Homes for Workers - 1939 film on Liverpool slum clearance and social housing boom

[@misspurrr-fect3684]

6:21. Those flats on Muirhead ave are still absolutely STUNNING to this day They now have listed building status . I doubt we will ever see the building standard & craftsmanship like this for social housing ever again . 🙁

[@bettyprice6316]

They might be classed as slums, but people had pride back then, no litter or graffiti to be seen and the community spirit was high.

[@MrDaiseymay]

yer-but, today's slums were once 'bright ideas and futuristic' too. It's what certain bone headed people make of their surroundings, that affect the decent ones, and bring the whole area into disrepute. Nothing is learned.

[@jennyburke5653]

Your right they were spotless and had nothing

[@andrewh5457]

@@MrDaiseymay put a pig in a Palace and they will make it a sty.

[@seansands424]

@@MrDaiseymay Lot of the time it is the people not the houses

[@lizziekaygreenwood316]

Fabulous video thank you 🥰 people looked after their homes back then & each other 😢 it’s sad how society has changed

[@bcqbhg7771]

I lived in Portland Gardens...knocked down in the 80s as they were considered slums. Yet i have NEVER had a bedroom as big as the bedroom i had there as a child,nor ever felt as safe as i did when i lived there nor have i ever had as good neighbours as i did when i lived there. Even now as a fully grown adult home owner...Portland Gardens was my favourite home. I may be looking back through my childhood mind but i never wanted to leave there & was horrified when my parents made us move into a house that was much smaller.

[@irenedavo3768]

Wow

[@patthompson2401]

I lived in Eldon street then moved to Burlington street all gone now

[@bcqbhg7771]

@@patthompson2401 Do you rem...the newcomb,Mcganns,Burns,Feeneys,Fenlons,Delaneys,Parrys,Gibbons,Dunnes,McCormicks,...cant think of other names

[@efcroipsm]

I lived in top Burly - lots of familiar names there 😊

[@seansands424]

They don't look like slums to me why did they pulled them down

[@Germanicworlds]

Apparently council estates took a nose dive when councils starting giving priority to the most desperate people in society - drug addicts, unemployed etc.

[@kevm4670]

What a wonderful piece of documented social history.

[@MrDaiseymay]

But why hasn't it been in the public eye before? there must be many such local films, hidden by the City Council archives.

[@lynneforsyth8231]

I worked in Radiant House on Bold St in 1971..Meter Control..a lovely building. I remember George the lift man..The building is still vibrant art deco and stands out amongst the other buildings. "Good morning,meter control"

[@annprince5298]

The new building tenement style was called the bull ring , it's supposed to be demolished so most of the tenants were removed , it was not demolished but used as student accommodation ,trees were planted, gates were put on the archway, tress planted for the students but not for the original inhabitants so much lies and a community was broken. Housing had no idea of what it meant or did they care, no! The lady speaking has the Lancashire accent which was strongly intertwined with the irish, Scottish and welsh the Lancashire in many cases had not been submerged, it is not surprising liverpool was in Lancashire county, that was the original accent we can still here the Lancashire dialect even we don,t all speak like Harry Enfield joke accent future councils made new ones.

[@alanmills6757]

The opening shot is of Norris Green where my grandmother lived - the geometric patterns on such a scale were a feature of these new estates but Norris Green and Speke had the grandest of the schemes

[@philipgahan9649]

I grew up in Speke, to see Speke from so long ago was wonderful, thank you for the video

[@peterwhitaker4038]

at 1:12 he stated liverpool was proud of it's two great Catheadrals. e=he was speaking in 1939....the Cathedrals were not finished until 1967 and 1977

[@Spherical_El]

I noticed that. Maybe our Catholic cathedral had an earlier makeshift building?

[@layde1]

The flats and amenities for the residents looked pretty good. I would have been very happy. If only this were happening today.

[@ifitsnotmusicwhatisit]

I can take u round Anfield and the first five minutes is nearly the same exactly the same on Breck Rd..shame o the trash in city hall Derek Hatton LFC et al, who destroyed Anfield, Wavertree, and Maggie Thatcher and nest of thieves who plundered the docks.

[@lynneforsyth8231]

All these beautiful homes are still standing around Liverpool. Springwood Avenue has the same buildings...they are stunning..

[@bm8725]

From old slums to new ones

[@sandwormgod4771]

So that was the Liverpool accent back in 1939. How I've got an accent, the one I have today, is beyond me. Most of those tenements that were built, in and near the city centre, most have been pulled down having been deemed as slum's, and yet a few remain, now privately owned? Strange that those owned and run by the council were slums and yet those privately owned are still sought after? All those beautiful new housing developments are all classed as deprived areas today. Dovecot, Norris Green, Speke are hives of criminality by the few, and that has an adverse effect on the majority. It's not property that are slums, it's the people you put in them. One bad tenant harms all around them.

[@robmccarron8659]

I can confirm that Mrs Greaves in the film was a real Liverpudlian yet spoke like that - she was my grandmother. She was born in 1898 so would have had got her accent from those around her in the first few years of the 20th century. (However, the officials in the film don't sound at all local.) Ironically, she and her family moved out of Myrtle gardens to run a shop in Cockburn Street only for all streets in that area to be demolished in a later slum clearance programme.

[@Spherical_El]

@@robmccarron8659 hey great to hear from you. I payed particular attention to your grandmother's accent and I could fully hear the lands + scouse roots of how we speak today. Fantastic for you to see her like this.

[@MrKevonski]

It must have been hard moving into the top-floor flats.

