Wigan Walk – 2026

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It’s been four years since our 2022 Wigan Walk – so time to see if there has been a refreshing change.

Beginning with a trip to the former flicks, the Princes Cinema now trading as Pure nightclub, sometimes home to Singo Bingo.

Originally the site of New Princes Theatre, opened on the 1st May 1911, the cinema was demolished and replaced, on an adjacent plot, by Princes Cinema in 1933.

Onward now to see the three Telephone Exchanges.

Interwar

Sixties

Ofd special note the adjacent Electrical Substation of the day.

Plus extra added military history.

Seventies

Tucked in behind the Telephone Exchange are several streets of Edwardian social housing – the Spring Gardens Scheme of 1905.

The property is practically paying its way, and all the present generation has to find is a small sum of ninety odd pounds for sinking funds. For this we get fifty-nine families decently housed, the rateable value of the town increased, a slum abolished, an eyesore removed, the health of the inhabitants remarkably improved, their environment made clean, refined, and elevating, whilst our successors in 1959 will inherit an unencumbered estate.

Municipal Dreams

Next to the Wigan Post Office Sorting Office 1959.

Next we take a look at the Bus Station.

Wigan’s original bus station was on Market Square.

Image Wigan World

It was demolished in 1985 as part of a wider redevelopment of the town centre to make way for the Galleries Shopping Centre. A new bus station, built at a cost of £2.3 million, began construction in April 1986, and opened in November 1987.

Wikipedia

Transport for Greater Manchester commissioned Austin-Smith:Lord to design a replacement nineteen stand £15.7m bus station in Wigan Town Centre, the project was completed in October 2018.

Construction images – Bee Network.

Around the corner to the Wigan & Leigh College.

The original building of 1954 by Howard V Lobb G Grenfell Bains & Hargreaves, with later extension.

There have been several phases of redevelopment and new build in recent years.

This block of the Technical School has been demolished since my last visit.

Thomas Linacre Technical School for Boys mural 1954.

Image – RIBA pix

Across the road the former Grammar School.

Wigan Grammar School was founded in 1597 and closed in 1972, as part of the comprehensive education movement.

It then became Mesnes High School, and subsequently Wigan College’s Mesnes Building in 1989. 

Since 2003, it has been known as the Thomas Linacre Centre and is an out-patient department for the Wrightington Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust.

It was designated a Grade II listed building in 1997.

Architect: A E Munby

DJ Russ Winstanley was a former pupil, here he is in 1975 at the Wigan Casino holding up a copy of Footsee by Wigan’s Chosen Few b/w Seven Days Too Long by Chuck Wood.

On Millgate we find the former Wigan Civic Centre.

Once it was all boarded up with nowhere to go.

Subsequently resuscitated by Capital&Centric.

Across the way the new Library and Life Centre by Astudio and LCE Architects.

Down the road is the recently refurbished Leisure Centre.

Built on the site of the International Swimming Pool – opened 1968 demolished 2010.

Across the way to Scholes Comprehensive Development 1964

Five thirteen-storey tower blocks adjacent to Douglas House in Scholes were approved in 1964. Lower-rise housing and flats spread to the east. In 1968, a further 13-storey block, Boyswell House, was built at this eastern end of the Scholes Comprehensive Development Area. Almost 500 slum houses, housing 566 families, were demolished that same year and 581 new council homes completed.

Municipal Dreams

Image – Tower Block 1987

Next to the Roger Booth cop shop that became a Premier Inn.

A super-comfy bed, blackout curtains, a powerful shower and free Wi-Fi – our double rooms have everything you’ll need for a great night’s sleep.

Next door the Wigan & Leigh Courthouse 1992 Wigan MBC Architect.

Relief figure of justice by Christine Ward.

Onward to Brocol House – currently home to the Job Centre

Image – Wigan Peers

Originally built for the Inland Revenue one the site of the Brewers Arms – has the welcoming charm shared by the majority of Ministry of Works buildings of the period.

Nearly done – up the road to the County Playhouse.

Which masquerades as Ibiza.

The club’s atmosphere is defined by thumping music and a vibrant crowd eager to dance and celebrate. Its modern interior design complements the lively ambience, creating an inviting space for locals and visitors alike.

