Who would have thought that in this day and age, people actually lived like this. Had i not experienced it for the last nineteen months, i wouldn't have believed it myself.


Dirt, dust, mould, rats, mice, dog foul, rubbish, litter, drugs, drink, broken glass, old furniture, career benefit claimants. All to be found on one short row of terraced houses near the centre of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, early in the 21st century.


Warden street, or as a few of us have come to know it "The Chatsworth Estate" could have been plucked straight out of 1970's Salford and could just as easily have been called "Beasley Street".

But despite a promise by our now Prime Minsiter to "Rid Canklow of the blight of Warden Street" It's still here three years later. His promise was made when along with John Prescot, who was brought up in Rotherham he announced plans to redevelop the area.

I've never been much of a Margaret Thatcher fan, but at least Salfords Beasley Street was demolished literally weeks after she saw the living conditions there for herself.