Have you ever been in a tower block?

A slight throwback to previous years.

I've only ever been inside three tower blocks. First time was in 1992 somewhere near Prague on a school trip. Our exchange student's family who we visited for the day lived about half way up a 10ish storey tower block - without lifts.

Then in around 2009ish, along with a friend who was looking to buy a flat, we went to visit two flats in West Bromwich, one on the ground floor of this tower block:






....and one on the 17th floor of this neighbouring tower block:





That was fun going in the lift to the 17th floor. It was quite a pleasant flat actually; dated, with faded pink carpets, but spacious and quite homely, and with views of the Birmingham skyline from the balcony. I'm sure they were only like about £23,000 each.

In Sheffield:

I've been inside one of the Herdings tower blocks because my nan had a friend who lived there.

I've been inside one of the Callow Mount tower blocks because I lived there.

I've been inside one of the Claywood tower blocks because we had a relative who lived there.

I've been in one of the Norfolk Park tower blocks because we had a relative who lived there.

I've been on the walkways of Park Hill flats but not in any of the actual flats.

The most middle class thread I’ve ever seen.

Indeed I have. Many.

Including that one - as I imagine, has Nightjar.

My great gran lived in one in south London, where she enjoyed her sweeping views of the City, and it was a great view. She - and we all - called her floor ‘the senior delinquents’, because they were all old, and always having parties.

One old Jamaican guy, my favourite of the neighbours, would wheel in his near comatose wife in her chair (which contained a potty underneath, removable). They’d all get drunk as usual, in front of the racing or an old film or the Brookside omnibus, or whack on some records and dance, with her unconscious in the middle of it all, and after she’d filled it, they’d fling the contents over the balcony onto any passing commuter or overdressed person they didn’t like the look of.

A good friend has a beautiful flat in one which has a fairly bad rep. The flat itself is beautiful.

For a short while I dated a guy who lived in one of the Thamesmead ones (are they still there?). He was only 19, and had been left in charge of his younger siblings - the father and then the mother had, in turn, abandoned the family. I felt duty bound to encourage his aspirations and open his mind to the possibilities of life. He was very good looking. Had we been closer in age, I might’ve dated him more seriously and for much longer, but different life stages. The flat wasn’t in the best condition but I gave him stuff for it - people redo so fast it’s easy to get top notch hardly used things round where I live, and I had some quality things of my own I didn’t want - he needed to be introduced to good quality bedding. We also painted it all, stripped and varnished the floors, and it ended up looking cool, more suitable to a young guy on the up.

For ages, I bought weed from a guy in one where the lifts were often out. The 16th floor. Hard going on the legs and lungs.

If we’re doing full poverty porn, très exotique, I had a one night stand in one of the Riis Houses on the Lower East Side.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riis_Houses

Yes. I lived in one from the age of two until the age of eight in Birmingham. The block always remind me of a "face" how the design was.

As part of terrible temporary housing; my Mum and brother lived in one for a few months in 2021 in Bristol. Luckily, they got a modern build new flat in the end.

cosmictanya wrote:The most middle class thread I’ve ever seen.

But have you ever been in a £23,000 flat like I have?

Well, since about 1985 London prices anyway.

The immediate area I'm from didn't have any tower blocks - terraces and two-storey flats, yes. Though most people we knew lived in detached houses or semis on housing estates. The tower blocks a few miles away always had really bad reputations, but that kind of made me more intrigued by what went on in them.

By Dudley standards I am pretty much middle class.

Butterfield wrote:

cosmictanya wrote:The most middle class thread I’ve ever seen.

But have you ever been in a £23,000 flat like I have?

Well, since about 1985 London prices anyway.

The immediate area I'm from didn't have any tower blocks - terraces and two-storey flats, yes. Though most people we knew lived in detached houses or semis on housing estates. The tower blocks a few miles away always had really bad reputations, but that kind of made me more intrigued by what went on in them.

By Dudley standards I am pretty much middle class.

I probably have. London property prices only went insane after the millennium. I remember one of my dads brothers holding a housewarming at his flat in Gipsy Hill/Crystal Palace and he proudly shouted something like ‘not bad for 35 grand’ as I arrived and gave him a bottle of something and a hug - an old Victorian flat in a converted house, in the late 90’s. It stuck with me because it sort of set my understanding of what kind of ballpark a flat price would be.

So if that’s what old Victorian flats that needed a bit of work were going for in 97/98 outside Central London, it’s entirely possible an ex council one, let alone in a tower block, would’ve been under (even well under) £30,000.

Yes but a long time ago, my Grandparents? used to live in West London, (Hammersmith?), all I remember is that it was by a raised section of road (A4 Gt West rd?).
Their names were Pop and Maggie, they had a Budgie.....this was in the 60's
I used to like going there.
I have always liked London ever since my Dad used to take me to work with him and I got to play on construction sites and the top of some very tall office blocks (amazed I survived)

Further to that…

Typing his postcode into zoopla, neighbouring ones have sold more than once and show sale price history.

A fairly typical journey appears to be this…

September 1996 - £37,000

August 2001 - £98,000

July 2004 - £165,000

October 2019 - £445,000

The idea that London was always super expensive isn’t true.

I have never been in a tower block.

I went to a Jobclub on the 8th floor of an office block though.