Construction began on the County Playhouse in 1916. However, due to a shortage of materials and labour during World War I, it was not completed until 1919.

Finally opened on 22nd December 1919 with The Hun Within – starring Dorothy Gish.

The County Playhouse closed on Sunday 13th November 1966 with Disney’s “The Sword and the Stone”. It was taken over by the Leeds Based Star Cinemas chain and they converted it into Star Bingo and Social Club opened on 24th November 1966.

MAS sales store 1982 – Frank Orrell Photography

The building has since been used as a discount store and Playhouse Club Café. It then became home to the 1,200 capacity Pure Nightclub. In the early-2000’s it became the Ibiza nightclub. The Pure nightclub move into the former Princes Cinema

Cinema Treasures

Time for a swift half in The George to end your tour?

Great for a local pint one of the cheapest in Wigan I believe, slightly rough at times but no fights just real local people who are generally friendly. Proper drinking gaff, and karaoke on certain nights.

Use Your Local

Castle House – Southampton

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A view from the Balcony of Castle House, Castle Way Southampton in the very early 70’s, St Michael’s Church and one of the liners are clearly visible.

Photo – John Fahy

Under construction.

Photo – Kim Herdman

Taken in 1963

Photo – Lutek Fitulek

April 22nd2016.

Photo – Richard Czuprynski

Entrance 1985

Photo – Miles Glendinning.

Following our visit to Wyndham Court let’s take a look at Castle House.

One thirteen -storey block containing seventy two dwellings – 1960 Eric Lyons

Wyndham Court – Southampton

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Wyndham Court is a block of social housing in Southampton which opened in 1970.

It was designed by Lyons Israel Ellis for Southampton City Council in 1966, ED Lyons being the partner in charge and architects Frank Linden and Aubrey Hume also assigned to the job. The structural engineers were Hajnal-Konyi and Myers and the firm of builders was G Minter.

It is located near Southampton Central station and the Mayflower Theatre. Wyndham Court includes 184 flats, three cafes or restaurants and 13 shops, and was completed in 1969.

It is built from reinforced concrete and finished with white board-marked concrete, with narrow bands painted horizontally between windows and the partition walls that separate the apartments’ balconies. Because it is built on a hill, the building has six storeys at its northern end and seven at the southern. There is an underground car park which was constructed from the basements of previous buildings on the site

Wikipedia

This was my very first visit on my day out in Southampton having also taken a look around Nelsons Gate.

Walking around the building I was quickly engaged by two residents, emerging from their concrete clad home. Assuming that I was from the Council, I was given a lurid account of rodent infestation, faulty locks, open doors and all manner of ills. Having explained my unfortunate lack of municipal affiliation, we parted amicably as we went our respective ways.

A single bed apartment will cost you £600 PCM.

The flat itself is situated within this large purpose built block, benefits with this particular block include secure entrance system and lift access to each floor. This particular flat is found on the 4th floor and offers a private front door, as you enter the hallway leads round to a large living room which has plenty of space for dining as well, the kitchen is separate but has been cleverly designed to include an large opening hatch that creates the feeling of open plan to this area. The kitchen is clean and tidy and is supplied with the white goods including a brand new washing machine.

The main living space has lovely big windows that not only offers lots of natural light but also offers a stunning viewing, where you can see glimpses of the Cruise liners docking. The bedroom is accessible by multiple doors either from the living room or hallway, the bedroom is a great size and also features nice big windows, along with plenty of storage. Back into the hallway there are two useful storage cupboards and last but not least a fully tiled bathroom with shower and bath. Further benefits with the flat include electric heating and external storage cupboard next to the front door, the block also boosts a communal garden which is a nice place to sit and enjoy some fresh air.

The building is Grade II Listed.

Wyndham Court, ought to be as well-known as the Brunswick Centre or the Barbican, and isn’t largely because of where it is. It is a monumental, civic housing project on the grandest scale.

Owen Hatherley

Butetown Cardiff – Housing

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Butetown – or The Docks Tre-biwt is a district and community in the south of the city of Cardiff. It was originally a model housing estate built in the early 19th century by the 2nd Marquess of Bute, for whose title the area was named. 

Commonly known as Tiger Bay, this area became one of the UK’s first multiculturalcommunities with people from over fifty countries settled here by the outbreak of the First World War, working in the docks and allied industries. Some of the largest communities included the Somalis, Yemenis and Greeks, whose influence still lives on today.

