Nobody who ever ventured into the notorious Boot estate in Norris Green – never mind lived there – is likely to forget it.
A wasteland of rundown and semi-derelict housing – much of it boarded-up – it could have been mistaken for Belfast or Derry at the height of the Northern Ireland “Troubles.”
Flytipping was commonplace and the hundreds of empty houses were stripped by looters pillaging for whatever scrap they could find.
Read more: Infamous Norris Green ‘Boot Estate’ nominated for prestigious Property Oscar
The residents of one of Britain’s poorest council estates had been campaigning for decent housing for years.
The 2,000 properties on the estate were originally built in the 1920s, and up until the 80s the Boot was a thriving and much sought-after place to live. But then structural faults became apparent and in the late 1990s the homes were declared “beyond restoration.”
During the first decade of the new millennium, residents were “decanted” from their homes and much of the estate was demolished, but hundreds of families still lived there in increasingly grim conditions.
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what’s on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
As is so often the case, the Boot was the victim of failed re-development schemes.
While the blame game over this continued, the remaining properties were left to rot, with residents growing increasingly desperate.
The words of one tenant in 2005 summed up the experience of many: “The conditions we are living in are terrible. Night after night, empty houses near us are set on fire. The estate is full of rats.”
It’s only comparatively recently that the remainder of the old Boot estate was demolished to make way for new-build family homes.
It has now been re-named Norris Green Village after a £4m makeover, with a mixture of rental and private housing.
But the old Boot estate still lives on in the memories of many. Here we revisit the place once branded “the worst estate in Europe.”
Explore the past: Get free access to our archive of thousands of photos taken as far back as 1878 with Memory Lane
The ECHO has launched a new 8-page nostalgia section in print every Wednesday. You can order a copy here.
Dad in disbelief after going to stranger’s house to pick up £300 his daughter lostMerseyside’s lockdown rule breakers who were taken to court
Credit: Source link
