Interview Date: 22nd August, 2024
C: Clara Cheung, G: Gum Cheng, J: Jacki Rowley
| I. | J: | ... I think because students have moved into the city center. And in those days, students lived in. It was almost part of being a student to live in a damp, cold house with, you know, rats and leaks and everything. It was almost part of the ritual of being a student, of living somewhere like that with no central heating and, you know, and sharing the bathroom and now students, it amazes me, live with Wi Fi and parking, you know, all their bills are paid and everything, right? I just think, gosh,when you move out of that, you'll actually be going to take a backward step in your accommodation, whereas as a student, you expected to move into something better eventually, but now I think students are going to be moving back to their parents. So yes, I think the student experience just doesn't bear any relationship to the student experience that we had. And yeah, you lived in those houses and you had parties, and you weren't bothered about getting beer and wine on the carpets because they were filthy anyways. So because there are less students in Crookes, Walkley, they've now become family homes or homes for young couples, they're much more family orientated. |
| II. | C: | It reminds me of this news article also shared by one of the residents from 2006 because you also mentioned families and student housing. Do you think is it desirable to find a balance between family houses and student houses? Is it possible? |
| J: | I think so, yeah. I mean, I think what I've seen on Harcourt Road, which is really nice because I still walk up it a lot, is those little posters about getting students and families coming together, to have those little parties, to feel like it's a community, which then makes students probably, if they feel more part of the community, then they’re less likely to have the rubbish everywhere, and, you know, maybe be a bit more - like I suppose when we had the party, we never thought we were bothering anybody, because, probably everybody was, if they heard the noise, they'd come to the party. Now, if I lived next door to them, I wouldn't be happy. So I think what's happening on Harcourt Road, if that is successful, of bringing all the very disparate elements that still are, I'd be really interested to see a breakdown, actually, of what those houses are. I mean, I like which family, which are multiple occupancy, which are, who's living there would be really fascinating. But, yeah, I think it's possible., I suppose you still get, still get students who don't really respect that they've got families living next door to them. They’re fewer and far between, like students living next door to family homes now, I think. | |
| J: | Yeah, yeah. I think that's the thing about having, not just having more kind of students, is that there's more investment in a road like, for example, the road that I live on now, there's a green space at the top that had been back to back houses and that were demolished in the 70s, and now is just a lovely green space with trees and the worry that the council might decide to build on it, but the street has kind of come together to put in a village green petition. So I think it's nice to have people that have invested in the street, that are a bit more long term, or feel like it's their home, and that's why, I guess, if you've got the balance is tipped to students, you wouldn't get that. But if the balance, if there's more of a balance, then you've got people who do have more investment in the community as a whole, and what's happening in it, who can kind of like say, Oh, this is what we this is what we want, even like we want a crossing, you know, we've got children to take to school. Just people that think I'm going to be here with my family for a long time, and I care about people, other people who live here, so I'm going to work to make it a community really. |
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Harcourt Road
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