A Greek Orthodox church still stands at the top of Bute Street.

Wikipedia

In 1906, work began on the present-day church, which also serves the Russian Orthodox community in south Wales. Designed by local architects, James and Morgan, it is located on a site provided by the 4th Marquess of Bute, to the west of Bute Street. The modestly-sized building is of Byzantine style with a domed nave and an apse at the east end. It retains the original dedication to St Nicholas. The interior is very ornate, with a lot of carved woodwork. The dome and upper walls have painted Biblical scenes in vivid colours with gold decoration.

David Webb, Glamorgan Archives Volunteer

Photo: Richard Swingler

Loudoun Square was originally built in the mid-1850s as upmarket homes for merchants, mariners, ship brokers and the like around a central park.

Photo 1962

In the 1960s, most of the original housing was demolished including the historic Loudoun Square, the original heart of Butetown. In its place was a typical 1960s housing estate of low-rise courts and alleys, and two high-rise blocks of flats.

Between 1960 and 1966 two sixteen-storey tower blocks, Loudoun House and Nelson House, were built on the centre of Loudoun Square

The demolition of the old buildings in Bute Street gets under way in 1963.

Peoples Collection Wales 1977

Photo Miles Glendinning 1988.

Surveybase have undertaken detailed scanning and modelling prior to the planned post Grenfell re-cladding.

The Loudoun Square regeneration project is a collaboration between Cardiff City Council, Cardiff Community Housing Association, Cardiff Local Health Board and Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust. The site is located between Cardiff City Centre and Cardiff Bay, and was previously occupied by an existing health centre and local shops, together with a vacant area of land.

The area has been regenerated with the creation of new modern facilities to serve the local community and include a new health centre, shops, affordable homes and community facilities.

Austin Smith Lord

Housing – Plantation Glasgow

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1885

Plantation is an area in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated south of the River Clyde and is part of the former Burgh of Govan. It lies approximately between the areas of Cessnock and Ibrox to the west, Kingston to the east, and Kinning Park to the south.

The 80-acre Craigiehall estate, previously three smaller properties, was bought in 1783 by John Robertson, a cashier in the Glasgow Arms Bank, who with his brothers owned cotton and sugar plantations in the West Indies. He renamed it Plantation, possibly as a reminder of the West Indies plantations. It then, in 1793, passed to John Mair, a merchant who developed the building and gardens. Plantation passed to the Maclean family, in 1829, in the person of William Maclean, a Glasgow Baillie.

In the years that followed, the estate was bisected by the railway to the south, with the shipbuilding yards of The Clyde Trust cutting off the estate from the river. Plantation was laid out for tenement houses in the 1870s and Maclean, Plantation, Mair and Craigiehall Streets refer to the history of the old estate.

Plantation Quay formed part of the site for the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988 and subsequent Glasgow Science Centre.

Wikipedia

1912

A crowd gathered to watch a football match at Plantation, 1955. The players in dark jerseys appear to be celebrating a goal.

The mostly male spectators are focused on the game, while in the foreground a couple of women pass by with prams. The tenements in the background provide their inhabitants with a bird’s-eye view of the match. Other spectators are perched on top of a high wall separating the tenement back courts from the football pitch.

In 1955 Partick Camera Club set out to create a photographic survey of Glasgow. As the project progressed, other camera clubs joined and each was allocated a district of the city to photograph. Glasgow Museums exhibited the photographs at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and at the People’s Place, and in 1956 the exhibition was shown at the Palace of Art in Bellahouston Park. The photographs are now part of Glasgow Museums’ collections.

The Glasgow Story

Plantation Street 1965 Photo: Eric Watt

So the folks, homes, industry and streets of the past have been and gone.

I was walking through the area in March 2023 one quite quiet morning, and attracted by the neat rows of austere grey terraces, low rise blocks and maisonettes, which have replaced the tenements.

The estate is clean and well maintained, open areas of grass criss crossed with pedestrian paths, surrounded by mature trees, motor cars have discrete parking areas.

Brunswick Estate – History

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1813

1836

1900

2025

Manchester Historical Maps

I was walking around town, with a view to updating my Ardwick Walk.

