Day 87, Infirmary Road, tower view, not Eiffel

From a high vantage point in a tower.  No not that one.  There was a good view of the area known as Parkwood Springs.  At one time I used to ride a dirt bike over the hilly area of Parkwood, back then there were still a lot of signs of habitation still up there. There were roads and paths that were yet to be consumed by the landfill site.  One long stretch was known as the pig sties - surprisingly this was an area where there had been pig sties.  There was no pig remnant as far as I could determine, at least when I fell off around that area I didn't land up to my ears in slurry.


Here's Parkwood and the dry ski slope covered in real snow.

When I was very young I walked over Parkwood Springs with my Dad.  It was at the time that the houses on Parkwood were starting to be demolished.  It was like a small town up there.  There seemed to be a lot of people around for such a small area, I've often wondered why there were so many of them out in the streets.  I've heard that it was called the 'lost city' due to how isolated it was - the only road entrance was under the railway bridge at Neepsend, Parkwood Road.  When we got to the top of Parkwood we stood at the position where the anti-aircraft gun had been and looked back at Kelvin Flats.


This view slightly to the left is from the same vantage point as above a couple of years later.

The foreground shows the site of Kelvin Flats after demolition.  The layout of the new housing estate is starting to take shape.  In the upper right is the far left part of Parkwood Springs, the landfill site is mainly above that area.  At the middle right hand side, where the painted zig-zag line is, can be seen the Art Deco garage that was recently demolished to build student flats, shame.

Parkwood is a completely different shape after landfill, and is pretty much unrecognisable from the area at the bottom of the ski-slope going to the left up until the Herries Road side entrance.  In the 1980s it wasn't uncommon to see large numbers of people scavenging through the rubbish before it was covered over, looking for things of value.  Perhaps there are people doing that right now.  Those on benefit back then could queue for cheese and butter from the EU surplus too, rather like food banks now.