The Wesley

[Inspector Knacker]

I recall the day after the blaze, some bulky Labour figure appearing the next day and telling us it would all be OK. Well...... I don't want a be a wet blanket, but why can I still see those charred rafters every time I pull out of Lauder Street ?

[mk1]

Building is a white elephant with no real purpose. It suffers from the usual Hartlepool disease where anything 'old' is deemed worthy of preservation as it is 'part of our 'eritage. Both it and the Grand Hotel are just not yet aware they actually  are dead and in the normal 'artlepool way will be allowed to slowly decay and  mysteriously burn-down because no one dare say out loud  that they should be levelled.
If you want to see it before the fire the Google street view has an option to go back as far as 2009



.

.

As for SAB  be careful what you wish for............


'

.https://vimeo.com/531112360

[Inspector Knacker]

Levelling buildings has been a Hartlepool trademark for years, surprised you're part of the philistine clique. We could always replace them with some concrete tribute to to poor architectural practice which seems to be the preferred option. Failing that there's the perennial option of a car park or some grassed area covered in the sort of shrubs irresistible to plastic bags. A bland windswept soulless concrete nowhere may delight you, but I prefer something with a bit of character.
That said you seem to prefer the 'let it all rot option' if my memory serves me well and have always been witheringly disparaging about the town.

[mk1]

The obsession with preserving' the past is difficult to understand but I believe its  mainly the old folk looking back to their glory days and wanting to keep the memories alive. Everyone drones on about the good old days when you could leave your front door open-despite the fact there never were such days and they forget the poverty, illness and early deaths that came with the damp pokey old houses they so fondly remember. Millions have been thrown away trying to 'renovate ' Church Street when clearly most of the old buildings are crumbling and falling to bits. Take a good look at the facade of the old bank on the corner of the Station entrance and tell me that can be saved without a complete removal of all the stonework. Thinking back to the 1970s Church Street was known as the rough end of town even then. Fights were common and I remember someone got beaten to death in the old Devon. It amazes me how nowdays people whimsically  rabbit on about the old 'hard men' who used to go around beating people to pulp and stealing their money. They wistfully harp back to them 'dealing with the druggies' etc when it is a fact they were the biggest dealers in the area. Sorry I have no fond memories of these brainless thugs no matter what fancy name they gave themselves.
So once a building is no longer fit for its original job then begone with it. If you look at the most famous piece of the UK (Piccadilly Circus)  and check photos from the 1950s with today then virtually every single building is new build. Regent Street was extensively remodelled in the late 1950s but because they kept to the same style hardly anyone notices.
Just as death is a part of life so demolition is a part of progress

[Inspector Knacker]

You do talk tosh.
We can turn Hartlepoolinto a sterile Milton Keynes if you like, but I just know you'd never be happy because all you have for this town is snarling contempt. I'm surprised you've hung about the place so long, unless of course you achieve some bizarre pleasure from it.  Why not try the brave new world of Peterlee, it's only up the road, a glorified big housing  estate with a few shops and not a nasty old building to offend your brave new world senses. You'd looooooove the blandness of it all and should fit in seamlessly.

[Inspector Knacker]

The obsession with preserving' the past is difficult to understand but I believe its  mainly the old folk looking back to their glory days and wanting to keep the memories alive. Everyone drones on about the good old days when you could leave your front door open-despite the fact there never were such days and they forget the poverty, illness and early deaths that came with the damp pokey old houses they so fondly remember.

What a strange world of self righteous sneering you must dwell in.

It amazes me how nowdays people whimsically  rabbit on about the old 'hard men' who used to go around beating people to pulp and stealing their money. They wistfully harp back to them 'dealing with the druggies' etc when it is a fact they were the biggest dealers in the area. Sorry I have no fond memories of these brainless thugs no matter what fancy name they gave themselves.

I suspect you watched  Mad Max movies a tad too many times

So once a poster is no longer fit for its original job then begone with it.

That's your time up then.

Just as death is a part of life so demolition is a part of progress

Well if that's progress,  fingers crossed you'll be getting your demolition order in the post shortly.

[mk1]

You do talk tosh.
We can turn Hartlepool into a sterile Milton Keynes if you like

I gave an example of rebuilding  to pre-empt any(completely predictable) carping about new buildings but as usual you have your views and nothing as trivial as facts are going to knock you off your hobby horse.

So once a building is no longer fit for its original job then begone with it. If you look at the most famous piece of the UK (Piccadilly Circus)  and check photos from the 1950s with today then virtually every single building is new build.

This is Piccadilly Circus in 1959 and a modern view.





To help you understand it more easily check the area in the red square in the two photos. Note I have used a different 1959 view here because it is clearer so try not to get too confused:



Everything in the red square is new-build. 

[akarjl2]

Pointless sh**e about old buildings

Just to save people from the latest post from our resident hypnotist

[Inspector Knacker]

You do talk tosh.
We can turn Hartlepool into a sterile Milton Keynes if you like

I gave an example of rebuilding  to pre-empt any(completely predictable) carping about new buildings but as usual you have your views and nothing as trivial as facts are going to knock you off your hobby horse.

So once a building is no longer fit for its original job then begone with it. If you look at the most famous piece of the UK (Piccadilly Circus)  and check photos from the 1950s with today then virtually every single building is new build.

This is Piccadilly Circus in 1959 and a modern view.





To help you understand it more easily check the area in the red square in the two photos. Note I have used a different 1959 view here because it is clearer so try not to get too confused:



Everything in the red square is new-build.

Patronising as ever. Pomposity and the urge to go completely over the top to prove absolutely nothing as per your trademark.

[Topcat]

Part of a statement from Mk1
Everyone drones on about the good old days when you could leave your front door open-despite the fact there never were such days and they forget the poverty, illness and early deaths that came with the damp pokey old houses they so fondly remember.

I lived in those days and in those "damp pokey old houses" and it was a fact that you could leave your door unlocked,in fact a lot of people had the door key hanging on a piece of string that could be reached through the letter box so anyone could get in. The difference was that everyone knew who lived there and were honest enough not to take advantage and to challenge anyone they saw trying to get in a house where they had no business being.

[The Great Dictator]

   The good old days when you're parents give you a clip round the ear for saying you had just been groped by the local Priest

[mk1]

I lived in those days and in those "damp pokey old houses" and it was a fact that you could leave your door unlocked,in fact a lot of people had the door key hanging on a piece of string that could be reached through the letter box so anyone could get in. The difference was that everyone knew who lived there and were honest enough not to take advantage and to challenge anyone they saw trying to get in a house where they had no business being.

The point I was making was that the March 24 1950 page from The Times (which is  in another thread and not clearly stated-my fault) showed that even in those 'good old days'  people were complaining about the current 'high' crime rate and how much better it was in their 'good old days'. There never were any such  'good old days'.

[mk1]

   The good old days when you're parents give you a clip round the ear for saying you had just been groped by the local Priest

In my day there was not the hysteria that now surrounds this issue. You knew who the weirdos were and you avoided them if you were on your own and tormented them if you were in a gang. Just like you could pop down the docks and jump in for a swim.  Not to say it was not a problem but that children were never made to live their lives in constant fear of such people.

[mk1]

To pre-empt another old chestnut. Crime increased by c. 56%  durung WW II

[Inspector Knacker]

To pre-empt another old chestnut. Crime increased by c. 56%  durung WW II

It did in every country actually, because the opportunities were there to facilitate the thieving and  black market activities. It's not news. Even the Russians were not exempt despite draconian measures.