Idle curiosity took me toward the Brunswick Estate – that pocket of housing nestle twixt the Mancunian Way/River Medlock, Ardwick Green, Brunswick Street and Upper Brook Street.

A subset of the greater set of Chorlton on Medlock.

Back in 1813, a web of streets and enclosed fields, and more fields, along with small groups of higher status housing, but by the early 20th century it was very much a working class district, within which industry began to grow.

The population of Manchester expanded unstoppably throughout the nineteenth century.

Here’s a personal and insightful family history of the area, along with a broader history from the Evening News.

Extensive slum clearance in the nineteen sixties saw the area and its street names change, some erased forever in the new build.

In Manchester, in a vast belt immediately outside the central area of the city, there still exist all too many remnants of a planless, knotted chaos of dark, dismal and crumbling homes. Many of these crossed the verge of uninhabit-ableness long before their most elderly inhabitants were born.

Alfred Morris MP 1965

As recorded by photographer Roger Shelley.

Brunswick Street 1904.

Mancroft Walk W Higham 1969

St Paul’s and St Luke’s Brunswick Street W Higham 1970

Lamport Court W Higham 1970

One of three nine-storey blocks, containing two hundred and nineteen dwellings; also including Silkin Court and Lockton Court.

Litcham Close W Higham 1970

Harry Milligan 1903 – 1986 worked as the photographer at Manchester Central Library until his retirement in around 1968. He was instrumental in setting up the Manchester Region Industrial Archaeology Society in 1965. He volunteered at the North Western Museum of Science and Industry from 1968, assisting with reprographics requests. His knowledge of the history of photography in Manchester and the UK led to him taking on the role of Honorary Curator of Photography at the museum.

These are his photographs taken from the Manchester Local Image Collection.

Panorama of Brunswick with UMIST in the background.

Hanworth Close area terraced housing and flats 1972.

Staverton Close

Melcroft Close

Wadeson Road

Helmshore Walk – Skerry Close

Cherryton Walk

Cray Walk

Wadeson Road

Hanworth Close

Pedley Walk

Cray Walk – note the decorative brick relief

King William IV

Former Chesters then Whitbread estate pub was built in 1967. Closed in 1996 when it was converted to residential property. It had a brief spell 1991 to 1995 as brewery premises for the Dobbin’s West Coast Brewery, during this period the interior was stripped out to accommodate the brewery paraphernalia.

As a companion to the radical reshaping of Manchester see also All Saints, plus look around Brunswick Parish Church, close by the lost terrace of Hartfield Close.

In addition the Brunswick Street Launderette.

Haley Hill Halifax – Yet Again

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When in Halifax it’s imperative to visit Haley Hill flats, as we did in May 2025.

It’s a labour of love ascending the granite setts to the side of Dean Clough.

Walking in the footsteps of photographer Bill Brandt.

A Snicket in Halifax: Bill Brandt 1937

A Snicket in Halifax: Steve Marland 2025

Postcard c. 1970

So it’s October 2025 and today Matthew I am mainly Bill Brandt.

Walking in the footsteps of giants.

Print quality is a variable thing depending on the purpose of the image. I would expect a pure record photograph to have a full range of tone, with both shadow and highlight gradation. Against this, pictorial or art based imagery requires the range of tones best suited to making the statement. The classic case is the soot and whitewash printing of Bill Brandt. So we have a situation that carries a contradiction; blocked up shadows in applied work is not acceptable but blocked up blacks in pictorial work is often perfectly acceptable, if that lost information is not relative to the image. Burnt out highlights are more dangerous, but again Bill Brandt did it with great effect.

Bill Wisden

So, the record print would have an even tonality thus:

Whilst the pictorial artist may favour the higher contrast.

So eschewing the Düsseldorf School

Here we go, soot and whitewash away!

Peterlee Housing – 2021

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An express bus ride away from Newcastle City Centre – arriving in Peterlee, with a clear intent to wander around and look at housing.

There have been many alterations and amendments made, in the short time since the inception of the Masterplan. Flat roofs have largely been and gone, timber replaced by uPVC, what remains is an interesting array of building types set in an attractive rolling landscape.

In addition here’s my recent appraisal of the town’s housing history.

Plus a visit to the Apollo Pavilion.

