#Liverpool student letting

[randomliverpool]

A large fire was witnessed by residents of Liverpool Student Lettings accommodation in the early hours on January 27 2024. #LiverpoolEcho

Village of the damned: Inside the Fox Street fire

Special investigation: For years, Matt O'Donoghue was told about major problems at a controversial development in Everton. Then the dire predictions came true. By Matt O’Donoghue.

“Block D is an inferno right now”, the first message reads. “Look what’s been torched.” More follow. “Not sure how other blocks are faring, they’ve been evacuated.” Some have video or photos attached. “Seen this. I feel sick.” One simply reads: “Fox Street’s final chapter.”

Block D at the stalled residential development of Fox Street Village sits on the edge of Everton. It is ablaze, and a lot of people want me to know. As the firefighters battle to hold back the flames that threaten to leap from block to block, frantic calls, dramatic videos, and heartbreaking messages light up my phone screen. Many of those getting in touch are people I met over the past five years I’ve been reporting on the sorry saga of Fox Street Village. They’re all saying the same thing: “It was only a matter of time.”

“Something like this had to happen,” says Chris Burridge, who owns one of the Fox Street Village apartments as he surveys the damage. It’s Sunday, January 28th and the day after the fire. Steel girders are bent and buckled like roller coaster tracks; the metal cools and creaks, and loose material flaps in the wind. “There’s been no decent perimeter fence for some time, even though we’ve been reporting incidents. We were lucky Block B didn’t go up. The flames and heat were ferocious. Mersey Fire saved those buildings.”

Lucky indeed. Fox Street Village was originally intended to be a 400 apartment complex spread across four blocks that were to be four or five stories tall. But Block D was never completed and has remained an unfinished shell for the past five years. The rest of the site, on the other hand, is home to a number of residents. Had the fire spread there, it would have been catastrophic. Letting agents are on-site to support tenants and help with the clean up, while insurance brokers and risk assessors mill about around them. Lifts, heating, and water are soon back on. Black debris litters the ground and the flat roofs of the adjacent blocks, while clumps of burnt insulation and wood continue to drift from above.

A team from Residence 365, the company that manages the Village’s interior communal areas, is helping to get residents back into their homes. “Unfortunately, as the fire started to take hold, many residents in Block A failed to evacuate,” says Carolyn Delaney, Residence 365’s managing director. “Police had to force their way into every apartment to make sure that building was clear and everyone was safe. Those doors and frames will have to be repaired.”

Outside, Block B’s walls and windows are warped from where it faced the fire. The cladding is buckled and wavy, like bad icing on an overbaked cake. Most of the glass is cracked and broken, and window frames have bowed out of shape. The fire breaks under the cladding will have activated and expanded. There will need to be a lot of work to put things right.

“The grounds and estate management company are nowhere”, says an exasperated Burridge. The last he was told, a company called Xenia Estates Limited were responsible for looking after the outside areas. “It’s outrageous. They’ve sent nobody down here to help or make things safe.”

Kevin Robertson-Hale is a local campaigner who set up the action group Everton Together. He was shopping at the ASDA on the Breck Road when he first saw the black clouds rising above his community. He knew straight away what was likely to be burning. “It’s just a miracle that nobody’s been hurt,” he says. Although Block D was not a finished building, homeless people have been sleeping there and using it as a shelter. “The way the place went up, someone asleep would never have got out.” Kevin is horrified by what has happened, but certainly not surprised. “We’ve been saying for years that something was going to happen. Either someone was going to fall off and break their neck, or it was going to go up in flames.”

Beneath the debris and behind the spectacular videos, the plumes of smoke billowing out and up from the bare bones of blazing Block D, are hundreds of stories of loss and despair. To properly understand what went wrong at Fox Street Village, to learn why things must be fixed, we have to understand why they were broken in the first place.