[@nevillemason6791]

Five storey flats with no lifts. Tenants, I presume, were expected to drag their furniture (and shopping) up five floors of stairs! Most of the flats shown were not renovated in turn and deteriorated into bad housing and were demolished in the 1970s. Typical of L'pool City Council wasting money.

[@nevillemason6791]

I think that's a little harsh. The flats were heated by coal. Not many could drag a 1 cwt of coal up 5 floors. What about the elderly or mothers with several small children? The posh architect probably had his servant to do such mundane tasks and wouldn't give the poor tenants a thought!

[@kristinesharp6286]

Plenty of cities with 5 floor walk ups.

[@Spherical_El]

No lifts? They were happy to get theirs gas powered irons and a wall outlet for the radio - happy times:)

[@spiffenage1]

1939 was an unfortunate time to be building multi storey tenements as the occupants would have had to dash down flights of stairs to an air raid shelter.

[@user-bt8cz9nv4x]

The idiots then built homes fit for heros after the war; the only problem was that many of these homes were bungalows built of asbestos sheets!!

[@divadllewdlac7344]

Ironic, these beautiful buildings erected in 1939 and flattened by Germans in 1940

[@m41incanis]

Cholmondley Warner.

[@MrDaiseymay]

he was a bit---but it was compulsory then--wasn't it?

[@gjones8847]

The narrator seems like a decent public servant with concern for the young and the elderly, unlike todays crop of nest featherers.

[@franceskronenwett3539]

Those new estates of flats and houses looked extremely attractive. A vast improvement to the dreadful slums that these people had left. These were decent hard working people with standards and I am sure that they took pride in their new homes and kept both them and the surrounding areas clean and safe. It was nice to hear a local lady's account of living in her new home. One thing that struck me the most was the absence of traffic which meant that in spite of the playgrounds children could play safely in the streets - heaven.

[@darksharkrafa1]

All them gardens/tenemants gone now and the large council estates are mainly sold off(right to buy)

[@19vinny80]

THE SPINSTER WHO NOBODY SEEMS VERY HAPPY TO ACCOMMODATE. lol

[@MrDaiseymay]

there was one in our family, back then

[@LadyLyndhurst01]

@@MrDaiseymay When my gran asked when I was getting married I replied ''never''. She looked at me aghast and said ''we can't have a Spinster in the family''. I said ''you'll have to get used to the idea because I don't intend to get shackled to a man, ever''. She tried to bribe me with money and sponsoring a business of my choice, then said she's buy me a house if I found a local guy to marry. I waltzed off into the big world, travelling and working in many countries. Some great adventures and some mistakes, but I never did marry and am happy as can be. I do have a partner but gran would consider that ''living in sin''.

[@topcatcoolio8807]

Yes big deal. So what.

[@maximoo9861]

Liverpool accents seem to have changed since way back then, the woman speaking doesn't even sound like a scouser

[@irenejohnston6802]

Very true we are (were) Lancashire lads and lassies. I'm one aged 81yrs. Don't speak how the media promotes Liverpool

[@patthompson2401]

I know lol!

[@topcatcoolio8807]

Giz a ciggy

[@terrysmith7441]

Having left as a child to Canada, I remember well playing in bombed out buildings. And people were still poor, the lions share went to the Alehouse.

[@stevendougherty8824]

Anybody got anything nice to say... faceless people hiding behind a keypad...🤣🤣

[@MrDaiseymay]

I like Apple pie and custard.

[@davidedwards7835]

Sir Thomas White Gardens was a great place to live.

[@redman9pablo]

My dads family moved from wolf street in toxteth to Warwick gardens in dingle

[@davefool6815]

Not really anything to boast about. They are both hell holes

[@barbaraannecortina7899]

the calm before the storm it would seem

[@MrDaiseymay]

Yes--how ironic it is, 1939 ! ''Demolition? ' just wait a month or two more.

[@martinlanigan9202]

there is still inner city slums specially Manchester

[@davidedwards7835]

so if this film is 1939...paddy s wigwam wasn t built then ,or am I wrong.

[@irenedavo3768]

Remember to Thumbs Up 👆

[@deeppurple883]

How near sighted young people are about living conditions for the elderly. Most elderly will end up in a nursing home, we know this for a fact. So it would be beneficial for future citizens to put more pressure on politicians now to make changes to the standard of living and care in nursing homes. Look after the workers in these home's, happy workers happy residence. We all get old and have a thke notice, it could be you 👇👵🏾👴🏽

[@groundhoglife]

Narrated by Harry Enfield as Mr Cholmondley Warner 😆

[@xxleannebabyxx]

wow fab fab fab fab faaaaab!

[@kevintravis5123]

coal only 3/10 per week.. thats about 17p in todays money... wow soooo cheapb!

[@TheHandsomeman]

Why do all the owl women, them days "Look like my nan"?

[@MrDaiseymay]

a life so tough, we wouldn't laST A WEEK.

[@pattifenwick4437]

ha ha, I could have sworn one woman could have been my nan. the coat, camel with a belt, the round specs, slim, and the shoes. it was a nice memory for me though,

[@ericwilliams2122]

Two cathedrals?????????eh?

[@user-bt8cz9nv4x]

They can’t even support one cathedral never mind two!

[@irenedavo3768]

Newly Married and Spinsters

[@topcatcoolio8807]

Go and have a look at yourself.

[@Chelsea-mf4rp]

Awful place...regardless of the year

[@jblogs1000]

all areas outside liverpool had to take liverpool people, i had to work with liverpool people who moved to my area, lazy is not the right word the best description would be die straights, song money for nothing the best thing about liverpool is the a580 road out