Lower Falinge – Rochdale 2025

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I came along to take a look around in 2017 – at this point all of the homes are occupied.

Fast forward to 2025 and the estate looks very different, a minority of the blocks have been refurbished.

The remainder have been, or are to be demolished.

Rochdale’s 2021 planning statement for Lower Falinge is beguiling in its talk of ‘a better quality and mix’ of housing, better public space and better links with surrounding areas. It goes on to say that the ‘the delivery of market housing within this area is required to deliver this diversification and to ensure the sustainability of retained affordable housing in the area’ – a sentence containing the claim that a tenure mix of public and owner-occupied housing is a good in itself, whilst also acknowledging contradictorily that affordable housing (how affordable?) is only possible by cross-subsidy from market sales’ 

Some 560 new homes were proposed in Lower Falinge. The plans as a whole proposed the loss of 720 primarily social rent homes and their replacement by 560 new homes of indeterminate tenure.

Municipal Dreams 

The tenants in the refurbished blocks with whom I chatted were convinced that demolition was not the answer, further renewal could take place, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, despite a well prepared save our homes campaign thought not.

In March, we told you that we planned to demolish the six empty maisonette blocks – Ollerton, Newstead, Romsey, Quinton, Ullesthorpe, and Vaynor, in Lower Falinge, as well as the former RSPCA buildings and the former car wash on High Street, within the next 12 months. This will make way for the development of new family homes across a larger site that we will work with the community on designing.

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing July 2025

Our beautiful mature greenery here on Lower Falinge is showcased in this wonderful video. We are proud of living here surrounded by all this nature – it really is like living in a park.

Unfortunately our urban oasis of calm is at risk of being destroyed if RBH demolish 128 homes and eventually build on the land.

Facebook/Lower Falinge

These homes are destined to be demolished.

Whilst this adjoining block has been refurbished.

Along with this block of shops.

Once home to the Highland Laddie pub which closed in 2010.

The remainder of the estate remains in limbo.

Next door the new homes have been built.

A major housing regeneration scheme which includes the construction of 30 energy efficient, affordable homes is breathing new life into the Lower Falinge neighbourhood in Rochdale.

The project is being carried out for Rochdale Boroughwide Housing by Rochdale-based main contractor The Casey Group with OMI Architects. This is the largest of 3 schemes that Casey has carried out for RBH.

Construction News

Rochdale Homes

Corporation Street Flats – Stafford

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Coniston, Windemere and Rydal were among the first council homes to be built in Stafford, between 1951-52, under the direction of County Architect CM Coombes.

The flats were built as a result of The Housing – Financial and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1946, which gave subsidies to local authorities to provide social housing. The expansion of the Borough Council’s civic duties included the employment of County Architects, in this case CM Coombes FRIBA, to whom these flats are attributed.

54 flats were built in total, to a distinctly Modernist design, and their appearance and setting are very well preserved.

Conservation Area

The conservation plan cites Bruno Taut’s Large Housing Estate Britz as an influence.

Along with St Andrew’s Gardens Liverpool, more commonly known as The Bullring.

Also the long gone Quarry Hill Flats in Leeds.

Whilst there are some common stylistic characteristics the Corporation Street Flats are of a more modest order. There are communal areas and a grassed apron, balconies and arched passages.

Over time the standard of maintenance seems to have declined, and the Crittall Windows have been replaced by white uPvc, where once there was a bowling green, this is now roughly mown and unused.

Take a look see for your self.

Welcombe Walk – Whitefield

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Welcombe Walk Whitefield Manchester M45 7FA

Not lost, just looking elsewhere, whilst walking between tram stops.

Charged with mapping the Modernism at each of the stops twixt Victoria and Bury.

I unavoidably took the wrong turn, it’s so easily done. Fortuitously I took a turn off Bury New Road and found myself on Welcombe Walk.

Welcombe Walk is made up of nineteen one/two-bedroom flats, built in 1978 and run by Six Town Housing.

Visit the Bury Council website for information on supported living:

https://www.bury.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=10717

Whilst not seeking sheltered housing for my good self, I am always intrigued by small developments of interesting social housing, grouped around pedestrian walk ways and green space.

The residents with whom I chatted seems content with their homes and the management thereof.

I bade them adieu and went about my way, taking these few snaps.





