rebbonk wrote:
Far gosford street has never been any good as a shopping centre. Even when I was a nipper it was always tat.
I loved the tat of Far Gosford Street, and Gosford Street itself when I was young.It was always like a mystery tour-never knowing what you would find.The pawn shop,
the Scala cinema, the Crown.cinema which we called the Bug hut,where after paying your money the lady who gave us a metal token ran behind an army blanket curtain to take it back and let us in.
I had school friends who lived over shops .behind shops and in the backs of shops which were later condemned- they were mostly in poor condition, but it was homely to many.long before I was born my parents moved from an old Spon Street back to back, to a new council house near Whitley Common, not even on a large estate,with a bathroom, hot water geizer--all they could want, but the closeness had gone.
I'm not saying all this so called renovation didn't need doing in the Gosford streets areas but it's a farce to call it renovation. I've watched it from the back and it's all new build with a joke of original fronts. They've just knocked the soul out of it.
So Burgess will be the same, all the creaky old shops uncreaked and polished out of all recognition.The Sherbourne will lose it's mystery too with a tidy up of it's original bridge. Has anyone looked at it lately? It is one of the only secret magical places left.
I also watched Kirby House gradually almost sink to its knees when I was at school -Council again - then when they got a grant it was restored-another farce.Only the front was left-even then someone stole the wonderful double curved staircase.I never found out whether they got it back.
