Description:‘When I moved in here I had nine months to get everything I needed for a flat and a baby. It was an emergency move so I just took what I could. But I can’t plan anything at the moment because we don’t know what’s happening. I can’t get things for my new place because I don’t know how it’s going to be. I’d be wasting my money buying curtains for this flat because they might not fit where I’m going to move to. So I’m in limbo. Knowing my luck I’d buy curtains for here, and when I move I’m not going to have windows like these. I’d like a maisonette. If I had a maisonette I’d make it look really nice.
Nobody knows what’s going to I happen. I suppose they might just knock the block down because of all the trouble that goes on around here. I don’t feel safe going out there on my own so I get what I need when it’s light.
I hate living here. I’ve started realising what goes on around this block and I just don’t like it. I don’t want him to be a druggie. It’s not the right environment to bring him up in. You get bored – there’s nothing to do, there is for old people but not for the younger people. I want to go to places you can go with the kids, to meet other mothers. I want him to have a good education.
You don’t go into people’s houses, you just chat to them in the lift. It’s a different kind of socialising. But you do need cameras in them. That’s where all the trouble gets dealt with, in the lifts, you can tell by what’s left in them. I just want a block where there’s security, a fob to get in and people can’t get in unless you press that buzzer.
It makes you feel down, living around here. I don’t want to be down, I want to be happy again. I don’t like being a miserable person. I feel restricted living here because of the times you can come in and out.
Town life is just round the corner, though. I’ll meet my brother and his mates up Broad Street, listen to some music. My favourite is Gregory Issacs. I would stay in the city centre, I really would.’
In contrast some residents have had long, happy lives living in the blocks, they’ve adjusted to and embraced the transient elements around them and can remember when the flats were first built, when they were a welcome alternative to overcrowding, outside toilets, damp and infestation.
(Interview and text by Jackie Gay, Photograph by Vanley Burke)