Poole Dorset 1963 - The Old Town Reborn!
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- Опубликовано: 17 окт 2024
- This is an animation of a unique photograph of the Dorset town of Poole taken in 1963. It was shot from the top of a harbourside grain silo (where the Asda tower now stands) just prior to much of the old town's destruction to make way for new development. The scene today is almost completely unrecognisable, now being replaced by the usual suspects. The loss of the old town also meant the loss of its ancient soul, and the fragmentation of the Poole families who had lived and worked there for centuries. Poole was sadly one of the many victim townships to fall foul of the post war mania to quickly usher in the new. Today, such an important architectural heritage would be saved and restored for the nation and the benefit of future generations. Fortunately, much of the area around the main quay survived the wrecking crew, and serves as a fine example of the architectural beauty that Poole once enjoyed on a much larger scale.
Nice to meet you and your wife today at Sculpture by the Lakes today. Great pictures.
I remember it like that. I was a taxi driver at the end of the 1960's and early 1970 when I married and moved to London. I was proud I knew every road, alleyway, pub etc. but when I made a fleeting visit a few years back, I was totally lost!
Thanks so much for posting this. My Mother grew up in the 2nd from right semi-detached council house in the foreground (Nile Row). The houses were demolished in the late sixties to make way for the new Towngate Flyover, and I haven't seen a photo of them since. I am delighted to find this!
Very skilfully done...thanks!
I'm so glad I happened upon this video. I spent my honeymoon in Poole in Sept 1959 and the creative way in which you have used this photograph brought a lump to my throat...it is a social document the way you have high lighted the little details that the casual observer would overlook. Excellent.
Good to meet you and yours, this morning, and - yes - it IS a remarkable piece of social history homing in on lots of fascinating points! I very much regret what Poole did after the war. So much history survived the German bombing only to fall foul of the town planners. What they did to Poole was like what Dr Beeching did to the railways.
Thanks. In '62 & '63 I worked away (I was 16/17) and when I returned to work nearer my Oakdale home, I got off the train...I wandered into the Old Town...and got lost, so much was flattened. In response to those who say the old features were "wasted", I say "read the history", all will be explained - not enough room here, save to say that we forget that Poole, like the rest of the country was BROKE after two devastating Word Wars. Just a footnote: When we repaid our debt to the U.S.A. for Lend-lease, etc., many years later, somebody asked the Yanks "Why did you not let them off their debt?", to which it is alleged the reply was "They never asked". My Dad said "No way would we have asked. Pride.".
I know modern Poole very well. I never knew this old Poole. I didn't recognise anything for ages looking at this, then i spotted the railway crossing bridge and got my bearings. This is very interesting. Thanks for showing it.
That brought back memories of growing up in Poole back in the 1950s and in thiose days I used to live in Pound Lane, Oakdale.
I have a photo of my Dad and me at Bertam Mills circus on Ladies walking field and me as a Boy Scout at 5th Poole down in the Skinner Street Congregationalist church,
Brian Leverett the Poole councillor who died a couple of years ago use to live opposite our bungalow in Pound Lane. He was a bit older than me and was a Poole Grammar "grub" and I used to go to Henry Harbin.
So interesting to see how Poole was. I was born in Poole in the late eighties so well after all the development, but fascinating to see how it once was. Thanks for posting!
My mate Roy Wether used to live further up Pound Lane just past Kingsbere Road and went to 3rd Poole Sea Scouts opposite BDH. Jeff Arnold who lived next to him, his father was one of the builders of Henry Harbin before the war. Anothe school friend, Philip Goringe used to live on Kingland Road just before Seldown Lane. I also remember the Royal Blue, Shamrock and Rambler and the Bere Regis and District Taction company coaches stop just past Seldown lane.
In the late 1940s and early 50s my brother John was an apprentice engineering pattern maker working in wood at the Dorset Iron foundry a bit further down West Quay Road from BDH. I can also remember a small shunter engine from Poole Railway goods yard taking coal in trucks down to the quay for the paddle steamers, Bournemouth Queen, Embassy and the Emporer of India. There was also the Dunkirk and the Matapan but they were nor paddle steamers.
Going down the Cellar Club (now The Blue Boar) in '63, '64 in Market Street with its gas lights was like going back in time to the Victorian era!
