Quote Originally Posted by gregs dad View Post
We left Liverpool in 1957 for Kirkby, Kirkby later became a borough council and started building their own houses. We live in the first houses they built on Tower Hill, ours was the show house which the council were shown as a sample of what they would look like,so we ended up with door frames etc; being very true.
First phase of Tower Hill was built at a cost of £4,700 per unit the second phase the council built to the minimal standard that was allowed for council tenants costing only £2,700 a unit.
Even to this day people ask "do you live on the `lecky side or the gas side"
There are no stud walls on the first phase houses all interior walls are breeze blocks.
Went from paying £1 19s 11d rent in Westvale to £4 13s on Tower Hill, hence the famous rent strike
Don`t know what the rents are now as very few are council tenants, nearly everybody has bought them now.
I had an auntie who moved to Kirkby in the very early 60s, she loved it. Most of her sisters stayed near the City centre, a journey to her house always felt like a trip to the countryside in those days (by bus, no cars in the family).



Really interesting your story in relation to the quality of the initial phase, and the lower quality of subsequent phases.