Between 1971 and 1991, Everton’s population dropped by 60% as the area’s fortunes and prospects charted exactly the decline of the British Empire. As Liverpool’s docks fell silent, the huge warehouses and the factories like Tate and Lyle and British American Tobacco were closed. Thousands of jobs disappeared and the communities that once relied upon those goods shipped from all corners of the Empire ceased to exist. An urgent need to improve the area’s housing conditions, the crumbling Victorian tenements, led to slum clearance and demolition on a massive scale. Those once solid communities were broken up with families moved out and housed in places like Kirby, Runcorn and Skelmersdale. It was the perfect storm; shops closed, tower blocks were pulled down and the city’s terminal decline was hastened by Margaret Thatcher’s vicious attempts to starve the upstart council controlled by Hatton’s Militant Tendency into surrender.

Fox Street Village followed the same controversial funding model that has dogged similar schemes across the city, known as ‘fractional sales’. Buyers — many based overseas — are enticed with the promise of a good rent and a solid investment in return for paying a large part of the sale price upfront. But as countless investors at other stalled sites in Liverpool have discovered to their detriment, there’s little or no protection should things go wrong.

When Fox Street Village Limited collapsed into administration, in 2019, it owed creditors £10 million and the city council nearly £700,000. The council told us that an invoice for over half a million pounds remains unpaid but that the building’s new owners will have to pick up that tab. Meanwhile, £6 million that investors had paid out for Block D was instead spent on a new fifth building the developers had added to their scheme. A search of records show creditors who had paid for apartments in Block D came from Birkenhead to Beijing and all points in between. With no money left to complete the job, and no cash to settle their bills, the steel frame and internal walls made of wood have remained open to the elements. The freehold to the site was sold to Manchester-based property investment company SGL1 Limited in 2020 for a reported £1.6 million. The site was split and a separate company run by the same two directors as SGL1 but called SGL3, took over the unfinished Block D. A series of complex court cases followed as buyers battled to gain control and finish the scheme. By 2021, the architect’s original drawings for Block D had been rebranded as “Park View” to be marketed at a new group of buyers. A one bed studio in the unfinished wood and steel shell was being advertised for £85,000. The Post is unsure how many people bought into this new scheme or whether their money is protected.

“I bought a three-bedroom apartment that cost £135,000, which was a really good deal. With hindsight, almost too good to be true. I’ve been firefighting one problem after another since day one.” November 8th, 2023 and I am rattling along the M62 with Chris Burridge. “It doesn’t look that good,” Chris says with detached stoicism and monumental understatement as Fox Street Village Block D comes into view. “It would be funny, if it wasn’t so costly and dangerous.” Chris is one of the apartment owners who have been battling over an £80,000 bill to install a transformer that would safely reconnect their electricity to the grid. The builders left a hot-wired connection into the mains, which Chris says the buyers only found out about after they’d secured the right to manage some of the site. It was just the latest in a long line of hidden surprises that have revealed themselves over the five years since tenants moved in. “The biggest block, Block D, is just a shell that should have been finished years ago,” Chris tells me as we pull up alongside what looks like a building entirely made of wood and wrapped in tin foil. “There should have been one large, shared entrance area, an underground car park for 170 vehicles, shops, a cinema room with communal laundry, and a bike store. All of those amenities were what made this site so attractive.”

Chris pauses to re-imagine what could have been, before reality kicks back in. “None of that exists. What we’ve actually got are great apartments next to the rat-infested fire trap of a mess that is Block D.”

By Matt O’Donoghue

“Block D is an inferno right now”, the first message reads. “Look what’s been torched.” More follow. “Not sure how other blocks are faring, they’ve been evacuated.” Some have video or photos attached. “Seen this. I feel sick.” One simply reads: “Fox Street’s final chapter.”

Block D at the stalled residential development of Fox Street Village sits on the edge of Everton. It is ablaze, and a lot of people want me to know. As the firefighters battle to hold back the flames that threaten to leap from block to block, frantic calls, dramatic videos, and heartbreaking messages light up my phone screen. Many of those getting in touch are people I met over the past five years I’ve been reporting on the sorry saga of Fox Street Village. They’re all saying the same thing: “It was only a matter of time.”

Chris Burridge on Fox Street. Photo: Matt O’Donoghue.

