Kennett House photos

[bazzor]

I’ve been looking for photographs of Kennet House, Maybank and Daneliegh Avenue, these were 4 blocks of Flats from Cheetham, Crumpsall off Hazlebottom Road & Woodlands Road that had a fantastic community spirit unlike anywhere I have lived since.

These flats were knocked down around 1978, I use to live in Daneliegh Avenue, and from what I remember Kennet House was shaped like a enormous ship. I have been looking for any images of these flats for over 20 years, I have been checked local library’s, search the web and asked thousands of people, but nobody seems to have any,

I asked this question before and Aidan directed me to Manchester City Council

These are in fact the flats I was looking for but there only seems to be 3 images on this site, I would love to hear any info or stories or possibly see some photographs of those flats, it would bring back some fantastic memories.

[The Longford]

Here you go my friend.
Sorry about the quality but they were photocopied from a 1930's architectural journal. Kennet House were big news at the time and very pioneering.
They didnt quite live up to their promise though did they?

[aidanorourke]

Those pictures are remarkable, thanks for letting us see them. The building looks remarkably like the Hulme Crescents, though smaller, and there is only one.

The problems with the Hulme Crescents are well documented, but why did Kennett House have to be demolished?

[The Longford]

The usual reasons - bad maintenance, social problems etc.

The flat roofs leaked, the windows rotted, the courtyard became a dumping ground, the render was falling off.

They are generally cited as the first large public housing scheme of its type in the country and Quarry Hill in Leeds took inspiration from them.
They were pretty posh when they were built and up until the 60's seen as quite desirable but then the council just gave up on them.
If they had survived another 15 years i'm sure Urban Splash would have snapped them up and done something good with them.

[bazzor]

Thanks for those pictures they are superb, there was 4 blocks of flats the most spectacular was Kennet House, the top picture looks like Kennet House flats had just been built, I say this because in the same picture and looking at the bottom left where the grass is, this is where you would just start to see Maybank flats which looks like they haven’t even started any work, you would defiantly have seen some part of Maybank if those flats was built, and of course the shops which are not built on that picture looking at the bottom right, during the 70s I remember some of them as (Jewish) Sam’s the barbers, (Italian) Marie’s confectionary and Hodgsons was like the grocers (8p for a ¼ of sweets).

I remember we use to play on the roof, running wild without out a care in the world, I remember in the summer the whole flats seemed to come out and play rounder’s, with a small shovel, and 20-30 people all jumping together over a large skipping rope, I remember we use to use the grids as goal posts, arguments over marbles, who decided that 1 persons marble was worth another persons 40 marbles? 60+ people playing rallyvo, this game kept you fit and very tough and agile. We use to have catapult fights, really dumb idea now, but great fun then. All things that would get you an ASBO in today’s society.

There was nothing to keep you in the house in them days, a black and white TV with poor wall arial and only 2 channels was never going to keep anyone indoors, unlike today, which is the opposite, and you don’t even need to go out to see your friends today. No wonder obesity is a major problem in today’s world.

Inside the flats there was no central heating, cubby hole where we kept the coal for coal fire and some broken electric fires in the bedrooms, we has ‘steel’ maybe iron frame windows, we had a sink fitted over the bath and we had to direct the sink taps through a hole in the sink in order to fill up the bath. The hovels where the stairs was to all front doors had a strange smell and was spooky at times, no lights only translucent thick glass squares to allow light. We lived on the bottom so we never ever used our front door we used our kitchen door which come out direct on to the street, the same doors in the flats above us had a balcony wall, so they had to use their front doors.

The old lady next door to us Mrs Parker (who had a crazy dog called prince) told us she had lived in the flats during World War II and during the air raid there was an obvious black out and the amazing thing was, on the grass right outside the flats where we played rallyvo, she said there was an air raid shelter, well as kids we was amazed by this and wanted to find the air raid shelter, one summer we decided to dig as far as we could to try and find this air raid shelter, but as kids we only dug about 1 foot deep maybe 15 foot wide before we got distracted, maybe even told off can’t remember now.

Maybank flats had some scaffold all the way up to the roof whilst work was being carried out, but to us, that was a giant climbing frame, and with our brand new monkey boots or baseball pumps we played on it all day, that was until one day I was stood at the bottom and witnessed a kid fall from the top, he banged each scaffold bar on his way down and with a thump he hit the ground, about 10 meters away from me, we stood there in astonishment as he got up and tried to walk, he managed about 5 meters before he collapsed, this lad lived and I see him around from time to time, he works for the post office delivering mail, he doesn’t remember me nor have we ever discussed it together, but every time I see him, I always think of that accident with him.

Thank you The Longford for those images and bringing back some wild but great times from my past, if anyone has some more images of Daneleigh Avenue or Maybank or even more Kennet House I would love to see them…

Thanks in advance!

