It hit , even the keanest of boxset collectors and illegal downloaders five years after it began. British TV throws up the odd gem. The Red Riding trilogy made from four books David Peace wrote about west yorkshire set from 1974 to 1984. I found myself questioning detail. How come there was no Quarry Hill Flats opposite bMillgarth police station? Quarry Hill Flats was demolished over the year 1978. This adventurous housing project was built between 1938-1939 . The year my motherwas born. She died in 1978. The building was a great hope for the people of Leeds. A slum clearance project. An adventurous Labour council travelled to europe. They saw what Le Corbussier et al were doing with architecture in France and Germany. They came to Leeds and somehow, the immense project of quarry hill flats began. The Morpin system, where concrete slabs were made on site, a salab factory. My grear grandfather was night watchman as the incredible structure grew. Built to house between 3 and 4 thousand people. It had a communal washroom. Its own pub. Swimming baths. Unfortunately thjey skimped on the whole thing, the waste disposal system blocked up, the Morpin system failed, water leaked in to the steel frames and they rusted. By the late 60's it was going to be more expensive to repair than to knock down and rebuild. It had been done on the cheap, it wasnt a bad idea. It is horribly depressing seeing the reinvention of Sheffields Park Hill estate being sold as so innovative. It took them 20 years to pick up on what Leeds had done. By the 50s when Park Hill was built, technologies had evolved and thiers still stands. The odd step and hand rail still exist around the ground where Quarry Hill Flats stood. I met an architecture student who spent an hour telling me how marvellous Park Hills is. He had never even heard of Quarry Hill Flats. They were to be Hitlers Headquaters had he managed his invasion of Britain. Hey imagine that? Leeds, capitol of England.
It upset me. I read David Peaces Red Riding books. It hurt.I remember the girls faces from the Evening Post. The Yorkshire Rippoer. There was a curfew on women during hi reign of terror. I hate to use the word reign but what else could you call it. It all happened in my areas of Leeds , Chapeltown, Roundhay Soldiers field, The Arndale Centre Headingley. I question wgethetr he should have written those books.. One of the girls went to myn school. She had left two years before I did but I remember her. She was a real person. David Peace comes from Ossett. He's not from Leeds. He may have remembered allk the Jack the Kiupper tapes from that fucking shithead geordie. He may nhave been aware of the goings on. But he didnt walk those streets when it was happening. My mother was going through a 4 year battle with cancer in st james's. cookridge, and finally she was thge first patient of st Gemmas hgospice. I was on Nationwide with my sibblings visitting her. I didnt even realise she was dieing, just that she was ill. Then one day, I came home, my dad waited till we were allk there, then told us she was dead. There were no hu8gs, no tears, we all walked off in different directions and never walked back.
So fuck the ripper. We'd get the bus in to town each night and waolk past the gradual demolition of Quarry Hill Flats as my mothers fdemolition ran parallel.. As my mother died in St Gemmnas, Moortown corner, Damien Hirst was at school, same age as me, a few hundred yards away, Marco White would call round for my brother at 5am. They'd go collecting buirds eggs. I went with them one time. When I hear Marecos voice on the telly now, all trace of Leeds accent eradicated from his accent I feel sorry for him. I dont begrudge his success but come on, you are what you are.. And where did the 'Pierre' come from? He's Marco White, no fucking Pierre. Maybe I should cange my name to bolster my career.
Mind you, it's all fucked up these days. DJ's are good at playing records, celebrity chefs, good at cooking, it's like being good at drinking beer, Pete Doherty, good at smoking crack. Our life expectancy may rise but still Leeds men live ten years less than Somerset men, travellers get ten years less than that. I cant even bring myself to mention her name. Two years above me at school, probably Masrco's year. She's renamed and nothing but a piece of titillation in David Peaces book. I had to escape Leeds. The first chance I got and I was off, the extra ten years swung it. So Quarry Hill Flats is gone. The Yorkshire Ripper is a fat fuck in Broadmoor. Leeds United are in league 1 still except its now third. Soft eyes see more, Bunk tells Keema in The Wire series 4 episode 4
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