No Place Like Hulme - The Age

(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