[aidanorourke]

Some fantastic memories of childhood there from Bazzor, the description was vivid. I felt like I was right there. I intend to find the site of Kennett House and see what's there now.

Oh, and thanks very much to Bazzor for suggesting I set up this forum!

[bazzor]

Originally Posted by aidanorourke

Some fantastic memories of childhood there from Bazzor, the description was vivid. I felt like I was right there. I intend to find the site of Kennett House and see what's there now.

Oh, and thanks very much to Bazzor for suggesting I set up this forum!

That would be a nice idea, I know what is there now but rather than explain and ruin it here, I will wait to see what you find and come back with!

Oh yes and check your PMs, I sent you a message the other day but got no reply, as the forum grows you might want to make it a habit of checking your PMs...my message was only a test of course!

[maggi miller]

Originally Posted by aidanorourke

Some fantastic memories of childhood there from Bazzor, the description was vivid. I felt like I was right there. I intend to find the site of Kennett House and see what's there now.

Oh, and thanks very much to Bazzor for suggesting I set up this forum!

searched on here for ages for pics of kennet house..............thanks bazzor and aidan for drawing the attenton to it and bazzor especially for the wonderful memories.

i lived here for 8 of the happiest years of my life, thanks so much for sharing.

maggi.

[billy]

hey i use 2 live on the bottom floor my best friend was the 1 who fell from the scaffold do u remember me billy

Originally Posted by bazzor

Thanks for those pictures they are superb, there was 4 blocks of flats the most spectacular was Kennet House, the top picture looks like Kennet House flats had just been built, I say this because in the same picture and looking at the bottom left where the grass is, this is where you would just start to see Maybank flats which looks like they haven’t even started any work, you would defiantly have seen some part of Maybank if those flats was built, and of course the shops which are not built on that picture looking at the bottom right, during the 70s I remember some of them as (Jewish) Sam’s the barbers, (Italian) Marie’s confectionary and Hodgsons was like the grocers (8p for a ¼ of sweets).

I remember we use to play on the roof, running wild without out a care in the world, I remember in the summer the whole flats seemed to come out and play rounder’s, with a small shovel, and 20-30 people all jumping together over a large skipping rope, I remember we use to use the grids as goal posts, arguments over marbles, who decided that 1 persons marble was worth another persons 40 marbles? 60+ people playing rallyvo, this game kept you fit and very tough and agile. We use to have catapult fights, really dumb idea now, but great fun then. All things that would get you an ASBO in today’s society.

There was nothing to keep you in the house in them days, a black and white TV with poor wall arial and only 2 channels was never going to keep anyone indoors, unlike today, which is the opposite, and you don’t even need to go out to see your friends today. No wonder obesity is a major problem in today’s world.

Inside the flats there was no central heating, cubby hole where we kept the coal for coal fire and some broken electric fires in the bedrooms, we has ‘steel’ maybe iron frame windows, we had a sink fitted over the bath and we had to direct the sink taps through a hole in the sink in order to fill up the bath. The hovels where the stairs was to all front doors had a strange smell and was spooky at times, no lights only translucent thick glass squares to allow light. We lived on the bottom so we never ever used our front door we used our kitchen door which come out direct on to the street, the same doors in the flats above us had a balcony wall, so they had to use their front doors.

The old lady next door to us Mrs Parker (who had a crazy dog called prince) told us she had lived in the flats during World War II and during the air raid there was an obvious black out and the amazing thing was, on the grass right outside the flats where we played rallyvo, she said there was an air raid shelter, well as kids we was amazed by this and wanted to find the air raid shelter, one summer we decided to dig as far as we could to try and find this air raid shelter, but as kids we only dug about 1 foot deep maybe 15 foot wide before we got distracted, maybe even told off can’t remember now.

Maybank flats had some scaffold all the way up to the roof whilst work was being carried out, but to us, that was a giant climbing frame, and with our brand new monkey boots or baseball pumps we played on it all day, that was until one day I was stood at the bottom and witnessed a kid fall from the top, he banged each scaffold bar on his way down and with a thump he hit the ground, about 10 meters away from me, we stood there in astonishment as he got up and tried to walk, he managed about 5 meters before he collapsed, this lad lived and I see him around from time to time, he works for the post office delivering mail, he doesn’t remember me nor have we ever discussed it together, but every time I see him, I always think of that accident with him.

Thank you The Longford for those images and bringing back some wild but great times from my past, if anyone has some more images of Daneleigh Avenue or Maybank or even more Kennet House I would love to see them…

Thanks in advance!

[billy]

hi i use to live on the bottom floor aswell my best friend was the 1 who fell from the scaffold do u remember me billy gaffney