“Something like this had to happen,” says Chris Burridge, who owns one of the Fox Street Village apartments as he surveys the damage. It’s Sunday, January 28th and the day after the fire. Steel girders are bent and buckled like roller coaster tracks; the metal cools and creaks, and loose material flaps in the wind. “There’s been no decent perimeter fence for some time, even though we’ve been reporting incidents. We were lucky Block B didn’t go up. The flames and heat were ferocious. Mersey Fire saved those buildings.”

Lucky indeed. Fox Street Village was originally intended to be a 400 apartment complex spread across four blocks that were to be four or five stories tall. But Block D was never completed and has remained an unfinished shell for the past five years. The rest of the site, on the other hand, is home to a number of residents. Had the fire spread there, it would have been catastrophic. Letting agents are on-site to support tenants and help with the clean up, while insurance brokers and risk assessors mill about around them. Lifts, heating, and water are soon back on. Black debris litters the ground and the flat roofs of the adjacent blocks, while clumps of burnt insulation and wood continue to drift from above.

A team from Residence 365, the company that manages the Village’s interior communal areas, is helping to get residents back into their homes. “Unfortunately, as the fire started to take hold, many residents in Block A failed to evacuate,” says Carolyn Delaney, Residence 365’s managing director. “Police had to force their way into every apartment to make sure that building was clear and everyone was safe. Those doors and frames will have to be repaired.”

Outside, Block B’s walls and windows are warped from where it faced the fire. The cladding is buckled and wavy, like bad icing on an overbaked cake. Most of the glass is cracked and broken, and window frames have bowed out of shape. The fire breaks under the cladding will have activated and expanded. There will need to be a lot of work to put things right.

“The grounds and estate management company are nowhere”, says an exasperated Burridge. The last he was told, a company called Xenia Estates Limited were responsible for looking after the outside areas. “It’s outrageous. They’ve sent nobody down here to help or make things safe.”

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Kevin Robertson-Hale is a local campaigner who set up the action group Everton Together. He was shopping at the ASDA on the Breck Road when he first saw the black clouds rising above his community. He knew straight away what was likely to be burning. “It’s just a miracle that nobody’s been hurt,” he says. Although Block D was not a finished building, homeless people have been sleeping there and using it as a shelter. “The way the place went up, someone asleep would never have got out.” Kevin is horrified by what has happened, but certainly not surprised. “We’ve been saying for years that something was going to happen. Either someone was going to fall off and break their neck, or it was going to go up in flames.”

Beneath the debris and behind the spectacular videos, the plumes of smoke billowing out and up from the bare bones of blazing Block D, are hundreds of stories of loss and despair. To properly understand what went wrong at Fox Street Village, to learn why things must be fixed, we have to understand why they were broken in the first place.

The building on Fox Street. Photo: Chris Burridge

Between 1971 and 1991, Everton’s population dropped by 60% as the area’s fortunes and prospects charted exactly the decline of the British Empire. As Liverpool’s docks fell silent, the huge warehouses and the factories like Tate and Lyle and British American Tobacco were closed. Thousands of jobs disappeared and the communities that once relied upon those goods shipped from all corners of the Empire ceased to exist. An urgent need to improve the area’s housing conditions, the crumbling Victorian tenements, led to slum clearance and demolition on a massive scale. Those once solid communities were broken up with families moved out and housed in places like Kirby, Runcorn and Skelmersdale. It was the perfect storm; shops closed, tower blocks were pulled down and the city’s terminal decline was hastened by Margaret Thatcher’s vicious attempts to starve the upstart council controlled by Hatton’s Militant Tendency into surrender.

Stand on the edge of Fox Street today and look towards the gleaming glass skyscrapers and modern penthouses and it’s obvious, the regeneration that has breathed new life into other parts of Liverpool in recent years seems to run out of steam as it creeps towards this area’s streets. According to the last census, Everton West — where Fox Street Village sits — has the third highest numbers of children on free school meals. This neighbourhood has some of the poorest health indicators, including the lowest life expectancy, across the whole of the city.

As Liverpool’s reputation grew as a great place to study, the last decade has seen residential housing for the influx of students become the city’s short-term planning solution and a way to kickstart Everton’s economy.

