The Decline of Luke Street

Abstract

Crossley is part of Merseyside. It has its origin in the nine?teenth-century development and expansion of its docks and shipbuilding industries, and still depends to a large extent on these two activities for its livelihood. Broadly speaking, the town can be divided into three sections — the East End, the West End and the central business and shopping areas. In addition to this the post-war years have seen the development of new housing and industrial estates on the outskirts of Crossley. And beyond these new estates there now lies a sprawling middle-class residential area. The section of the town usually referred to as the West End is an area approximately one-and-one-eighth miles long (east to west) by five-eighths of a mile wide (north to south). It is partly industrial and partly residential. It contains a total of 2177 council dwellings built in the late 1920s and 1930s, which is almost 60 per cent of all the pre-war council housing in the town. Only a few council dwellings have been built in the area since 1946. The West End also contains a fairly large amount of privately-owned terraced houses built before the war.