Longbridge no more...

[chaseracer]

I was in B31 yesterday, for the first time in a good few years; of 'the Austin', virtually nothing remains other than a few buildings around what was Q Gate on Lowhill Lane, which houses the MG operations.

 

Reminisce here: http://www.austinmemories.com/

[Lacy]

I live just around the corner from ' The 'ostin' and have done for 24 years. I've seen the massive change first hand. I did my engineering apprenticeship at Lucas and worked at their Great King Street factory in Hockley; a stunning Art Deco building that, heartbreakingly, has long since been razed to the ground and replaced by modern factory units. As upsetting as it may seem the plants were unsustainable and things move on. sad in it?

[Rod/b]

I'm in two minds. I do think that in the UK we cling onto the past too much, and go on about the "good old days" when we should be looking forwards and planning for the future. Longbridge is dead, and the buildings couldn't be reused for anything else. Nor can the land, according to a man I know how knows a man who knows - the levels of pollution following decades of car building have seen to that.

 

That said since I've been out here, the destruction of older areas of the city to put up yet more towers seems a bit short sighted as they seem hell-bent on deleting all of their recent history. Yes, the shops and souks they are flattening are only 50 years old, poorly built death traps but they do lend a character to the city that the new concrete structures can't dream to emulate.

[Wilko220]

It makes it grate all the more when SAIC try to market their Chinese knock-down kit MG6s as British cars. Very sad.

[Station]

Some nice pics here:

 

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/bllong ... #h1712ab53

 

It's nice to think of how it was in the 80's and 90's when thousands of cars a week were coming out of the plant and everything was seemingly OK.

[Rod/b]

Everything was OK, at least that was the official line. "There are no underlying issues with the K series engine..."

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I was in B31 yesterday, for the first time in a good few years; of 'the Austin', virtually nothing remains other than a few buildings around what was Q Gate on Lowhill Lane, which houses the MG operations.

 

Reminisce here: http://www.austinmemories.com/

 

Thanks for the link. It really is heartbreaking so see it being pulled down after Rover's catastrophic end. It really has gone for good this time.

 

Note the prominent red BMW being driven through the centre of Longbridge Village, which has a poignant Austin Flying A on a wall.

 

http://www.austinmemories.com/page84/page84.html