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Canal locations in “Gangsters”

  • Thread starter Thread starter mstephens
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mstephens

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Hi

I'm researching locations used by the 70s BBC-TV series "Gangsters" and I wonder if someone can pinpoint the location of the narrow boat "Anne Carol" in the attached shot from the original Play for Today in 1975.

I know it is definitely somewhere around the Gas Street Basin by comparison with this photo I found on Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/14803690@N00/356786581/sizes/o/in/set-72157594478481915/

I've worked out that in the distance the canal goes off to the right and thats the bit that goes under Broad St but I can't quite identify where the boat would be on the canal today. Is that the Alpha Tower in the background ?
 
Morning, mstephens,
I think it is somewhere the other side of Broad St.ie: Kingston wharf area,
am looking at my old maps and trying to place the shape of canal and position of bridges in relation to Alpha tower which it certainly is.
 
Hi mstephens,again,
These are some aerial shots I took (off my computer) of the area from roughly
the same angle of the original photo, as you can see the whole area has changed and probly the original bridges have been altered.
This is about the nearest I can pinpiont the position, unless one of our bods can tell us different.
Regards John.
 
John

Thanks for that fresh pair of eyes. That would put it down by what is now the National Indoor Arena and the Sealife Centre which means that the pic I found on Flickr is slightly misleading with its caption. It's definitely the same factory in both shots.

Here are some more shots which may help.

Not being a native (or even a resident) I'm mainly relying on Google Earth for this.

There is a later sequence where the boat has moved further down the canal but I haven't done the captures for that yet.
 
It definatley looks like the far side of Broad St. from the tower, here's an old map 1914, which may be of use, Alpha tower in blue.
 
John

It is definitely near what is now the Indoor Arena.

I've found a recent photo on Google Earth

https://www.panoramio.com//photo/2668254

which was taken a couple of yards up from the Flickr one and the Sea Life Centre is just about where the big factory is on the 70s pics.

Thanks for your help. I was misled by the Flickr caption and was tearing my hair out trying to get a location on the Gas Street side which would have the Alpha Tower in the right place.
 
More 1975 canal shots from Gangsters.

The Anne Carol has moved from what we now know as the National Indoor Arena to make a drugs delivery. The shots below seem to show the boat heading South East towards Broad St with the 4 multi-storeys on the left being Civic Close/ Brindley Drive and the Alpha Tower in the middle. I'm not sure about the tower on the right - is it the predecessor of the Orion building ?
 
Later on however, we arrive at the delivery drop which seems to be just east of the St Vincent Street bridge.
Presumably the boat actually turned right along the loop in order to end up where it did.
 
Hi mstephens,
I think you'll find that the two buildings on the right are The Sentinals, two blocks of flats one was called Clydesdale, can't remember the name of the other one.
My mother lived in Clydesdale, no. 33 on the fifth floor, also in the same block was Noel Gordon of Crossroads fame, these two towers were 33 storeys high,they were situated at the junction of Holloway Head and Smallbrook Ringway, one each side of Holloway Head.
 
Just as an aside to my last post, the name of the other tower is Cleveland.
Srangely enough they were built to be one floor higher than the Red Road blocks in Glasgow.
They were completed in 1971.
 
john knight said:
Hi mstephens,
I think you'll find that the two buildings on the right are The Sentinals, two blocks of flats one was called Clydesdale, can't remember the name of the other one.
My mother lived in Clydesdale, no. 33 on the fifth floor, also in the same block was Noel Gordon of Crossroads fame, these two towers were 33 storeys high,they were situated at the junction of Holloway Head and Smallbrook Ringway, one each side of Holloway Head.
Click to expand...

Thanks again John. The other tower is called the Cleveland. I found this on Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sentinels
 
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