Fifer's Lane, UEA
This is what remains of the Fifer's Lane Halls of Residence at UEA. I spent a good year there in 1990/91 (as did Rob). Sam lived there in 1992/3. They closed it in 1994, biult a housing estate over most of it, and now it is reduced to this shell. The Halls were old RAF housing, indeed the Dambusters film was shot on location there. There are now the crammed in narrow streets of a modern housing estate with the ghostly remains of the old residences nehind it. K Block, where the really crap discos were, the communcal TV and the laundrette, are still there, if derelict, and amazingly Z Block is still there.
Some things in Norwich have not changed in decades. Some things have changed in the blinking of an eye. Mind you, every time Sam's father came up to Norwich, something burnt down (Library, Assembly Rooms, Roys of Wroxham...). It can't be said that the new library is not a vast improvement on the old one though!
Some things in Norwich have not changed in decades. Some things have changed in the blinking of an eye. Mind you, every time Sam's father came up to Norwich, something burnt down (Library, Assembly Rooms, Roys of Wroxham...). It can't be said that the new library is not a vast improvement on the old one though!
posted by Jonathan | Tuesday, July 12, 2005
12 Comments:
I taught English as a foreign language in a summer school at Fifers Lane in 1989. I was 18 at the time and it was magical. Brought back memories seeing the pictures here.
I was in O Block in 1974 and Z Block in 1975. Great place. Saw the film Dambusters over the XMas break, and thought it looked familiar. What a small world. Rob DEV74.
I was in Z block. '86 - '87 Bizarre and happy memories of the breakfasts (what else was in in the ABC blcoks?), gigs and discos in K block, collecting post, the launderette (!), the cheap bar, the NAAFI and its four trolleys (once all in use it was gridlock!!) and working in the little toasted sandwich cafe. I also used to roller-boot along the corridors (the static meant I could give people shocks!) and slept one night at the top of the fire-escape, was found by the cleaners in the morning and fined...as usual. It was great having so many peers in one place. It's like a slightly surreal dream now.
Moaning about the breakfast, seeing films in K block, the bar, the long bus ride to and from campus. Wouldn't change those memories for the world. Sys89.
This really brings back memories for me. Thanks for the photos. I was in J block 1989-1990 and have fantastic memories from then. I loved Fifers Lane. (EUR 1989-1993)
I was in H block 77-78. Good memories, have you seen the fb page?
I was in J block 1989-90. I tended to avoid the included breakfast as I was rarely up that early. Good times though..
I lived there on exchange in 1990 from the US! I remember the vote replacing thatcher as pm! We went to London and I ended up watching the 50 anniversary of the battle of Britton parade in front of buckingham palace. I saw the entire royal family on the balcony! I had a great time, loved the people and the pub!
I was in E Block, 1979,but only for one term. I used to listen to Frank Zappa and Leonard Cohen, but after that mistake I moved to a 1950s' caravan floating on a plank, a stones throw from Roy's of Wroxham. I drank in The Castle a lot but can't remember much about it. But, oddly enough, I do remember playing squash at Fifer's Lane at midnight in a pair of beer-wet and see-through shorts. How these people live on that housing estate with all that past going on, not to mention the RAF & WWII, I'll never know!
I was at Fifers Lane in 1972/3 for a couple of terms. My abiding memory was the black and white tiled floors that played hell with your vision after a few pints! Most of the friendships I developed were with people on the main campus, so I got moved for the third term to Waveney block. Fortunately I had a motorbike so was not stranded at Fifers, which personally I found rather isolated. I’m amazed to read that the accommodation was used until 1994.
For my last two tears at UEA, I lived in Hingham, in a very old former butchers shop on the main square. This was paradise compared to Fifers Lane.
I was at Fifers Lane in A block in second year 1977/8 in a massive room to myself assigned to me by the formidable Ollie Wilson, an ex-army chap who was in charge of Fifers Lane. Only a shuffle from the bar and a stumble back. Many great times with Annie (RIP), Basia, Tim and many more.
I can remember all packing into Basia's red Fiat 500 to go off to campus. Never was a car so badly abused.
Drunken fun in the occasional discos. It was quite fire away from campus but that was just normal then, all first years were at Horsham except some were in the double rooms in Norfolk & Suffolk Terraces....which left you isolated from the Horsham lot and forced you to be relatively quiet as the single rooms in the Ziggurats were for 3rd years. A few second years stayed at Horsham to run the bar and the social committee.
I was there in '89 as part of a summer program from the US. I lived in Z block for a while and remember a message on the ceiling there. Later moved to P block. I bartended until I served too many free drinks and myself and others. Thanks for letting us know what happened to it.
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