The estate was earmarked for demolition just 11 years after it was built
Urban Liverpool and a Cornish finishing village might seem worlds apart – but an estate in Everton was once modelled on one. The Radcliffe Estate was built in the the mid 1970s on a stretch of land between Shaw Street and Everton Road.
The estate was made up of 512 closely-built homes as part of ambitious plans an architect had for the land. However, it was the design of the development which is said to have led to its downfall just 11 years later when it was earmarked for demolition.
By 1988 all of the houses on the estate lay empty and abandoned and the bulldozers were ready to move in. With such a short life span, it’s easy to forget that the estate ever existed but it still holds strong memories for those that used to live there – some more fond than others.
While some residents described the estate as “hell on earth”, others formed close bonds with their neighbours and brought up their families there. Back in 2021, the ECHO spoke to people about their memories of the Radcliffe Estate and what led to its downfall.
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John Harrison first moved into his home on the Radcliffe with his wife Margaret and their five children in 1978. The three-bedroom home on Fitzclarence Way had one previous owner, who was a friend of the family, before the family moved in six months later.
John, 66, previously told the ECHO: “We lived on the end part of the estate towards Gregson’s Well. We had good neighbours and we all got on well around our particular area. I’ve got six children now and they’re all doing well, they’ve got good jobs. It was quite a decent grounding for them if you ask me.
“Even if [the estate] might have a bit of a bad reputation I thought it was unfounded. I think a couple of years before we left, that’s when heroin started taking off and that’s when the estate started going down.
“When heroin started being so rife it seemed to be that estate more so than anywhere else, it was one of the early estates that was rife with it.”
When a fire ripped through the family’s home in 1985 they were forced to move out and find somewhere else to live. John said he was shocked when the estate was demolished a few years later and he still has fond memories of his time living there.
He told the ECHO: “I was shocked because I thought they were good houses, obviously they were a little bit compact but I didn’t mind compactness, you tend to get on with your neighbours better and it’s a bit more social.
“When we had the fire because we were on the edge of the estate, the fire engines and emergency services could get there alright but apparently when you were a bit more inside the estate it was hard if there was a fire for the fire engines to get down the alleyways to it.”
By 1987 crime was rife on the Radcliffe Estate and ninety homes had already been demolished in the face of vandalism and arson attacks. The dark, narrow alleyways between the houses became both hazardous fire traps and a hotspot for muggings.
A report from Liverpool City Council in June 1987 said councillors agreed the only solution to the problems was to demolish the estate. However, the demolition was met by delays while the remaining 29 families waited to be rehoused.
An ECHO article from February 3, 1988, said the estate, which was dubbed “hell on earth” by some residents, lay empty and abandoned – just 11 years after it was first built. Celia McGowan and Margaret Rowan were two of the first arrivals onto the Radcliffe Estate when it first opened in 1977.
Speaking to the ECHO after they left in 1988, Celia, 74, said: “I just locked up and didn’t answer the door to anybody.” Margaret, 62, added: “Even if I did go out, I always had to make sure there was someone in the house to guard it and someone else to pick me up and take me home right to my door.”
Celia and Margaret later moved into a new housing development down the road called Greensides. Jim Burns, the city’s director of housing at the time, said: “We’ve tried to learn from the mistakes of the past.
“People want open spaces, back and front gardens, back and front doors. We’ve listened to what they’ve got to say and Greenside reflects this.”
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