FROM THE ARCHIVE: ‘SPACE-AGE’ SALFORD HIGH-RISE DREAM COMES TRUE

April 1965 saw the Salford City Reporter proudly boast in an article that the “Ellor Street dream begins to come true” complete with interviews with residents of the newly constructed Walter Greenwood, Eddie Colman and John Lester Courts all which towered some 120 feet above the Hanky Park skyline.

These particular blocks of flats were of special significance because their completion was the end of the first stage of the Ellor Street redevelopment scheme which was to provide 3,000 new homes, the £10 million pound Salford Shopping Precinct and a new civic centre – which never got built – making this “A Salford of the Space Age”.

In what is the perhaps the most optimistic assessment of the former ‘slum clearance’ area, the Reporter article states it will have tree-lined open spaces, a community centre and a health centre all segregated from traffic – which sounds really pleasant but hardly the truth as time would tell.

“Small wonder that many Ellor Street folk have fought shy of moving to overspill areas or other parts of the City, and have waited eagerly for the chance of being rehoused here – if they leave their present homes,” the reporter writes.

I grew up in Hanky Park and I can guarantee that my parents were in no rush to leave their terraced house in Bell Street and move into these concrete monstrosities, which could only boast of having two bedroooms, not very useful if you came from a large family as did many people in the area.

The 14-storey towerblocks were built at a cost of £1 million each and could boast of having such luxuries as built-in cupboards, underfloor electric heating, drying cabinets, gas or electric cookers, bathrooms, and a balcony from which you could view the site of your old house in the middle of a slum clearance area.

Several of the residents of these flats were interviewed and its interesting to read of their hopes and fears for the future in their new high rise flats.

Annie Joynson, 52, formerly of Florin Street but now in Eddie Colman Court told the paper:

“We really wanted a house but these new flats are so nice and well designed that I would not change for a house.

“I like the underfloor heating, the nice living rooom, and bright bedroooms, we used to pay 16 shillings a week rent and now it is 44 shillings and 10 pence and well worth it”

Dorothy Huckle, 26, moved into Walter Greenwood Court from Church Street with her husband and baby daughter Jaqueline.

She said:

“We would have preferred a house but now we find that we really like living in these flats, I think that they are lovely and the rent is fair.

“We have no coal to buy and mess about with and we only occasionally use the electric fire.

“My only criticism is that the hall is a bit big and the kitchen a bit small.”

It would appear that almost everybody interviewed much preferred their new homes in the sky.

Let’s face it, in those days having an inside toilet, a bathroom and central heating was the height of luxury for most people in the Ellor Street area.

One dissenting voice came from 71-year-old widow Mrs M Rathbone ,who had previously lived on Bury Street. She complained about the lack of clothes-washing facilities – she had to take her washing to a launderette which was a 10-minute walk away – also that some of the windows on her flat were not reversible as they were on most other flats and she couldn’t clean them.

I can recall how houseproud the women were in that area: clean windows and curtains were the order of the day and door steps were “donkey stoned” in brown or cream sandstone.

Walter Greenwood Court was demolished in 2000/2001 whilst Eddie Colman and John Lester Court are now student accommodation for the nearby Salford University.

The city planners have since demolished some of the other tower blocks that were thrown up in that period, whilst others have been sold to private developers.