British Tower Blocks

[lneylon]

Mind you Huddersfield will still have the Berry Brow blocks.

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And whilst I'm in the area, the village of Mixenden:

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[MattN]

Mixenden is Halifax of course, which has quite a lot of blocks for somewhere its size. Mixenden is a pretty menacing place though and more a massive council estate with a couple of old houses than a village now, and quite strange, almost completely detached from the rest of Halifax in a valley, joined to it by a little straggle of houses along the cliff edge. Berry Brow, with the blocks standing alone in that valley in almost rural setting is even odder though. I think Huddersfield will only have the Berry Brow pair in addition to Richmond after the others on the ring road come down.

Thanks for those Swarcliffe pics. There's a few interesting ones on Leodis (the Leeds photo archive site) of the taller blocks as well, though if anyone can work a miracle and locate any more photos of these, particularly all of them together from the Scholes or Cross Gates/Austhorpe direction, I would be stunned and very grateful. Such things have so far eluded me and I regret being unable to have taken any such photos myself.

[lneylon]

Yeah Leodis is a great resource. Nottingham (and the sheep-shaggers) have a similar at http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/. Search for Balloon Woods.

I thought for ages that Huddersfield had a really tall block that you could see off the Sheffield Road, but the hill and trees are deceptive:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...=12,0,,0,-8.15

[MattN]

Indeed, it's a good website. I've encountered pics of the Balloon Wood flats before, they didn't last long at all! Lol at the Huddersfield pic.

Apparently the Norfolk Court flats in Laurieston, Glasgow (next to Victoria Bridge) are meant to be getting blown up at 1030 tomorrow, although strangely enough no news articles have been done or traffic diversions advertised. The only thing to be seen apart from posts on various fora is the diversions page on the First bus website, which has diversions from 0700-1500 to allow the demolition. I'm mad enough to be considering going, is anybody else lol?

Apologies for the ridiculously late notice.

[Butterfield]

I don't think I've ever seen those blocks in Berry Brow in Huddersfield before! Do you know what the road name is so I can find it on Bing/Google maps?

I love how the Mixenden blocks stand miles out of Halifax, on the side of a green Yorkshire valley.



You may need to scroll ---------->

[MattN]

You can have a Google Maps link.

[citybus]

That last pic is great, who took it?

The popular 70's Lillington Gardens estate, Pimlico



Aragon tower on Deptford's Pepys estate. It was entirely coincidental that the block closest to the thames was the one that 'needed' to be sold off to richer tenants. Those extra floors they put in makes this one of London's tallest blocks



Pepys was heavily documented in BBC programme 'the tower', which focused on the community during the redevelopment and yuppification. It's also in the good Ray Winstone film 'Nil by Mouth'



The Isle of Dog's Barkantine estate, with their pointy hats

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Brandon estate, kennington, South London. This is where they filmed the Sean Lock comedy 15 storeys High, and the internal corridors and flats looked nice in it. I think Billy Piper's house in Dr Who was filmed in Brandon but I didnt recognise the block

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The Brandon Towers, Strata, and a 20 a side football match. I have to say I like Strata, I'm surprised it was voted worst building as the other choices were much worse. As for the Brandon, the sheer size of the park means you get a great view of the flats, one of London's best clusters in my opinion.

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Up on a raised car park

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[Butterfield]

Originally Posted by MattN

You can have a Google Maps link.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by citybus

That last pic is great, who took it?

I don't know. But judging by the cars on the far right it looks like it's from the 80s.

[lneylon]

Originally Posted by Butterfield

Thanks!
I don't know. But judging by the cars on the far right it looks like it's from the 80s.

Nah, that's recent. MkIII escorts and MkI granadas are cutting-edge motor transportation round those parts.

[Butterfield]

Escort van, no less. There's also what looks like a white Austin Maxi just coming over the hill.

[lneylon]

Originally Posted by Butterfield

Escort van, no less. There's also what looks like a white Austin Maxi just coming over the hill.

Yeah that's a Maxi ok.

[Tubeman]

Originally Posted by citybus

Pepys was heavily documented in BBC programme 'the tower', which focused on the community during the redevelopment and yuppification. It's also in the good Ray Winstone film 'Nil by Mouth'

I know things are normally filmed on multiple locations, but I'm pretty sure I read that 'Nil by mouth' was filmed on the now demolished Bonamy Estate in Bermondsey:

[Tubeman]

On the same site I found those Bonamy pictures, there's some gratuitous Heygate photos too... Tower block porn!

[Stefan88]

Two blocks in Nottingham. The block on the left is due to be demolished soon due to poor fire safety. It's a very similar design to the block in Camberwell that caught fire.

[citybus]

You're probably right about Nil By Mouth being filmed in Bonamy, but there's at least one scene that was done in Pepys or somewhere similar looking. There's a bit with a walkway going from the liftshaft to the flats, though the walkways have been enclosed with roofs now

[lneylon]

Don't remember anything about Nil By Mouth apart from:

1. I was living in Birmingham (not good).
2. It was a Saturday night when I went to the pictures.
3. I was on a date.
4. It was at least 5 hours long.
5. All the pubs in Brum had closed when the film finished.
6. It was the pretty relentlessly grim all the way through.

I don't remember the buildings at all and I'm not sure I can face ever watching it again.

[lneylon]

Originally Posted by citybus

The Isle of Dog's Barkantine estate, with their pointy hats

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I've stayed the night in one of those blocks quite high up and the flat was really ace. It had views on two sides eastwood along the Thames and then south over the river and was on a split-level arrangement, so the living room and kitchen were on one level and the you went down half a flight of stairs to the bedrooms.

Inside the block corridors, etc were ok. No graffitti or smelling of piss, but the surrounding area, car park, etc were pretty frightening late at night.

Quite weird having such a rough looking estate so close to the wankers in their ivory towers.

[Tubeman]

The estate was there a long time before Canary Wharf... Imagine how desolate and isolated the Isle of Dogs was when there was literally only one way on or off the peninsula (bus along Manchester Road) and before the two big tower block estates (Barkantine and Samuda) were spruced up.

I filmed an episode of 'The Bill' on the Samuda Estate about 15 years ago... It was a scary place then, for sure!





Kelson House post-refurb:

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[lneylon]

It would be 10 or so years ago when I stayed there. Had been to a gig at the Hope&Anchor in Islington and accepted a drink'n'smoke offer after the pub not realising where I would end up in the morning.

Has all the low-rise stuff from those pics of the Samuda gone then? I don't remember that well.

[lneylon]

Actually Tubeman, been meaning to ask, given your knowledge of London's estates and your Atlas, do you not think there's a historical book somewhere there on London's estates?

I realise that Trains will always find an audience, but there's us lot, Iain Sinclair fans, etc, who would love a documentation of estates past and present.