Friday 30 June 2017

Real Estate

On a gloomy morning the views below and further east are still clear enough to reveal differences in the way we live.


Blacka Moor Crescent and Blacka Moor Road have some of the most desirable properties in all Sheffield. Dore is known as being a place where wealthy people live, but it's more mixed than many think. There are many more modest dwellings including a council estate near to King Ecgbert's School; I don't know how many of these are now in private ownership but would guess quite a lot.


The electoral ward comprises Dore, Bradway and Totley all considered to be attractive residential neighbourhoods, though the other two lack Dore's advantage of village character away from through traffic routes. They do have plenty of typical semi-detached developments.


All is good news for estate agents who may find lucrative pickings in the whole area. Profits from such enterprises could even enable one to build one's own property, even going so far as to add a personal squash court or ballroom?


This is a long way from Graves Park, along with Blacka Moor and other open spaces gifted by the benevolent Alderman Graves to the people. That too can be seen in the centre of this view despite the gloom and damp today. Visible in the same picture are Gleadless tower blocks.*


These were built around 1960 and the cladding was added in the 1990s. I understand that sprinkler systems were 'retro-fitted' in 2011. Other Sheffield tower blocks, according to the council will now be fitted with sprinklers too.

How many people from tower blocks eventually find a retirement appartment in the Fairthorn block has to be a rhetorical question. Before this appalling eyesore was erected Fairthorn had been a quite different building, not at all conspicuous from Blacka. Ironically perhaps it had been used as a centre to bring children from poorer housing areas of Sheffield to give them a taste of something different.



* Another recent view of the towers from the north west.

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