St Thomas Estate – Radcliffe

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By Wilson and Womersley 1968, the project architect was John Sheard.

New-towny, dense low-rise housing irregularly grouped around and over pedestrian access paths.

Pevsner 1996/2004

The 2003 masterplan recommence its removal.

The masterplan states that Radcliffe has many unattractive buildings and few architectural assets. But this could work to its advantage as a lack of protected or noteworthy buildings makes it easier to replace them with contemporary structures.

This could include demolishing the “unwelcoming” St Thomas Estate and replacing it with a mix of private and social housing on the old street layout. Existing tenants would be rehoused in the new houses so that the community would not be broken up.

Lancashire Telegraph

JL Womersely famously Sheffield City Architect:

During his term, Sheffield’s housing grew upwards with multi-storey flats constructed at Low Edges, Park Hill, Hyde Park, Netherthorpe and Woodside. It was Womersley’s response to 13,000 families on the council’s waiting list and 10,000 condemned properties waiting to be demolished.

Sheffielder

Wilson and Womersley were responsible for the Hulme Crescents and Manchester Arndale.

In the space of a decade they shaped Manchester’s urban fabric, leaving a questionable legacy. The technical quality of their buildings was undoubtedly poor, but their qualities – bold forms, monolithic materiality and streets-in-the-sky – were of the moment, and captured a particular brand of urban renewal, imported from North America and inflected through British post-war planning.

Richard Brook

Social housing has been, and continues to be, a contentious arena. This seemingly well-constructed estate was once deemed unfit for habitation by its residents.

Tenants of the St Thomas’ Estate in the town centre allege they have been forgotten by Six Town Housing, which manages the properties.

Magda Csatlos, former chairman of the now disbanded Tenants and Residents Association said rotten bricks with visible gaps between them, badly-designed leaking roofs and damp and mouldy conditions plague many of the 90 homes.

Bury Times 2014

Happily the Local Authority are able to remedy the problem.

After some residents on the estate, who were visited by Bury South MP Ivan Lewis, called for the properties to be “condemned”, the Council agreed to invest £2 million to bring the homes up to standard.

A total of 90 social housing properties on St Thomas Estate have been provided with new external rendering, roofing, windows, doors, insulation and brick cladding.

Bury Times 2016

On the day of my visit the long term tenants with whom I spoke were happily, happy with their homes.

Facebook

Here are some photographs, taken under the watchful golden eye of a low winter sun, hence the dramatic light and shade.

Central Area Flats – Sunderland

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Three nineteen-storey point blocks built as public housing as part of the redevelopment of Sunderland town centre. The blocks contain 270 dwellings in total. Construction was approved by committee in 1967.

The blocks were constructed by Sunderland County Borough Council.

The developers of the Town Central Area were Town and City Properties Ltd. It is believed that they contributed £38,600 to the development of the blocks.

Ian Frazer and Associates were the architects for the sub-structural works only.

Llewelyn, Davies, Weeks and Partners were the structural and mechanical engineers in addition to being the architects for the tower blocks.

Gilbert-Ash Northern Ltd.’s tender for the contract was £959,258 – construction began in March 1967.

Heritage Gateway

Astral House, Solar House and Planet House.

Welcome to Marineville – anything can happen in the next half hour.

In actuality the blocks sit upon a shopping centre – recently redeveloped as The Bridges.

And we are not in Marineville.

Though once upon a time it looked like this – a brave new shopping world, well worth producing a postcard for.

Photos: Sunderland Echo

Photo: Tom McKitterick

Thanks to Sunderland Antiquarian Society for the links.

This is the current state of affairs.

Though there are still some remnants of the original development.

The whole shebang is topped off with a roof top car park.

So in the absence of anything else happening in the next half hour, I took a look around.

A one bedroomed flat on the eleventh floor will cost you £45,000

Killingworth

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Construction of Killingworth, a new town, began in 1963. Intended for 20,000 people, it was a former mining community, formed on seven hundred and sixty acres of derelict colliery land near Killingworth Village. The building of Killingworth Township was undertaken by Northumberland County Council and was not formally a New Town sponsored by the Government. 

Unlike that town, Killingworth’s planners adopted a radical approach to town centre design, resulting in relatively high-rise buildings in an avant-garde and brutalist style that won awards for architecture, dynamic industry and attractive environment.

