Fun in Hulme (was Vicki)(nostalgia alert!)

[Guest guest]

>So were you a contemporary of Isaac? I know it's a big course, but

>I'm sure you'd remember her if you were

Hmm, I think she might well have been in the year below me - and

decided I made an inadequate Nursing VP on the Medical Students

Representative Council and I was more than pleased to bow to her

superior knowledge :-))))))

>

>And did you live in the Crescents, or in the pink flats in Hulme?? I was in

>the pink flats from 1987-88. Both sets have gone, now.

I was there when the flats were painted pink in the first place

(purple at the bottom, getting lighter towards the top floor, and

curry yellow for the stairwells) (for those not in the know these

were the infamous 'walkways in the sky' low rise flats (maisonettes

really) system built in the sixties when there was lots of corruption

and incompetence about. There was a programme on TV about how they

were crumbling away as the metal in the reinforced concrete corroded

and that because the manufacture of the panels had been inaccurate

they hadn't been able to put in the pegs that held it all together so

basically they were only staying up by their own weight - our pegs

had been put in *that* afternoon!

Whilst I was there they had to put flues into the central heating so

we wouldn't be gassed and then there was the asbestos scare (don't

drill the walls - by then we already had). We used to have the bug

man round regularly to deal with the cockroaches - he was great,

apparently our flat used to be used as a brothel and he would never

do any work till he'd had a cup of coffee. The old ladies on the

ground floor used to sit outside on summer evenings playing dominoes

and then big PA systems would be wheeled out so we could all enjoy

the reggae :-) On Sundays they'd put on their flame orange polyester

and their hats and go and have a jolly good sing in 'the cowshed'

I loved it with a passion - from the moment I set eyes on the place

in the distance when I visited the university (but spent a horrible

year in a single sex hall - much more scared in leafy

Park!). When I got a flat everyone was out hanging over the

balconies watching my possessions move in, I had no electricity and

the first night people were banging on the door trying to get in. I

was so tired I put my nursing scissors under my pillow, chair against

the door and went to sleep with them still banging - they'd broken

the door frame but one tiny bolt was still holding. Then an

interesting young chap tried to get into a phone box with me and

followed me home. A few nights later I was successfully burgled

whilst out - some very exciting cop show stuff whilst the police went

in to check they weren't still there. The detectives who came later

said " Ee dear love, they have made a mess " and I had to confess that

it was as I'd left it! (Well, I was still unpacking - but why they

had to steal my district nursing hat I do not know!)

I ended up sharing my single bed with my boyfriend - it was a mistake

to have painted the room with textured paint - I grazed knees and

elbows! The chap in the tower block opposite took his telescope down

after I waved back one day.

Then there was the time they were replacing the windows - which meant

taking the whole wall out four floors up. Unfortunately, it being

Friday afternoon when they discovered the new wall didn't fit, they

left it for the weekend suggesting we stuff newspaper in the 6 " gaps.

There was a horrible mess over the leaving - one of my friends was

still living there some years later but for emotional reasons he

needed to get out in a hurry and so arranged to sublet to a total

prat (that's the charitable view of him which I can afford since it

wasn't my credit card that was stolen) who ultimately abandoned the

place and so my remaining stuff will have been chucked out :-(

The address was 18 Amberidge Walk (a phrase which may still be giving

people who answered the phone at the repair department nightmares),

it formed one side of Duxbury Square. And it did make a very

comfortable home - 3 bedrooms, a box room, kitchen, dining room,

sitting room, downstairs toilet, room for storage/bikes/wine making

under the stairs and it was warm. Any time I am feeling unhappy I

start having dreams about being back there. But I do think it gave me

enough excitement to last me the rest of my life (obviously I've not

used up my entire stock of fascinating Hulme anecdotes here :-) -

though I apologise if it feels like it!)

Vicky what was your address? We were lucky weren't we, Hulme III was

considered very desirable cf the Crescents.

--

jennifer@...

Vaudin

[Guest guest]

HA! I don't believe it )) 11 Duxbury Square....

What a hoot! By the time I lived there, the asbestos was well established,

we knew exactly which wall was which colour - but as the place was falling

down and riddled with holes anyway, precautions seemed largely superfluous!

The roach man had stopped coming by then, as he said there was no point

attending to anything other than all the flats, and some of the groundfloor

occupants were reluctant to have any kind of officialdom in the same four

walls as their plant life... It's a fine art, but when you sleep on a

mattress on the floor in a roach infested flat you *can* eventually ignore

the tickly feeling as they crawl over you in the night. Actually, it stood

me in very good stead in India and SE Asia!! We used to enjoy devising

grisly ends for the roaches - a favourite was to soak dried yeast in honey

and leave it on the kitchen floor. The first roach to eat it would explode,

and then be devoured by his friends, who would set off a chain reaction as

the yeast continued to swell... made for messy clearing up in the morning

but at least we knew it was effective!!

Do you remember the taxi firm-cum-fried chicken emporium over the road?

Sam's? I could probably summon the phone no. from the depths of my memory

without too much effort.

I shared a flat with Pagel and Harry Hobson - bastions of the loony

left. had some kind of degenerative bone disease which required

various of his joints to be fused together with enormous plates of metal.

He was very large, very bearded, very hobbly and very scarey. As a result

of which, I don't think we were ever burgled Then there were the other

bastions of the looney left over the square: Dave Brennan and Slinky - who

later got done for defrauding the area NUS of a largish sum of money

(Slinky, not Dave).

My Dad was horrified by the area - he moved me in and then didn't come to

Manchester again for nearly 5 years )

We had some brilliant parties in that flat - used to get very drunk and play

bridge very, very non-seriously until 3 in the morning on a regular basis.

Oh, happy times. Then, of course, I did a 2 year stint in the heart of Moss

Side, which wasn't funny at all..

Where did you live, Emma?

Vicki Portman

http://www.plushpants.co.uk

> The address was 18 Amberidge Walk (a phrase which may still be giving

> people who answered the phone at the repair department nightmares),

> it formed one side of Duxbury Square.