Victoria Place, Newport

My friend Richard Frame recalls how he was beaten up but in a very good cause many years ago. It was my  fault. I remember the circumstances very well but I did not know what had happened to Richard and his friends until last Saturday.

In 1973, Richard was a student at the Newport Art College and I was a governor. There was a shortage of student housing and some students were kipping in the Students’ Union building in Stow Hill. There was another problem within a few yards of the Students’ Union building in Victoria Place.

The buildings of this  Edwardian Terrace of Victoria Place were empty and crumbling. The owner wanted to demolish them and replace these unique and beautiful buildings with a hideous modern block of flats. A Newport Council architect and I were battling to persuade the Council to buy and restore the Terrace.

Richard recalls that I suggested that he and the other students should squat in Victoria Place. The cunning plan was to draw attention to the students’ grievances and persuade the Council to buy the houses for student accommodation. It would also halt the deterioration of the building. It did not work out exactly as planned.

There was a raid by heavies. They beat up Richard and his friends and vandalised the properties. They smashed all the bathrooms and put holes in the roof so that rainwater could get in. The assumption was that this would hasten the deterioration. In the meantime, the buildings were then listed Grade 2 by a sympathetic Civil Servant in the Welsh Office. The architect and I had approached him.

This limited the Council’s options. Luckily the assault angered my fellow councillors and a scheme was devised to buy and restore. Unfortunately the cash was not there to use them for student accommodation. A deal was done to finance it through a private developer.

 Victoria Place is now a very desirable place to live. It is the background  for period films. It appeared  in Carries War and the House of Eliot (above).

For 35 years I have not heard some of these details. Sorry to have let you down Richard on the provision of students housing, but we can both be consoled that we played our part in preserving Newport’s most beautiful street.