This new town centre consisted of pre-cast concrete houses, with millions of small crustacean shells unusually embedded into their external walls, five to ten storey flats, offices, industrial units and service buildings, which often consisted of artistic non-functional characteristics, shops and residential multi-storey car parks, interconnected by ramps and walkways. These made up a deck system of access to shopping and other facilities, employing the Swedish Skarne method of construction.

Killingworth Towers were demolished in 1987

Originally named Killingworth Township, the latter part was quickly dropped through lack of colloquial use.

Killingworth is referred to as Killy by many residents of the town and surrounding areas.

Around 1964, during the reclamation of the derelict pit sites, a fifteen acre lake south of the town centre was created; spoil heaps were levelled, seeded and planted with semi-mature trees.

Wikipedia

There were also groups of Calder Houses built, subsequently rendered neutral with render, their period characteristics erased.

Rightmove

All archive images RIBA pix

Once home to Thelma and Bob Ferris – whatever happened to the likely lads’ and lasses’ homes?

I had come in search of paradise on a 52 bus – too late was the cry, too late.

The winds of change had blown away the new coal dream, so I wandered lonely around the quiet streets.

The daffodils were past their best.

Charlestown Towers

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We have previously taken a look at Deepdale Court.

I returned last week to look at the remaining blocks.

Cartmel, Rusland and Somerton are all social housing.

Kentmere and Whitebeck have been adapted for senior citizens managed by Northwards Housing.

Freshfields formerly Grisedale is owned by private developers LPC Living and converted into a block of one, two and three bedroom homes.

Now, they boast floor-to-ceiling windows in the living spaces, modern fitted kitchens, and light wood-effect floors. Some also come with balconies.

A penthouse apartment, sold for £135,000 in 2008, even has a wrap-around outdoor terrace.

Manchester Evening News

The circular tiles within Grisedale’s entrance have been covered or removed.

Tower Block – 1987

Tunstall Court and Skelton Court have been demolished.

Let’s take a look back at the building of Victoria Avenue East – seen here in 1922.

The demands of an expanding industrial base and population created the need for new roads and housing.

There was subsequent development of inter-war semi-detached homes.

The urgent post-war need for temporary accommodation – was met by prefabricated structures.

Manchester City Council agreed to use the Phoenix model for their prefab estates.

A total of 43,206 Phoenix prefabs were built across the country, each one designed by the John Laing Group.

The Phoenix, designed by Laing and built by themselves as well as partners McAlpine and Henry Boot, looked much like an AIROH with a central front door. It was a two-bedroom in-situ preform design with steel frame, asbestos clad walls and an innovative roof of tubular steel poles with steel panels attached. Like all designs, it came pre-painted in magnolia, with green highlights on frames and skirting.

Phoenix prefabs cost £1,200 each constructed onsite, while the specially insulated version designed for use on the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides cost £2,000.

Wikipedia

The prefabs were eventually demolished and along came the tower blocks – Architect J Austen Bent, whose work we have seen on the Wythenshawe Walk

In the distance Chadderton Power Station – demolished in 1986.

Photographs – Local Image Collection

Here are the blocks prior to and during the current renovation programme.

Kentmere

Cartmel

Somerton

Rusland

Here are the group as of February 2023.

I was thrilled to find that each of the blocks had variants within the typology of handmade tiles.

Kentmere

Somerton

Cartmel

Rusland

There seems to be no record of attribution for these tiles – happily they are still extant.

Go and take a look.

Housing – Cwmbran

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Here we are again in Cwmbran having previously visited Monmouth Square and Taliesin.

The Masterplan, produced for the Cwmbran Development Corporation by Minoprio & Spencely & Macfarlane in 1950 – image from the Gwent Archives

Royal Commission

Cwmbran was founded in 1949 as a new town, to provide new employment opportunities in the south eastern portion of the South Wales Coalfield, but the area has a long history.

We shall now explore the housing framed by the railway and shopping centre.

From Cleeve Barr’s Public Authority Housing – published in 1958.

A mix of pedestrianised terraces and low rise blocks, set in a loose grid of roads and rolling, tree-lined, grassed areas.

Over time there has been the addition of uPVC and the revisionist intrusion of the ahistorical carriage lamp.

