Shite scenes from yesteryear

[Vinylseats]

I just found a website with loads of grim and depressing old 80s photos of tower blocks (mostly from the north of England) - and some great cars are to be seen. These are just some of the selected ones.

 

Also, feel free to post any of your own pics or ones you've found.

 

All photos are from this website: http://fields.eca.ac.uk/gis/?page_id=92

 

 

 

Chester

 

 

 

 

Newcastle-upon-Tyne

 

 

 

 

Middlesbrough

 

 

 

 

Blackpool

 

 

 

Crewe

 

 

 

Warrington

 

 

 

 

Wigan

 

 

 

Halifax

 

 

 

 

Wakefield

[Vinylseats]

Look at this little scene in Sunderland. It look as though the yobs on the right are harassing some old ladies on the left as a police Fiesta goes past!

 

[fotorabia]

yeah man..if my architect father hadnt emigrated to Aussie..he would have ended up designing brutalism like that..cool thread..

[Guest]

Absolutely excellent, thread of the year! Best 1980s pictures of Wakefield I've ever seen.

 

This picture completely sums up the grimness of Kirkgate:

 

The "DY" was a Tandy. Check out the underseal Marina! All you need is the sound of a screaming child being cracked followed by a "SHURRUP". The shops here are actually more downmarket nowadays.

[face]

 

Is that a Manta in the middle of the top 3 cars?

[michiel]

Yep! What a great site.

 

Edit: shit, biiig pics... great Fiat 13something wagon here:

 

http://fields.eca.ac.uk/gis/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/l-25.jpg

[worldofceri]

 

Construction commenced in 1967. The blocks were closed in 1985 as a result of structural, heating and insulation problems. All of the blocks are now demolished.

 

A life-span of less than twenty years! That's just appalling. How did they get it so RONG? I wonder what percentage of sixties tower blocks are still standing compared all the terraces and semi's buit in the twenties and thirties.

[barrett]

That one of Wakey is amazing - save for the Fiat at the front and the green Skoda in the background EVERY car is a Ford!

[Vinylseats]

Glad you all like this thread, and that website. I thought its grimness was particularly suited to this forum.

 

 

I wonder what percentage of sixties tower blocks are still standing compared all the terraces and semi's buit in the twenties and thirties.

 

I think Birmingham may have had over half of its tower blocks demolished - I'm sure I read recently that the city originally had around 400 tower blocks of 7 storeys and higher. The Castle Vale estate alone (by Fort Dunlop on the M6) had over 30 demolished!

 

 

That one of Wakey is amazing - save for the Fiat at the front and the green Skoda in the background EVERY car is a Ford!

 

Yes I noticed that. If you didn't know any better you'd think it was a deliberate convoy of Fords but I guess it's just a coincidence - or that Fords were extremely popular in Wakefield!

[cobblers]

Some of these photos are epic - I'm guessing the red irish plated uno is owned by the photographer, since it pops up in LOADS of pics.

 

Since I find my job very tiresome, to make my day more entertaining I went through every photo on that site with a car reg that was readable, and stuck them in the DVLA tax thing to find "the winner" which turned out to be the Mazda 626 here, which lasted til 2002.

 

 

 

From memory nothing else made it much past 1995!

[Albert Ross]

I used to live in these, in Nottingham, 3rd floor, last block, nearest front corner.

 

 

From Castle Boulevard end.

 

 

From the Shopping arcade end.

 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

OMG what an amazing site

 

Liking this scene: http://fields.eca.ac.uk/gis/wp-content/ ... 2/nc-2.jpg

[Vinylseats]

Since I find my job very tiresome, to make my day more entertaining I went through every photo on that site with a car reg that was readable, and stuck them in the DVLA tax thing to find "the winner" which turned out to be the Mazda 626 here, which lasted til 2002.

 

Somebody had to do it!

 

 

OMG what an amazing site

 

Liking this scene: http://fields.eca.ac.uk/gis/wp-content/ ... 2/nc-2.jpg

 

Thought I'd resize this one, purely as I love Maxis - must have missed it first time around. Where is this one?

 

[scaryoldcortina]

Without looking at the site, that's cruddas park tower in Newcastle, thhe building next to it is the "shopping centre".

 

I had a mk2 escort stolen from that car park in 1989 while I was in Kwik-Save.

 

Edit: quick look at the site, it's adelade tower (but still cruddas park shops) shot is taken facing south, Cruddas tower would be west and just out of shot on the right of the picture...

 

editied some more cos it was bugging me... slope of the road was wrong for cruddas park. It's adelade road shops (now demolished and rebuilt) - looked identical to cruddas park though. and the tower is in Benwell, not Elswick I used to fix Maestro diesel taxis in the old dairies next to the shops.

[Lord Sterling]

Wow! Thanks for putting these up Vinyl. Like cobblers, I also like looking up cars from old photos to see when they were probably last in use.

 

Was looking at pics of the old Merry Hill when it had a Mono Rail and came across some pics of Brierley Hill in the 90s:

 

[Marshall]

This thread is ace - takes me back to my childhood - Not THAT long ago!

