Queens Park, October 1997

Looking out over Blackpool at night from the top of the multi-storey car park on Talbot Rd, October 1997. The Queens Park estate is a great example of Brutalist architecture beloved of Councils in the 1960s. Comprising of five towers they were built with the idea of them being  'Streets in the Sky'.  They never really seemed to work as intended  and became associated with a lot of social problems. They have been scheduled for demolition in 2013, to be replaced by a low-rise estate. Not everyone is happy to see  them go, only about 20% of the 1500 residents voted for demolition. You can view some photos of what it looked like before and as it was being built here .

Below is the same scene but just before sunset when the towers were lit up by the last rays of the day.

If you look towards the lower right of the picture you can see  a road leading up to the flats. That I think is Caunce St.  My friends Rob & Andy lived there in a fairly grotty first floor flat. Below them lived a youngish couple who were notable only for having about six teeth between them. He worked on the trawlers. One night I was over watching a video of Fritz Lang's Metropolis when we heard them having an argument. At some point through the floor we heard him scream at his missus that it was his intent to go and 'kill those fucking poofs upstairs if they don't shut up'.

Not a word did we make for the rest of the night.

Here is an  image of Caunce Street, unusual now for having a advert for cigarettes on a billboard.