Documentary follows last person living in abandoned Lanarkshire housing estate
Documentary follows last person living in abandoned Lanarkshire housing estate
A filmmaker has released a documentary about the last person living on a condemned Lanarkshire estate.
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Ryan Pollock’s Exile on Stanhope Place focuses on Nick Wisniewski who has turned down offers from North Lanarkshire Council to buy his two-bedroomed flat in Gowkthrapple. Nick, a retired bank worker, bought the property under the Right to buy scheme and says that owning it give him security and meant he didn’t have to pay rent or a mortgage following his retirement.
However, the council, who want to re-develop the estate are being hindered by his refusal to accept the offer. The local authority has since applied for a Compulsory Purchase Order to forcibly remove him from his home, reports were said.
Documentary follows last person living in abandoned Lanarkshire housing estate
The 24 year old captured the current essence of the area and Nick’s plight, with all other homes either abandoned or pulled down. Through clever cinematography he portrays perfectly the boarded up buildings, the general run down appearance of the streets with overgrown grass, and there’s even a shot of a discarded pair of jeans dangling from a bush in the breeze.
“The scenes with Nick were filmed in about eight or nine different days over the space of about a month,” said Ryan. “He was a man of few words at first.
“It took Nick a bit of time to be comfortable being on camera, that’s quite normal with a lot of people. They are conscious of the camera. But towards the end he opened up a bit.
“I’ve got a great deal of sympathy with Nick, why should he have to be paying rent again and living in an area where he doesn’t want to move to?
“I finished the film towards the end of the year. I made it with the intention of just putting it out on social media channels rather than for specific film festivals or anything like that.
“It was a small crew, the Cinematographer was Niall Morison MacRae, the sound man was Ross McDonald, and the music is by Jack Mellin.”
Nick was originally offered £35,000 for the flat by his council and the film shows him going for his first discussions in over a year with officials. It reveals that Nick receives an improved offer, but it’s nowhere near enough to entice him to leave his home.
It’s not the first film that Ryan, who completed a masters degree in Filmmaking at University of the West of Scotland, has made in the housing estate in Wishaw.
Last year his short film, Bluebird, about a litter picker living in Birkshaw Tower won a Latimer Award and featured as part of the Royal Scottish Academy’s 197th annual art exhibition.
He has strong family ties to “Gowky” and lived there for a time when he was younger.
Ryan added: “My dad’s side of the family are all from Gowkthrapple. They said that the block next to 99 Stanhope Place was the first one built, and it could end up being right next to the last one that comes down as Nick isn’t for moving any time soon.”
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