You will have to be a certain age to remember using a demolition site as a playground.
So, while I know there are lots of building projects going on right now across the twin cities of Manchester & Salford, they do not compare with the wholesale clearances which characterized the four decades from the 1940s into the 1980s.
Some were the product of “clearing up” after Blitz, but most were the result of the drive to replace tired and “unfit housing” with new properties, some of which became inadequate soon after they were built.
It is also true that in the early 20th century the City Council undertook “slum clearance” schemes, but I wasn’t born till 1949, and so my experiences of urban playgrounds are locked into the 1950s, when “bomb sites” were fascinating places, not least because of what you might find.
On one adventure we came across a gas mask in pristine condition, and in another case hundreds of tiny film clips, which I guess were the off edits from the local ABC.
I have no idea where these two lads were in 1962 when they were photographed, but for me and many of my generation they perfectly capture how we played.
Location; Manchester
Pictures, Urban playgrounds, 1962, Manchester, 1962 – 3686.5, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
We called them crofts and apart from our playgrounds, they became magical when the travelling fairgrounds came around; oh, the lights and the music. They were just wonderful!!
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