Kincora Boys Home in east Belfast (just down the road from here) is currently being demolished to make way for a new housing development.
The home was once the scene of serious organised child sexual abuse, causing a scandal and attempted cover-up in 1980, with claims of state collusion. It has been quietly rotting ever since, with a lot of people wanting nothing to do with it.
But one developer isn't put off by the site's seedy reputation and work is about to start on a £1.8 million apartment block comprising nine flats.
It's hard to say what my reaction would be if I actually set foot in one of the new flats, but I'd like to think I wouldn't be put off. If the building itself has gone, and the scandal happened over 40 years ago, I'm sure I could easily ignore the history and just get on with my life.
But would it be as simple as that? If I actually lived in one of the new flats, would I be constantly reminded of the past to the extent that it haunted me and forced me to move out?
Certainly a lot of people wouldn't even contemplate living there, given the site's associations. The very idea would horrify them.
Jenny is quite sure she couldn't live in a place that had such a dark pall hanging over it. She couldn't possibly ignore what had gone on there previously.
It remains to be seen whether the new apartments will be sold easily or whether prospective buyers will give them a wide berth.
Pic: Kincora Boys Home
Colette's comment didn't appear on my post. She says: "Great question. I certainly couldn't live in the actual house. But if it was torn down and replaced by brand new apartments? Maybe not."
ReplyDeleteColette: I think you would have to visit one of the apartments to know exactly how you might feel about living there.
DeleteI wouldn't think the new building would bother most people. Who knows what happened generations ago on the land that any of us live on?
ReplyDeleteBijoux: Very true. How much do any of us know about the possibly shady history of our homes?
DeleteThat was my first thought as well. There's probably no long-inhabited spot on Earth that hasn't had something terrible happen on it at some point. The area where I live has been populated for about twelve thousand years. In all that time there might well have been human sacrifices or bloody battles on the very spot where my apartment building now stands. I suppose it makes a difference if you know about some specific event, but we all know the history of the world is filled with cruelty and evil.
DeleteInfidel: Very true. Who knows what might have happened in this house since it was built in 1949. Or what might have happened on the site before our house was built.
DeleteI'm with Bijoux; there is no land anywhere that doesn't have some type of negativity in its past. It's easier if we don't know that history, though.
ReplyDeleteLinda Sand
Linda: Yes. And for that matter, whoever built our homes might also have a shady past.
DeleteHistory is one thing, price another. Today's housing prices are so out of reach, will there be any offers? Or will people walk away saying It's just as well we can't afford it.
ReplyDeleteJoanne: Up till now houses have been selling fairly well round here, but with the cost of living crisis and increasing mortgage payments, people might be thinking twice about buying property.
DeleteI've already lived in a 'bad' house - and the man I sold it to was murdered in it - all over the papers. So no, never again!
ReplyDeleteSx
Ms Scarlet: Goodness, quite an experience! I wonder if it was sold again, and there was another murder?
DeleteI get queasy even walking into the supermarket where horrific child abuse took place in on a children's school/care home. I do believe there is a haunting if only in the mind and I would not be happy living in a place filled with the screams and crying of children even if only in the mind.
ReplyDeleteAnd PS, I so believe that memorials should be raised to these children exactly on these sites with a reflective pond and benches. Not hawked to greedy developers.
XO
WWW
www: I like the idea of a memorial and a place of reflection. And yes, one could confidently move in to one of the apartments only to be haunted by disturbing images.
DeleteTo answer your question, Nick, no I would not want to knowingly live in a place that was the scene of some terrible event. It would be better if the site was demolished and new construction erected vs. a renovation.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice: The house is being demolished right now, to be replaced by a number of apartments.
DeleteI've lived in this apartment complex for 25 years and I know apartments where people have died, been killed, abuse has happened, drive by shootings have happened. The managers are not required to tell tenants that anything happened there. Some of these people have no idea what happened in their apartment before they moved it.
ReplyDeleteMary: Wow, that's an awful lot of bad history. But I guess if the tenants don't know the history of their flat, they'll be quite happy living there.
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