Part of a Photo Essay of the Balloon woods estate, Nottingham taken in 1974. - all photos by Steve Fisher (stevefisher@mail2world.com)

These photos are a segment of a photo essay of Balloon Woods flats I did as part of my course work at Bilborough collage, they were taken in 1974 ( i think ). There should be another couple of rolls of film, but these seem to have disappeared over the years. By the time these photos were taken everyone was beginning to realise that the flats were a disaster. They were eventually pulled down in the 1980's ( only habitable for less than 20 years ). About the only good thing that came out of this failure of modernisation ( pull old stuff down and build with concrete ) was redevelopment ( use what you have and exploit the location ) became the preferred option. If only this had been the thinking in the early 1960's maybe Nottingham would have retained more of its identity, instead its like virtually every other city. A hotch potch of designs and ill planned or considered buildings, the public buildings typically being the worst. Many of these 1960's - 1970's public buildings seem to use a cold war Stalinist workers housing complex as inspiration.

Any comments email me at smf@smfpics.com

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