What were these called, Only Me?
Bloody hell mate -bulls eye!
St James' gardens in all its glory. Reckon that photo is from 1982, just before it was demolished. There were 55 flats in total, Numbered 1 to 11 on the ground floor, 1a to 11a on the first landing, and so on to fourth landing [or "toppy" as it was known]. So, it was very small as tenement blocks went.
I lived there from 1966 until we moved out on 1st May 1982 [the day the news came in that the RAF had bombed Port Stanley].
An aunty of mine actually lived for a few years in the ground floor flat you can see with the bannister. That was number 3.
The brick column you can see to the right of her flat is the base of the communal rubbish chute. There was one of these every couple of flats along on each landing. You opened the chute, poured the contents of your bin in, and listened to it plummet down to the massive steel wheelie bin at the bottom of each chute.
I lived on the first landing - up those stairs you can see between the 2 square columns, round the far corner and then 2nd flat along.
The building next door was a little factory called Critchley & Veale. The garage door you can see on the far left of the picture under the twin gables was always closed, and was our footy goal for the first 16 years of my life. It was known [depending on the colour it was painted at the time] as the green/black/red door, and was where we always played 60 seconds and 3 and in.
Weren't many cars about down there then, so your games never really got interrupted, and you could play in the street quite safely really.
there was a playgorund in the middle of the block, which you entered through a long arch - hence the playground was known to everyone as "the Arches". Too many window related accidents in there to enjoy a proper game of footy though!
The footprint of our block is still there, virtually unchanged, but there's a chinese supermarket built on it now.
Just to give a sense of where it was, the street running across the bottom of the picture is Nelson St. Follow that to the left and it becomes Chinatown about 300 yards up, then on up to the Chinese Arch.
To the immediate right of the picture is Nelson Street's junction with St James St. Cross that road and keep going straight and you'll come to the dock road in about 300 yards, just about 50 yards along from the new McNasty's.
If the photographer had eyes in the back of his head, he'd be looking straight down Park Lane, towards John Lewis' car park and Liverpool one.
I'm going now, because I've just realised how much I'm fucking waffling on and boring everybody. But thanks a lot for posting that mate. Its made my day.
Edit:
Sorry mate, just noticed your earlier post.
Yes that was Prinny Albert. Bigger block than ours, but otherwise almost identical in design. it was just a bit further along St James St., going away from town up towards Parly. It was adjacent to St Vinny's church [the beautiful and unusual spire you can see to the extreme left of the pic], which basically seperated Prinny Albert from our block, across Hardy Street. The church is still there, but the block has long gone [before ours If i remember correctly, and its now houses].
Just as well really; they were never any good at guarding their bommy wood in there.....
