As promised, Jez (after a myriad of phone calls) managed to attain, on my behalf, access to the disused car park that sits beneath Chervil Rise. The car park is closed apparently due to health and safety reasons but, anecdotally, the purported reason is that it was closed by the council as a security measure when it was believed to be a production site for petrol bombs during the riots of the 1980s. The sports centre which is situated next to the car park has also now been closed down following a violent incident that occurred there.
Being down in the car park was quite an experience - it has clearly been abandoned for a long time. The entrance has long been bricked up and closed, yet the open windows (which I assume served as ventilation for fumes) remain unclosed. This meant that the car park was surprisingly light and also that the sounds of children playing on the nearby football fields floated in and filled the space - both of these factors rendered the environment far less frightening and intimidating than it could have been otherwise. Despite this, I would still have struggled to call it pleasant - when trying hard to avoid brushing my head against one of the waxy stalactites of indefinable grime which hung from the low ceiling as I went about my business.
The car park covers a large area and I was amazed that, like many of the other facilities in the area, was denied to local residents. It seems to me that social disorder is treated like a virus - one which, in the belief that it will prevent its spreading, the course of action is to cut off - isolate - the areas in which these events occurred. These places become quarantined in order to prevent negative incidents happening again - not realising that the factors that cause these problems are not down to geography or architecture - they are social issues that are the result of other factors that cannot just be closed down and shut off.
I believe that it is this mentality that has accelerated the need to redevelop Heath Town. There is a belief that the area has been tainted by certain events (some of which happened as long as thirty years ago) and stigmas which are now too difficult to erase. I agree that a fresh start will be of benefit to residents, but wonder if the necessity to rebuild could have been avoided had different decisions been made in the past.
I’ve included the images that were taken in the car park below. Please feel free to leave comments - let me know what you think!
Thanks for sharing!...I haven't thought of these garages since my family left Heath Town in 1984. As a kid these were our playground. They were absolutely pitch black and more extensive than they are now.
ReplyDeleteI also remember way back when they were still spotlessly clean and well lit and used for their original purpose. Their decline can be blamed on lack of upkeep. From memory they weren't a hive of criminality....really the only people who went in there were us kids and some Rastafarians who used one of the garages as a reggae 'listening room' lol.