No Place Like Hulme - The Age

Описание: (Photos: © Alan Denney, Richard Davis)

Social housing the landscape
Of Le Corbusier's dream
Stark and grey in appearance
With a brutalist theme

Sledgehammer the slums
We're starting from scratch
Concreative solution
Building cheap, building fast

Utopian vision
Futuristic designs
Vast Georgian crescents
Streets in the sky

Robert Adam
Charles Barry
William Kent
& John Nash
Homes for Mancunians
Iconic and brash

Two years down the line
They declared them unfit
For children to live in
After tragedy hit

Six storeys high
Unsafe in design
Climbing over a balcony
A five year old died

"It shouldn't have been planned,
It shouldn't have been built"
The chair of the Housing
Committee appealed.

Robert Adam
Charles Barry
William Kent
& John Nash
Tenants took action
Rehousing demands

The clamour of kids
No longer a sound
A sinister quiet
Fell on the decks now

The lifts never worked
And the stench was obscene
Vermin and roaches
Crawled the damp and debris

These cold monoliths
Of urban decay
Their scale was inhuman
Turning black in the rain

Robert Adam
Charles Barry
William Kent
& John Nash
Dropouts and misfits
Rent-free in the flats

Vandalism, graffiti
On soviet grey
The violence, addiction
And theft was insane

GPs kept pushing
Their chemical crutch
Numbing the horror
With a cocktail of drugs

Despite the decline
Police never in sight
Take a chance with your life
Being out at night

Robert Adam
Charles Barry
William Kent
& John Nash
Names of the giants
On concrete prefabs

Bitter in winter
No escaping the cold
Coin-meter rapacious,
Mildew and mould

The old dears complained
Of the permanent dust
Silent asbestos
Settled in lungs

Arterial highways
Enclosed the estate
Cut off from the city
Condemned to its fate.

Robert Adam
Charles Barry
William Kent
& John Nash
Notorious dwellings
Better lie if they ask

Fort Ardwick, Fort Beswick
Kennet House, Kersal Flats
Turkey Lane, Hulme Crescents
Homes of the past