Fox Street Village followed the same controversial funding model that has dogged similar schemes across the city, known as ‘fractional sales’. Buyers — many based overseas — are enticed with the promise of a good rent and a solid investment in return for paying a large part of the sale price upfront. But as countless investors at other stalled sites in Liverpool have discovered to their detriment, there’s little or no protection should things go wrong.

When Fox Street Village Limited collapsed into administration, in 2019, it owed creditors £10 million and the city council nearly £700,000. The council told us that an invoice for over half a million pounds remains unpaid but that the building’s new owners will have to pick up that tab. Meanwhile, £6 million that investors had paid out for Block D was instead spent on a new fifth building the developers had added to their scheme. A search of records show creditors who had paid for apartments in Block D came from Birkenhead to Beijing and all points in between. With no money left to complete the job, and no cash to settle their bills, the steel frame and internal walls made of wood have remained open to the elements. The freehold to the site was sold to Manchester-based property investment company SGL1 Limited in 2020 for a reported £1.6 million. The site was split and a separate company run by the same two directors as SGL1 but called SGL3, took over the unfinished Block D. A series of complex court cases followed as buyers battled to gain control and finish the scheme. By 2021, the architect’s original drawings for Block D had been rebranded as “Park View” to be marketed at a new group of buyers. A one bed studio in the unfinished wood and steel shell was being advertised for £85,000. The Post is unsure how many people bought into this new scheme or whether their money is protected.

“I bought a three-bedroom apartment that cost £135,000, which was a really good deal. With hindsight, almost too good to be true. I’ve been firefighting one problem after another since day one.” November 8th, 2023 and I am rattling along the M62 with Chris Burridge. “It doesn’t look that good,” Chris says with detached stoicism and monumental understatement as Fox Street Village Block D comes into view. “It would be funny, if it wasn’t so costly and dangerous.” Chris is one of the apartment owners who have been battling over an £80,000 bill to install a transformer that would safely reconnect their electricity to the grid. The builders left a hot-wired connection into the mains, which Chris says the buyers only found out about after they’d secured the right to manage some of the site. It was just the latest in a long line of hidden surprises that have revealed themselves over the five years since tenants moved in. “The biggest block, Block D, is just a shell that should have been finished years ago,” Chris tells me as we pull up alongside what looks like a building entirely made of wood and wrapped in tin foil. “There should have been one large, shared entrance area, an underground car park for 170 vehicles, shops, a cinema room with communal laundry, and a bike store. All of those amenities were what made this site so attractive.”

Chris pauses to re-imagine what could have been, before reality kicks back in. “None of that exists. What we’ve actually got are great apartments next to the rat-infested fire trap of a mess that is Block D.”

Residents in this area have been complaining to me about the rats for as long as I’ve been investigating Fox Street Village. Back in April 2019, I broke my first story on the slow-motion car crash that has taken place here — months of work as part of an ongoing investigation for ITV’s Granada Reports. Back then, tenant Ross Lowey told me on camera: “We don’t feel safe. Every time we come back round that corner, we expect to see flames coming out of it.” He was far from alone in his unhappy prophecy.

Six months before that first ITV News report, in November 2018, I had been on a separate investigation into how developers duck out of paying the millions they owed to their cash-strapped council. It suddenly took an unexpected twist. While I ploughed through a mountain of conflicting planning documents that link to this case, a buyer tipped me off that their building was about to be the first on Merseyside to be shut down and issued with a Prohibition Notice. It was the last-ditch resort for a city council that had run out of ideas on how to make this site safe. “Serious construction issues will contribute to the spread of fire,” the Prohibition Notice reads. “Fire will spread quickly and possibly unnoticed.”

Put simply, the problems that the buyers had uncovered at their completed flats were so severe that they put lives at risk. While Block D remained unfinished, three of the four blocks that people had already moved into were so dangerous that everyone would be forced to move out — immediately. Judge Lloyd would later brand the project “disgraceful” as she fined the developers £3,120 for breaching planning conditions. She expressed sympathy for the residents and investors who had been affected. Planning inspectors said the development was “poorly finished” and failed to meet standards. Those problems have cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to put right.

3

By Matt O’Donoghue

“Block D is an inferno right now”, the first message reads. “Look what’s been torched.” More follow. “Not sure how other blocks are faring, they’ve been evacuated.” Some have video or photos attached. “Seen this. I feel sick.” One simply reads: “Fox Street’s final chapter.”

