IT WAS her first marital home and she has raised two daughters in the high-rise flat from which she has surveyed Motherwell for the last 42 years.
Kay Oliver, 74, will be sad to see the North Lanarkshire tower blocks finally come down as for her they contain a lifetime of memories.
Mrs Oliver has lived in 16-storey Albion Tower since she and her husband, who died in 2000, moved from Glasgow in 1975. It is the social life within the block that she has most enjoyed. Young families would gather in the communal rooms on the ground floor for the bells at Hogmanay, while they regularly organised community trips down the coast.
READ MORE: Every single tower block in North Lanarkshire to be be demolished
But many of these traditions have disappeared as the flats now have a regular churn of occupants.
She said: “For me this tower has lovely memories and we all used to know each other and would be regularly in and out of neighbours’ flats asking if they wanted message from the shops and things.
“We always used to get together downstairs for bingo nights and the like, and used to go away as a group. These friendships have gone now but I’ll be sad when they all come down.
“They were great communities at one time.”
Her neighbour from one floor down, William Warnock, 77, was the first resident of the tower when it opened in 1972 and he moved into a flat with his wife Joyce and two sons when he became caretaker. He has lived in the block since they moved from nearby Wishaw but he will not mourn the homes when they are demolished.
READ MORE: Every single tower block in North Lanarkshire to be be demolished
He said: “We were lucky as we lived on the ground floor but for families with young children up in the top floors it is hard for parents. It’s been great for me and it is still handy for the shops and things like that, but there are better places to bring up kids.
“The world has moved on and the space should be used for different types of homes now.”
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