Where The Streets Have No Name...

By chance, whilst driving in heavy traffic, I took a detour in an attempt to beat the road congestion that threatened my day's schedule. A couple of turns and suddenly I was driving through a modern-day ghost town. Road after road of boarded-up, empty housing made an eerie sight and, though running late as I was, I couldn't resist stopping and having a closer look. After a few minutes of venturing around the deserted streets I suddenly realised where I was... the Shameless estate! Between 2004 and 2007, the first four series of show's exterior shots were filmed here as the notorious 'Chatworh Estate' before filming was moved to a studio location. In reality the estate was equally infamous. The area suffered from serious deprivation, resulting in high crime levels, in 2006 the Motor Insurers' Bureau named West Gorton as the UK's worst place for uninsured cars, with over six times the national average of drivers living there with no cover. The area is scheduled for a new neighbourhood with the council keen to distance it from the links with the Channel 4 programme. Let's hope they make a better job than previously, as I'm fairly sure that this estate was only created in the eighties.