Block D at the stalled residential development of Fox Street Village sits on the edge of Everton. It is ablaze, and a lot of people want me to know. As the firefighters battle to hold back the flames that threaten to leap from block to block, frantic calls, dramatic videos, and heartbreaking messages light up my phone screen. Many of those getting in touch are people I met over the past five years I’ve been reporting on the sorry saga of Fox Street Village. They’re all saying the same thing: “It was only a matter of time.”

Chris Burridge on Fox Street. Photo: Matt O’Donoghue.

“Something like this had to happen,” says Chris Burridge, who owns one of the Fox Street Village apartments as he surveys the damage. It’s Sunday, January 28th and the day after the fire. Steel girders are bent and buckled like roller coaster tracks; the metal cools and creaks, and loose material flaps in the wind. “There’s been no decent perimeter fence for some time, even though we’ve been reporting incidents. We were lucky Block B didn’t go up. The flames and heat were ferocious. Mersey Fire saved those buildings.”

Lucky indeed. Fox Street Village was originally intended to be a 400 apartment complex spread across four blocks that were to be four or five stories tall. But Block D was never completed and has remained an unfinished shell for the past five years. The rest of the site, on the other hand, is home to a number of residents. Had the fire spread there, it would have been catastrophic. Letting agents are on-site to support tenants and help with the clean up, while insurance brokers and risk assessors mill about around them. Lifts, heating, and water are soon back on. Black debris litters the ground and the flat roofs of the adjacent blocks, while clumps of burnt insulation and wood continue to drift from above.

A team from Residence 365, the company that manages the Village’s interior communal areas, is helping to get residents back into their homes. “Unfortunately, as the fire started to take hold, many residents in Block A failed to evacuate,” says Carolyn Delaney, Residence 365’s managing director. “Police had to force their way into every apartment to make sure that building was clear and everyone was safe. Those doors and frames will have to be repaired.”

Outside, Block B’s walls and windows are warped from where it faced the fire. The cladding is buckled and wavy, like bad icing on an overbaked cake. Most of the glass is cracked and broken, and window frames have bowed out of shape. The fire breaks under the cladding will have activated and expanded. There will need to be a lot of work to put things right.

“The grounds and estate management company are nowhere”, says an exasperated Burridge. The last he was told, a company called Xenia Estates Limited were responsible for looking after the outside areas. “It’s outrageous. They’ve sent nobody down here to help or make things safe.”

Subscribe

Kevin Robertson-Hale is a local campaigner who set up the action group Everton Together. He was shopping at the ASDA on the Breck Road when he first saw the black clouds rising above his community. He knew straight away what was likely to be burning. “It’s just a miracle that nobody’s been hurt,” he says. Although Block D was not a finished building, homeless people have been sleeping there and using it as a shelter. “The way the place went up, someone asleep would never have got out.” Kevin is horrified by what has happened, but certainly not surprised. “We’ve been saying for years that something was going to happen. Either someone was going to fall off and break their neck, or it was going to go up in flames.”

Beneath the debris and behind the spectacular videos, the plumes of smoke billowing out and up from the bare bones of blazing Block D, are hundreds of stories of loss and despair. To properly understand what went wrong at Fox Street Village, to learn why things must be fixed, we have to understand why they were broken in the first place.

The building on Fox Street. Photo: Chris Burridge

Between 1971 and 1991, Everton’s population dropped by 60% as the area’s fortunes and prospects charted exactly the decline of the British Empire. As Liverpool’s docks fell silent, the huge warehouses and the factories like Tate and Lyle and British American Tobacco were closed. Thousands of jobs disappeared and the communities that once relied upon those goods shipped from all corners of the Empire ceased to exist. An urgent need to improve the area’s housing conditions, the crumbling Victorian tenements, led to slum clearance and demolition on a massive scale. Those once solid communities were broken up with families moved out and housed in places like Kirby, Runcorn and Skelmersdale. It was the perfect storm; shops closed, tower blocks were pulled down and the city’s terminal decline was hastened by Margaret Thatcher’s vicious attempts to starve the upstart council controlled by Hatton’s Militant Tendency into surrender.

