I was looking at a couple of coloured pics and wondered if they were black and white made into colour.Looking at one pic got me thinking about flats and whether a flat could be determined as
"A flat has its own street entrance, whereas an apartment (American poshed up name)can only be entered from inside the building"
I'd suggest those with verandas could be termed flats and some high rises were apartments nowadays.
There appears to have been a shelf-live of no more than 40 years on the high rises

Trying to do a list of flats/apartments that are or were about - please add any others
Flat or apartment
St Andrews Square - flats
Ilchester Square - flats
Beaufort Square - flats
Ford Towers - apartments
Vernon Place - flats
Cleveland Gardens - ?
Priory Buildings - flats
Abbey Buildings - ?
Howard St flats - ?
St Mary's Avenue flats - ?
Morpeth Buildings - ?
Oak and Eldon Gardens - ?
Meliden Gardens - ?
Sidney Gardens - ?
Hadlow Gardens - ?
Hillside Court - ?
Norbury Gardens - ?
Mersey Mount flats - ?

Woodchurch (don't know names of them)
Moreton (don't know names of them)
Chester st (I used to call them Green Lane flats)[/u][b][/b][u][u][/u]

A flat means that all its rooms are on one floor (hence "flat").

There were two lots of flats at either side of Green Lane on the New Chester road and Helmingham Square flats (off Green Lane behind Hinderton road) then there was Quiggly street flats, Chamberlain street flats and Pemboke court also in Tranamere. Then in Rock Ferry there is still Knowsley Court, opposite where the buses sleep on New Chester road.
There were also some flats down St Pauls road in Rock Ferry Near the Lord Napier Pub.
In Birkenhead by the old Priory there were three blocks of flats, Abbey Buildings, St Mary's Avenue Flats, Howard Street Flats.
There were also some flats off Conway street Birkenhead.There were flats on the corner of Bentink street and Conway Street in Birkenhead (Now houses)

If I think of any more I'll post them.

Woodchurch high rise flats were :-

Lynmouth Gardens
Lucerne Gardens
Lymington Gardens

Grasswood Gardens
Ferny Brow Gardens

Moreton high rise flats -

Fender Heights
Sandborne Heights
Sunningdale Heights
Melrose Heights
Thornridge Heights

Liscard - Wallasey :-

Liscard House

Except in London and cities where the housing stock is Victorian, where its common to have flats with a bedroom on a different level etc especially the top flats which have a bedroom and a bathroom in the converted roofspace . The defination there is just 'a part of a building.'

That would be a misuse of the original word, however these days a flat often means accommodation within a building of two or more stories - this was brought about because UK English didn't have have sufficient words to describe the different types. A "legal" definition came about in the 2000 building regulations which concurred with the modern usage.

There is also the maisonette. Classed as self contained apartment in a larger building with two floors with it's own entrance.

I thought Maisonette was a UK English word and was going to use it earlier (along with Duplex) but it turns out that it is pure French and may even have been used in the USA before the UK.

Most definitions of maisonette do not make a definite requirement of a separate entrance.

The word is clearly French; it simply means "little house".

I wonder why some are named _______ Gardens?


A bit off topic but I'm impressed by these photos if they were originally black and white and then made into colour by someone

Estate agents, councils and developers always come up with names and words to make housing more exotic. I guess "gardens" should at least have the nominal plot of grass with a withering sapling dumped on it - but don't all developments?

On Overchurch, there are the blocks of flats and maisonettes on Royden and Inman Roads.
Some of the blocks in Royden were demolished, as were Kenilworth Gardens.