Incidentally an area with more al fresco shopping trolleys than I had ever seen, I assume that the big Asda, located within walking distance of the homes, to be the progenitor of such a notable proliferation.

It remains, generally speaking a well kept lived in area – let’s take a look.

Central Retail Park – Ancoats Manchester

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We have been here before – before the wrecking ball.

Subsequently, the tills have long since ceased to ring.

The road to redevelopment is paved with good intentions, and so far a profound lack or realisation.

The local folk objected to the planned luxury offices.

Tomorrow Manchester City Council’s Executive is set to approve the development framework for the former Central Retail Park that will see it turned into a zero carbon office district. But, according to a public consultation carried out by grassroots campaigners, an overwhelming majority of locals want public spaces on the 10.5 acre site in Ancoats rather than luxury offices.

The Meteor October 2020

As of April 2022 Trees Not Cars have sought the views of local representatives following the decision not to go ahead with the building of a multi-storey car park

What we need are councillors who will stand up for us and push for as much green space as possible at Central Retail Park development.

It’s council owned, it would link in well with Cotton Field Park and will give the capacity for locals to enjoy the outdoors – without driving, once New Islington Green has been developed into offices.

Trees Not Cars April 2022

There is a perennial plea for affordable homes and green space, along with perennial structural and institutional barriers to their financing and building.

Place North West 2019

The circle between the developers, landowners, local authority and central government stubbornly refuses to be squared.

As of 20th September 2022 the land remains derelict – currently the domain of wayward taggers, spray-can jockeys and homemade mini-ramp skaters.

A concrete rectangle dotted with Buddleja davidii  – surrounded by Manctopia and main roads.

Leo Fitzgerald House – Dublin

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Leo Fitzgerald House Hogan Place Erne Street Upper Dublin 2

The second post featuring the work of Herbert Simms following on from O’Carroll Villas.

These homes were named for Civil War hero Leo Fitzgerald.

London born Herbert George Simms was responsible for the building of some 17,000 new working class dwellings in his time in office as Dublin’s pioneering Housing Architect, ranging from beautiful Art Deco flat schemes in the inner-city to new suburban landscapes.

Freestanding L-plan multiple-bay four-storey social housing block, built c. 1940, having attached stairs tower to east elevation. Flat roof concealed behind rendered parapet with concrete coping, and having rendered chimneystacks with concrete copings and clay pots. Flemish bond brown brick and rendered walls. Square-headed window openings with rendered surrounds and sills, and replacement uPVC windows. Square-headed door openings with rendered surrounds and timber doors to galleries. Square-headed door opening in attached stairs tower with mild-steel double-leaf gate, concrete platform and steps.

Statue of Sacred Heart to south elevation.

Buildings Of Ireland

O’Carroll Villas

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Cuffe St Dublin 2 Ireland

Richard O’Carroll TC died for his country on 5th May 1916.

A true martyr for the love of his Country and its people, and a true Working Class Hero!

Cllr O’Carroll deserves to be recognised by the State and the People of Ireland for his work with the Labour Party, The Ancient Guild of Brick & Stonelayers Trade Union and most importantly for his contribution to the Freedom of Ireland.

‘Bhí sé dílis dá thír is dá chineál’

‘He loved his country and served his kind’

I came upon these two slab blocks of flats whilst walking the streets of Dublin – this service tower acts as a memorial to his life and achievements.

I was stopped in my tracks when I chanced upon the enchanting mosaics, wrought iron railings and walkups, I stayed a while to take a look around.

Cumbernauld Housing

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Sunday morning in Glasgow, I caught the first train out from Queen Street Station.

In October 2017, a £120 million project began on bringing the station up to modern standards, demolishing many of the 1960s buildings and replacing them with a new station concourse, which was completed in 2021.

I arrived in Cumbernauld and walked toward the Central Way and back again.

Cumbernauld was designated as a new town in December 1955, part of a plan, under the New Towns Act 1946, to move 550,000 people out of Glasgow and into new towns to solve the city’s overcrowding. Construction of its town centre began under contractors Duncan Logan, chief architect Leslie Hugh Wilson and architect Geoffrey Copcutt – until 1962 and 1963, and later Dudley Roberts Leaker, Philip Aitken and Neil Dadge.

Wikipedia

This is the housing that I saw.