Stand on the edge of Fox Street today and look towards the gleaming glass skyscrapers and modern penthouses and it’s obvious, the regeneration that has breathed new life into other parts of Liverpool in recent years seems to run out of steam as it creeps towards this area’s streets. According to the last census, Everton West — where Fox Street Village sits — has the third highest numbers of children on free school meals. This neighbourhood has some of the poorest health indicators, including the lowest life expectancy, across the whole of the city.

As Liverpool’s reputation grew as a great place to study, the last decade has seen residential housing for the influx of students become the city’s short-term planning solution and a way to kickstart Everton’s economy.

Fox Street Village followed the same controversial funding model that has dogged similar schemes across the city, known as ‘fractional sales’. Buyers — many based overseas — are enticed with the promise of a good rent and a solid investment in return for paying a large part of the sale price upfront. But as countless investors at other stalled sites in Liverpool have discovered to their detriment, there’s little or no protection should things go wrong.

When Fox Street Village Limited collapsed into administration, in 2019, it owed creditors £10 million and the city council nearly £700,000. The council told us that an invoice for over half a million pounds remains unpaid but that the building’s new owners will have to pick up that tab. Meanwhile, £6 million that investors had paid out for Block D was instead spent on a new fifth building the developers had added to their scheme. A search of records show creditors who had paid for apartments in Block D came from Birkenhead to Beijing and all points in between. With no money left to complete the job, and no cash to settle their bills, the steel frame and internal walls made of wood have remained open to the elements. The freehold to the site was sold to Manchester-based property investment company SGL1 Limited in 2020 for a reported £1.6 million. The site was split and a separate company run by the same two directors as SGL1 but called SGL3, took over the unfinished Block D. A series of complex court cases followed as buyers battled to gain control and finish the scheme. By 2021, the architect’s original drawings for Block D had been rebranded as “Park View” to be marketed at a new group of buyers. A one bed studio in the unfinished wood and steel shell was being advertised for £85,000. The Post is unsure how many people bought into this new scheme or whether their money is protected.

Fox Street after the fire. Photo: Chris Burridge

“I bought a three-bedroom apartment that cost £135,000, which was a really good deal. With hindsight, almost too good to be true. I’ve been firefighting one problem after another since day one.” November 8th, 2023 and I am rattling along the M62 with Chris Burridge. “It doesn’t look that good,” Chris says with detached stoicism and monumental understatement as Fox Street Village Block D comes into view. “It would be funny, if it wasn’t so costly and dangerous.” Chris is one of the apartment owners who have been battling over an £80,000 bill to install a transformer that would safely reconnect their electricity to the grid. The builders left a hot-wired connection into the mains, which Chris says the buyers only found out about after they’d secured the right to manage some of the site. It was just the latest in a long line of hidden surprises that have revealed themselves over the five years since tenants moved in. “The biggest block, Block D, is just a shell that should have been finished years ago,” Chris tells me as we pull up alongside what looks like a building entirely made of wood and wrapped in tin foil. “There should have been one large, shared entrance area, an underground car park for 170 vehicles, shops, a cinema room with communal laundry, and a bike store. All of those amenities were what made this site so attractive.”

Chris pauses to re-imagine what could have been, before reality kicks back in. “None of that exists. What we’ve actually got are great apartments next to the rat-infested fire trap of a mess that is Block D.”

The author Matt O’Donoghue on ITV. Photo: ITC/IMDb.

Residents in this area have been complaining to me about the rats for as long as I’ve been investigating Fox Street Village. Back in April 2019, I broke my first story on the slow-motion car crash that has taken place here — months of work as part of an ongoing investigation for ITV’s Granada Reports. Back then, tenant Ross Lowey told me on camera: “We don’t feel safe. Every time we come back round that corner, we expect to see flames coming out of it.” He was far from alone in his unhappy prophecy.

