Peckham leaseholders face a difficult choice
May 1st, 2017
Southwark News reports that leaseholders in Peckham are facing a large bill for major works. This has always been one of the downsides of being either a first (got the discount) or second generation (didn’t get the discount) right to buy leaseholder. I made a comment below the article in the hope of starting a discussion but this hasn’t happened and so I’m going to repeat the comment here:-
“Refund those leaseholders who so choose the money they paid for the flats in the first place and change their terms back to those of a council tenant. Both parties gain. The leaseholder gets a lump sum, keeps their home and the council gets a property back on their books.”
That’s what I think. This is a very clear cut and specific case. This is not like regeneration where a leaseholder tackles a loss of home and the estate, this is a case where there ought to be (in my opinion) a straight foward buy back option by the council so that a leaseholder not able to afford the major works bill can return to being a council tenant by a refund of the money they paid for the flat.
The alternative is worse in that they would probably be repossessed and made homeless and I fear an application to the council for emergency housing under those circumstances might go badly.
The whole thing is a mess created by right to buy but we are where we are.
https://www.southwarknews.co.uk/news/peckham-estate-leaseholders-hit-115000-major-works-bills-council/#.WQWtAT3Jewc.twitter
“I like rooms” says Christine in their £100k house
April 14th, 2017
Christine stands her ground
“Despite retiring, Derek and Christine have no intention of slowing down. They want to move from Huddersfield to the south east of England but simply can’t afford the house prices. Their radical solution? At 71-years-old, Derek is attempting to build his first house from scratch.” from the BBC page.
“It’s actually a kitchen by itself” – revisited
February 23rd, 2017
Our Friends in the North – random thoughts
January 31st, 2017
Jules and Geordie on a bench in Regents Park in London
The character who seems to me the least successful and yet most likeable is Geordie played by Daniel Craig, who by accident or design is a drifter. Of the four of them his life appears to be the least planned out, and the least fortunate, especially given that his earlier success in Soho was based on criminal activity, which was never likely to end well.
Our Friends in the North [1995] – a personal view
January 30th, 2017
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Four friends in Newcastle have the strands of their lives interwoven with the political and economic events over three decades. Superficially it’s a nine hour film about housing, but it’s much more than that.
The Labour Party, corruption in public life and housing, the rise and fall of T. Dan Smith (Mr Newcastle), John Poulson and Reginald Maudling, sleaze in Soho, corruption in the Met, the Tories rise to power, the violence and politics of the Miners’ strike in 1984 to name but a few of the political events covered.
Our Friends in the North [1987] – a personal view
January 29th, 2017

Felix has dementia
Four friends in Newcastle have the strands of their lives interwoven with the political and economic events over three decades. Superficially it’s a nine hour film about housing, but it’s much more than that.
The Labour Party, corruption in public life and housing, the rise and fall of T. Dan Smith (Mr Newcastle), John Poulson and Reginald Maudling, sleaze in Soho, corruption in the Met, the Tories rise to power, the violence and politics of the Miners’ strike in 1984 to name but a few of the political events covered.
Our Friends in the North [1984] – a personal view
January 28th, 2017

Scabs
Four friends in Newcastle have the strands of their lives interwoven with the political and economic events over three decades. Superficially it’s a nine hour film about housing, but it’s much more than that.
The Labour Party, corruption in public life and housing, the rise and fall of T. Dan Smith (Mr Newcastle), John Poulson and Reginald Maudling, sleaze in Soho, corruption in the Met, the Tories rise to power, the violence and politics of the Miners’ strike in 1984 to name but a few of the political events covered.
Our Friends in the North [1979] – a personal view
January 27th, 2017

Four friends in Newcastle have the strands of their lives interwoven with the political and economic events over three decades. Superficially it’s a nine hour film about housing, but it’s much more than that.
The Labour Party, corruption in public life and housing, the rise and fall of T. Dan Smith (Mr Newcastle), John Poulson and Reginald Maudling, sleaze in Soho, corruption in the Met, the Tories rise to power, the violence and politics of the Miners’ strike in 1984 to name but a few of the political events covered.
Our Friends in the North 1964 pub location?
January 26th, 2017
Please identify this pub in Newcastle
UPDATE: The pub’s been found. “Found the pub! It’s the Crown hotel in Cricklewood North London. Prompted by this discussion to buy the DVD and it says the Crown hotel on the window. It’s quite a building.” from https://twitter.com/notware/status/1233906238326484993
Can you identify this pub in the Newcastle area, used in the 1964 episode of Our Friends in the North? It’s a lovely building. Google says the Wolsington at Smiths Docks in North Shields but it isn’t that one.
https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/showthread.php?t=83994
I wrote to the author of Newcastle’s Old Pubs and he said that he couldn’t place it in Newcastle or even in the North East.
See also this thread.
https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/archive/index.php/t-83994.html
Our Friends in the North [1974] – a personal view
January 26th, 2017

Claud Seabrook – Arthur Fieldson – Ron Conrad
Four friends in Newcastle have the strands of their lives interwoven with the political and economic events over three decades. Superficially it’s a nine hour film about housing, but it’s much more than that.
The Labour Party, corruption in public life and housing, the rise and fall of T. Dan Smith (Mr Newcastle), John Poulson and Reginald Maudling, sleaze in Soho, corruption in the Met, the Tories rise to power, the violence and politics of the Miners’ strike in 1984 to name but a few of the political events covered.







