Nearly three decades after the Toxteth Riots and what has been done in Toxteth, the area that suffered so much at that time from the lack of investment?
Pic of another roofless property waiting to fall down.
I served an apprenticeship as a carpenter and was working on a house in Ritson Street off Lodge Lane the days in and around the Toxteth Riots. Bloody ‘ell it was scary.
I went home one day and when I come back the next day it was like Beirut…well before Beirut actually…I heard Kosovo likened to Lodge Lane once.
The barricades were up Police everywhere and we had to prove we were working there to get in to the war torn disaster area.
I served an apprenticeship as a carpenter and was working on a house in Ritson Street off Lodge Lane the days in and around the Toxteth Riots. Bloody ‘ell it was scary.
I went home one day and when I come back the next day it was like Beirut…well before Beirut actually…I heard Kosovo likened to Lodge Lane once.
The barricades were up Police everywhere and we had to prove we were working there to get in to the war torn disaster area.
It was bad I had watched the flames on the TV the night before and seen those images of pitched battles anger and sadness.
There was a saying in those days “Help the Police, beat yourself up”.
We got to work and the Hod Carrier tucked his shovel in to the mound of sand to throw a mix together for the Bricklayer and clunk. He moved the sand away. It was two crates of Guinness that had been buried the night before. Jimbo said "Shall we hand it in", and someone said, “No we’d best destroy the evidence”.
There was a saying in those days “Help the Police, beat yourself up”.
We got to work and the Hod Carrier tucked his shovel in to the mound of sand to throw a mix together for the Bricklayer and clunk. He moved the sand away. It was two crates of Guinness that had been buried the night before. Jimbo said "Shall we hand it in", and someone said, “No we’d best destroy the evidence”.
The backyard wall was like a snake by the end of the day I have never seen a crew of bricklayers happy at their work, as with a bottle of Guinness in the opposite hand to a trowel. So I was there, I saw it, and being from a working class background knew and understood the "Suss" laws and the disgusting racial prejudice that had helped to fuel those long dark nights lit by the hell of fire.
You can never condone what happened, but it was a fact that the rioters did not deliberately set fire to the properties that were part of the community, like the Doctors on Parliament Street where it all started. I believe that area was a community albeit slightly off the norm and the Police pressure lit the torch.
I drove down Lodge Lane the other day and it looked exactly the same to me.
What have they done with this area or what haven’t they done, it is a disgrace.
Good buildings still without rooves, decaying, waiting for some shifty property developer to let it fall down and build a block of flats. The Council have given up, or did they ever start.
Who Votes for Louise Ellman the local MP? "The Dame of Dereliction".
You can never condone what happened, but it was a fact that the rioters did not deliberately set fire to the properties that were part of the community, like the Doctors on Parliament Street where it all started. I believe that area was a community albeit slightly off the norm and the Police pressure lit the torch.
I drove down Lodge Lane the other day and it looked exactly the same to me.
What have they done with this area or what haven’t they done, it is a disgrace.
Good buildings still without rooves, decaying, waiting for some shifty property developer to let it fall down and build a block of flats. The Council have given up, or did they ever start.
Who Votes for Louise Ellman the local MP? "The Dame of Dereliction".
She has been Toxteths MP for ever. Has nobody scrutinized her lack of effort?
Her premises for her surgery is on Lodge Lane. see below,
ELLMAN, Louise (Liverpool Riverside)
4.
Sponsorship or financial or material support
Provision of premises for surgery for constituents free of charge by the Lodge Lane Credit Union, the Eldonian Trust, St. Michael's and Lark Lane Community Association and the Southern Neighbourhood Council.
10.
Miscellaneous and unremunerated interests
Vice-President of ICOM (Industrial Common Ownership Movement).
Vice-President of Local Government Association.
Vice-Chair of Poale Zion.
Who gets these local councillors into power, who walk around with blindfolds on in life? It is a disgrace the lack of investment and the decay still left over from the Riots while thousands of empty flats have been built in the town centre. And of course they are now knocking down the Welsh Streets as part of the New Heartlands………yes rip the heart out of an area and then build shoe boxes…. it all happened before in the 60s.
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This is bad. The recent furore over MP's expenses, and their defensive attitude, shows how out of touch they are. Ms Ellman apparently refuses to be transparent about her own expenses, which does her no credit. In the meantime her constituency is crumbling. If Westminster and the local council cannot (or will not) do something what hope is there ?
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