Six months before that first ITV News report, in November 2018, I had been on a separate investigation into how developers duck out of paying the millions they owed to their cash-strapped council. It suddenly took an unexpected twist. While I ploughed through a mountain of conflicting planning documents that link to this case, a buyer tipped me off that their building was about to be the first on Merseyside to be shut down and issued with a Prohibition Notice. It was the last-ditch resort for a city council that had run out of ideas on how to make this site safe. “Serious construction issues will contribute to the spread of fire,” the Prohibition Notice reads. “Fire will spread quickly and possibly unnoticed.”

Put simply, the problems that the buyers had uncovered at their completed flats were so severe that they put lives at risk. While Block D remained unfinished, three of the four blocks that people had already moved into were so dangerous that everyone would be forced to move out — immediately. Judge Lloyd would later brand the project “disgraceful” as she fined the developers £3,120 for breaching planning conditions. She expressed sympathy for the residents and investors who had been affected. Planning inspectors said the development was “poorly finished” and failed to meet standards. Those problems have cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to put right.

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The council say that it was only after the buildings were largely constructed that it became apparent there was a failure to comply with conditions or the plans that had been passed. When the new owners submitted another application to make up for the missing car park, a fresh deal was struck for them to pay towards a cycle route and parking scheme. But planning approval was refused when no money was forthcoming.

Two companies were involved in the development of Fox Street Village: Linmari Construction Limited and Fox Street Village Limited. Both were run by company director, Gary Howard. In 2013, Howard was left as the sole director of Fox Street Student Halls Limited after his business partner, Lee Carroll, was forced to step down. Carroll had been found guilty of being a gang master under legislation brought in to tackle labour exploitation after an investigation into a recruitment company that Carroll ran with John Howard. Carroll was banned from being a company director for 12 years.

While nothing should be inferred from Gary Howard’s previous business history, six companies where he was a director and shareholder have a County Court Judgement against them. Just like Fox Street Village Limited, seven firms that Howard also once helped run have gone into administration owing money to creditors — two of which were also residential developments in Liverpool designed for student living. We’ve been unable to contact Mr Howard for a comment.

“The frameworks that are supposed to deliver safe buildings, protect their owners and keep those inside safe are not up to the job,” says Dr Len Gibbs, whose doctoral thesis focused on the problems with unfinished developments in the Liverpool area.

That regulatory framework — to get a building through from an architect’s drawings to the point of being occupied — can be roughly broken down into two stages: planning and building control. The first part is strictly controlled by rules and regulations that must be met and followed to the letter. A council department controls the planning process, and everything has to be approved by a committee after a rigorous assessment by trained officers. Once it passes and everybody agrees that the buildings are what the council and community needs, the proposals are said to have ‘gained consent’.

When developers have their planning consent, a building control team comes on board to oversee every step of the construction. Site inspectors visit to approve stages such as the foundations and drains, and the relevant paperwork is filed with the city council to confirm everything has progressed according to the plans that were submitted and in accordance with the required regulations. In theory, these two functions operate independently but in support of one another to deliver a building that doesn’t kill the people who move in.

That’s something of a simplification, but these are incredibly complex areas that require years of training to properly understand. Only when every step has been followed can a completion certificate be issued against the building and each individual apartment. These final pieces of paper confirm that everything is up to standard and legally ready for tenants to move in. If all these steps are followed correctly, then a development of buildings that were once judged to be a threat to the lives of residents should never be occupied. Yet they were occupied.

[alicesloughbridge]

By @benjohnson02

[chloeelizabethsibley]

[foxstreetstudios]

*IMPORTANT PARKING RESTRICTION NOTICE*

Entrance to carpark will be block over the weekend due to building work. Any cars in carpark from 8am on Saturday will be towed.

You should contact your local police station by calling 101 and asking for your local police, or call NSL to find out where it's been taken. You can pay a 'surety' (deposit) if you don't tax the vehicle before you get it released.

[liverpoolstudentlettings]

Listed below are all the documents we need from you for the current year.

Agreement (signed by tenant)

Agreement (signed by guarantor)

Your identification (photo ID, passport)

Guarantors bank/pay slip (proof of address/income)

Proof of your income/student loan

Proof of deposit been paid

1st month rent

Inventory (checked, dated & signed) 1 week after moved in

Council Tax Exemption Form (from University) students only

*your door code to your block will only be released on morning of move in date if all documents / payments have been received. This is where your door key will be waiting for you.