 

EDIT: Check out the Maestro in that last pic!!

[Cavcraft]

I just found a website with loads of grim and depressing old 80s photos of tower blocks (mostly from the north of England) - and some great cars are to be seen. These are just some of the selected ones.

 

Also, feel free to post any of your own pics or ones you've found.

 

All photos are from this website: http://fields.eca.ac.uk/gis/?page_id=92

 

 

 

Chester

 

 

 

 

[/img]

 

Cheers for the pictures/link.

 

Remarkably enough the scene in both those pictures has remained almost completely unchanged. In fact the only difference I can think of is in the top one which is behind the bowling green where the pub is is now surrounded by more poncey £125,000 apartments that no-one can afford. Pretty sure the bottom of the two pictures hasn't changed at all.

 

Interestingly enough (to me anyhow) right behind the pub there used to be a car auction years and years back (I think mid-late seventies from memory) and I still vividly recall watching an Austin Cambridge estate being sold for a tenner.

[chaseracer]

 

Is that a Manta in the middle of the top 3 cars?

Looks like.

 

Nice early Dyane next to it...

[Cavcraft]

http://fields.eca.ac.uk/gis/?p=341

 

Used to live on this road! Some bastard (who was pissed AND banned from driving) wrote my 100E off just behind the church building with the graffiti on it. Quite a few happy (and a few sad) memories of this estate, it was across the other side from where Albert mentioned living.

 

Autoshite memories include the following: a bloke who lived at the end of this road had an immaculate (and I mean gleamingly mint) Mk3 Cortina which was platered in stickers. Bit of a throw back job as they were all sort of 'STP', those 'middle finger' and victory V shiney type ones. I think he thought he was in Detroit in the 1970s or something.

Someone in the same road also decided to respray his Peugeot 505 estate once, and for some reason decided it'd be best to park it on the verge outside his house, run a lead through his living room window and spray the car on a windy day with no cover I shit you not. The whole street fucking stunk of thinners and paint and all manner of dust and crap was flying about as he carried out his paintwork.

Further down (same road again) a bloke had a couple of 105Es in his drive. One was a sort of half arsed restoration job, the other used to look more rotten/abandoned/falling to bits as the weeks and months rolled by. I think the same fella then got himself a Chevanne which was blue with white panels.

 

On Albert's side of the estate somewhere lives the 'legend'. An elderly lady who had the cleanest Mk2 Escort you'll ever see. It really was the one old lady from new driven to church job and was a right mingebag spec, quite possibly a Pop (non) plus. There was always rumours of her getting twenty letters a week asking her to let them know if she wanted to sell it.

[eddyramrod]

I like those Chester pics, I've been scanning them for an Olympic Blue Mk1 Granada! My brother-in-law's parents live in the maisonnettes about 2/3 over to the right in the top pic so I've been there... The two sites are pretty close together, from memory and yes, the second pic probably still looks the same, except all the shite will be Kias and Hyundais now. In fact the first pic won't look much different either. Even the tower blocks were still there last time I looked.

 

Sadly, I couldn't get all the pics to download, so I still haven't seen the Blackpool one, my Polonez might be on it!

[Lord Sterling]

EDIT: Check out the Maestro in that last pic!!

 

Forgot to add; The plate on that White Maestro in the pic is E68SOB. Not long ago, in my local area I found an identical very crusty White Maestro with J65SOB as the plate. It has since gone.

[boobydoo]

 

Seeing those two old gels reminds me of my secondary school days when two similarly attired old bints would wander past the school playing-fields most lunchtimes at 12.30 presumably on their way to the local Co-op , as each had a little tartan shopping trolley in tow. Because of their regularity they quickly became known as 'The Half-Pasts'.

 

We would take great delight in crouching behind the hedge to make juvenile farting and belching noises as they weebled past, to which they initially seemed oblivious.

Hence our need to up the stakes and therefore our descision to one day throw dog-shit at them.

 

This must finally have caused them to 're-route' , as we never saw them again.

 

Naturally, in hindsight I'm rather ashamed of this somewhat anti-social behaviour.

[HillmanImp]

This thread is great.

 

Then:

Now:

 

The MG has turned into a Clio.

 

Might look up a few more of these.

[trigger]

Great find!

 

[trigger]

This thread is great.

 

 

You bugger!, That's what I've been doing for the last 1/2 hour!

 

 

[boobydoo]

Great find!

 

 

Hmmm...Denton Park Shopping Centre looks like a 'must visit' to pick up those last minute Chrimbo gifts.........NOT.

[HillmanImp]

Hmmm, this one has not worked so well.......

 

Then:

Now:

 

The flats are still there, honest. I drove past them an hour ago.

 

At least i have been able to log on at home tonight. First time in a month. Woot. Computer problems not remembering passwords (an me not remembering passwords either). I can actually post rather than think 'Oh i want to reply to that' only to forget my witty retort in the morning.

[HillmanImp]

You bugger!, That's what I've been doing for the last 1/2 hour!

 

LOL! Sorry dude.

[trigger]

 

[trigger]

LOL! Sorry dude.