frustration

[plasticpigeon]

Hello people

I'm just sharing my frustration.

I'm after some 9 x 9 quarries and the guy over the road just smashed 200 of them to make hardcore for his drive!!!! In fact he has smashed up loads of original stuff, I only managed to save some pavers and the front door complete with wind up bell before they got carted off. I hate to think what else cold have been salvaged.

This destruction is routine here in Birmingham. In fact I believe a house with UPVC windows and few original features is probably worth more here than a nicely restored one, especially at the cheaper end of the market. Is it the same across the country or is this place just backwards?? The majority of the council in Birmingham certainly care not a jot for history, culture or quality so it is unsurprising that most of the inhabitants don't either.

 

[Feltwell]

I don't think it's unique to the West Midlands Jerome, but it does seem that dare I say the cheaper the housing, the more abuse they get - often buy-to-let landlords who just want to turn them round as quickly and as cheaply as possible, to short term tenants who aren't going to care so long as the place is cheap and fulfills a basic function. The cheaper areas of Brum seem to suffer more from old house abuse than the more affluent areas.

Certainly in my student days in Brum, the houses we lived in received very little if any care from the landlords, who in many cases only lived in the UK intermittently.

All very depressing as Birmingham is much maligned but there are some great areas - and if, like me, you like Victorian architecture, especially industrial architecture, it has some of the best examples in the UK.

 

[CliffordPope]

Backward, I'd say.
When I lived in London in the seventies everyone was pulling out period features and dumping them in skips. When I left in 1985 they were throwing old upvc windows in the skips and architectural salvage was big business.
Wales in 2012 is half way in between. They are still pulling stuff out, but they have the nous to sell it to the English.