I did see the great estate programme Peter and enjoyed it very much. I was brought up in tenements, first the Eldon Grove style flats that we on Holly Street (pre St Anne Street police station) and then Thurlow House (part of Gerard Crescent) and then 200 yards to Gerard Gardens because we'd at last been allocated the all important extra bedroom (but by then my older bro had moved out anyway)
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I didn't know anything else so thought these were the bees knees. I really enjoyed living in them, the coal fires, the snugness (called compact in todays apartments but really means small) I actually felt a bit sorry for those who I knew that lived in just ordinary streets, even those in the posher suburbs with proper gardens, I mean who needs grass when you've got the square down below which was your footy pitch, your cricket pitch, your tennis court, your hopscotch grid etc etc. Many games were invented and improvised upon including 'spot' or hit the post - both similar but where you took turns to try and hit a certain section of wall with the football or the lamp standard in the middle of the square - you had so many lives then you were out until the last man standing was the winner. 60 seconds was another footy game played by using the blocks stairwell entrance as a goal. Lick the can, a variation of hide n' seek and of course off ground tick and the like.
What did the poor street dwellers do for bommie night when we had our own enclosed square? No, i'd rather not have lived anywhere else in the 70s that in those tennies. It is true that the council after a mid 70s refurb of new roof tiles and Robinson Willey gas fires did rather let the tennies down and in the 80s they were looking tired but needn't have if they were maintained properly.
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