and loved.
Great Spanish pic Lindylou. Wish I was somewhere hot and relaxed just now.
Although noisy when filled to the brim with kids playing, once inside your 'house', you couldn't hear anything as I remember it or perhaps my ears had been conditioned to such over time
You probably were conditioned as you said Ged, when I was a kid we lived alongside the Cheshire Lines railway and never heard that.Great Spanish pic Lindylou. Wish I was somewhere hot and relaxed just now.
Although noisy when filled to the brim with kids playing, once inside your 'house', you couldn't hear anything as I remember it or perhaps my ears had been conditioned to such over time
You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
Winston Churchill
The Buildings
These, known locally as the 'Buildings' just off Melrose Road looked very tired and haggard towards the end of their lifespan. Of the earlier railing landing style, they particular ones had no communal square as such and seem cramped and too near the back yards of nearby street housing.
However, so as not to upset any of the proud communities borne out of this particular development, i'm sure there will have been many who developed close knit links to their surroundings that I enjoyed. Perhaps better aestethic planning of these particular blocks could have resulted in a modernisation programme instead of demolition for a couple of new streets of low level housing.
Has anyone got any of St Martins Cottages or Kew street in the Vauxhall area?
Tony, loads of St. Martins Cottages on the Port Cities and Mersey Gateway Liverpool council sites including the insides of them. Also some on the Scottiepress site and my books as you'll know. How's tricks, did you catch any of the match, I believe Dudek didn't get home last night until after 6.
Most of the Liverpool tenement blocks were modeled on the 'Karl Marx Hof' built in Vienna in 1927. Gerard Gardens even had statues over the arches.
The Karl Marx Hof is still standing, and is a tourist attraction.
The Liverpool residents cannot be held responsible for the overall maintainence of the blocks, that was the councils job.
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