A priceless image of Poole - many thanks :)
Isn't the building centre foreground with the arch entrance Aish's ? My father worked ther for a while before going to BDH on West Quay Road. I went to Poole Grammar, and that's their playing fields, next to the Ladies Walking Field (what a wonderful name, alas no more) behind Kingland Crescent at top left. It's a pity its not a panorama showing the quay. We used to live in East Street.
fantastic. i have visited poole on many occasions, mostly business, but i remember holidaying here as a child in the sixties, i liked it better as it was, quaint, charming and unique, it had soul, now it has ugly slabs of concrete for buildings, sad. i grew up in hove and the developers did exactly the same thing to an entire area, leveled it all then built ugly industrial units where there used to be a thriving community, half of those units stand empty these days.
Thank you for that. I am a Poole boy and would have been 10 in 1963
Well I was at the Grammar School at Seldown House in 1963 (phew!) and the only things I recognize are the cars!
What’s the source of the fantastic photograph on which this brilliantly done vid is based? I’d love to find out if it’s possible to have a printed copy to frame up and display.
Ladies Walking Field, The Gasworks, Poole Grammar School. All my Yesterdays!!
Loved it!!
...and PS UP THE TOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seldown
4.18 shows The old Poole grammar (Seldown) which I attended in 1986.
I love this photo even though I was a child in the sixties everything seems so familiar to me. I remember the delights of running free on ladies walking field, and the not quite so delightful smell of the gas works. I remember the great shops in the high street. Poole has not changed for the better
Thanks for watching - I really appreciate your nice comments!
Dig up the councillors responsible & flay any remaining descendents.This was a crime
I'm glad someone else thinks as I do. :(
It's destroyed on purpose .
The Town's plea for rebuilding started in the Depression - East Quay Tenements regularly flooded at Spring Tides, and none of the houses had damp courses. I met one of the occupants, John Bond, later in life, and he became apprentice Cobbler to Hawkes Shoes. As the War progressed, he begged Mr Hawkes to release him so he could "Sign Up". Mr Hawkes finally agreed, but made John sign an agreement to return at War's End to complete his indenture. He went off to fight - whilst every week, a younger apprentice went to John Bond's Mother - and paid his wages all through the war. At the end of hostilities, John Bond returned to Hawkes and completed his Apprenticeship with Hawkes Shoes - and he never forgot Hawkes generosity. Sadly, John passed about 2014 near where I live by the Civic Centre.
Do you know what used to exist in the area where the giant Asda now is along West Quay Road? 'I'm writing an essay on mass consumerism and would find it really helpful if you could enlighten me of the areas past. Thanks very much. Alicia.
A wood yard.
OH MY GOODNESS!! it took ages for me to realise what part of town this is. Wasn't until I spotted what is now burger king and the building opposite that I realised this is the high street.
This was lovely. I try not to go there now.
Hi, do you know what used to be exist in the area where the new giant Asda is on West Quay Road? I'm writing an essay on mass consumerism and would be very grateful if you could share your knowledge with me. Alicia.
A wood yard.
And a Corn store from whence this video was shot.
Actually, a lot of the houses you can see were redeveloped under the slum clearance programme. I lived here in West Street as a very young child and the houses were in a foul state. We were rehoused into a post war "quickbuild". But if BDH Chemicals (as it was know then) hadn't come along with investment who knows? There was a planning restriction for decades afterwards that meant the tallest building allowed was Barclays Bank on The George roundabout The last twenty years has seen far worse damage by the powers that be and their "millionaires" playground vision.
Most of the houses shown here actually survived the initial 'slum clearance', and in fact the areas of Hunger Hill and Nile Row were demolished to make way for the Towngate Bridge Flyover in around 1969.
keen to know more about Roslin Files - can I contact by email ? - especially agree with the concern with the destruction of Old poole in the 1960s - the People never complained then - I was born in Poole in 1951 and come from generations of Poole families likewise my wife - The video has provided us with images we have been previously unable to unearth - thank you -
wow amazing so much better then it is now all these high rise flats in poole quay look disgusting
Same thing has sadly happened in Bournemouth. Funny how elected councillors wreck the towns they represent.