Let us take a moment to reflect on old spaces in a constantly changing landscape. Some of the best architectural design of late 1960’s and early 1970’s has matured (as I mature) into beautiful cutaways from the uniform regularity of the predominantly Victorian terraced streets that surround. There is a playful quality to some aspects of council estate design that still warmly lures me into walking a winding circular wall or running up the slanted brickwork of a nicely rounded diagonal edge. Not all designs put into practice the held the values or ideals of their architectural creators, in fact many had the opposite effect creating dead spaces for more unsavoury business to thrive. I would however like to celebrate a few of the places that I hold in my heart with a fond nostalgia, as these were the bricks and trees of my childhood. From the first journeys on foot as a child to the outer edges of my universe (the end of the street) to the hours spent learning how to exist in this world as an individual among my fellow peers. Memories of power cuts, water fights, first tastes of alcohol and smoking and the beloved game of ’shit-stick’… I accept the world has changed and kids don’t have the same independence children of the 70’s and 80’s were afforded but these urban spaces with their curves and socially inviting layouts were an important part of my journey from childhood into adulthood as they will be for many others. Though we lived ‘hand to mouth’ for many years I feel lucky to have grown up in an environment that had a wealth in community and friendship when other forms of wealth were few and far between.