If you are unsure about any of the above documents, contact us immediately

TEL: 0151 707 7799

Emergency: 07741260460

[mylonelywinter]

Via Facebook #viralmemes

[caringforpets]

Rats infection @liverpoolstudentlettings in Liverpool England via Aaron Johnson on Facebook

[dailyblogging]

Window view from Fox Street Hotel & Studios in Liverpool 🤣 #studentlife

[christmasjumperdayliverpool]

Liverpool Student Lettings are taking part in Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day on Thursday 7 December!

By pulling on our Christmassy knits and donating, we’ll be supporting children in the UK and around the world to keep safe, healthy, and learning. We’ll be helping them fight for the future they deserve.

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Dave Blackman and Shelly Blundell

[musicforastylesrestaurant]

It would be so cute if you could write about harry and yn being together since highschool and they were each others first everything and they got married very early and just their live together now yk

From Here To Eternity.

a/n: thank you to the very kind anon that requested this blurb, it was definitely a fun one to write and i’m sorry it took so long to post! fyi i’m absolutely terrible at writing smut so please don’t come at me🫶

masterlist || ask me anything <3

likes and re-blogs are very much appreciated!!

word count - 9.8k

in which, harry and you first met on your first day of secondary school, and since then your lives have always revolved around each other. she’s been there through everything, his x-factor audition, when the band first rose to fame, when they went on a hiatus and when he made it big as a solo star. they were each others first everything’s, and that made the whole ordeal just that more special.

September 4th, 2009 — the first meeting.

On the first day of secondary school, your nerves were through the roof. The fact that your hands were shaking was not helping the factor that you knew absolutely no one in this school.

You were absolutely terrified of being late to your classes and having to do the walk of shame towards your desk as everyone stared at you.

Walking down the hallway, you happened to spot a boy with brown curly hair, he was putting something away in his locker and a focused look on his face.

“Excuse me,” You gained his attention as you walked over to him, his snapping over to me. “I was wondering if you happened to know where room 102 was?”

He closed his locker behind him and stood up straighter. “— yeah I do, I’m heading there myself in a minute, what’s your name? M’Harry?”

Relief showered your body knowing that you had found someone to talk to and someone you could walk into class with. “My names (Y/N)”

“So are you new here?”he asked, gripping a hold of his backpack that was over his shoulder, it blended in with your school uniform.

You nodded your head. “—yeah we moved from Liverpool, today's my first day.”

“So what classes do you have today?” Harry asked as you tried not to bump into students in your way.

You glanced down at the timetable that was in your hands and let out a small groan. “I’ve got Math, English, Religious Studies and then Science”

Harry let out a small laugh. “— I’ve got the same, looks like we’re going to be in the same classes”

Thank god.

At least you would know someone in your classes through the day and wouldn’t have to feel like a loner.

“Maths is definitely my favourite subject,”Harry continued on smiling at the thought of his favourite subject. “What’s yours?”

“Oh I’m absolutely terrible at maths,”You shook your head before pondering an answer to his previous question. “— I think my favourite subject may be pe.”

As the two of you walked towards the class (more like you following behind him like a little bit of a lost puppy) you continued to chet about your favourite hobbies.

You found out that he was part of a music group named ‘White Eskimo’ and he had even invited you to rage along to one of their practices when you had time.

You found yourself laughing at the little jokes that he seemed to slip into the conversation and you felt a lot more at ease about the school day ahead.

By the time you both arrived at the door of the classroom, you felt your throat go dry upon seeing your Maths teacher Mr.Jones already reaching the class.

Not only had you made yourself late, you had now dragged your new friend down to your depths.

Great.

Harry tried to quietly open the door, hoping not to disturb the class but the teacher had already snapped their head over to see the two of you entering the room.

Mr.Jones raised an eyebrow at Harry. “Late on the first day back?”

Your new friend looked down at the ground slightly. “—M’sorry,Sir.”

The teacher let out a sigh before turning their attention over to you and eyeing you up carefully. “Who's your friend?”

“My names (Y/N), I’m new here and Harry helped me get here, it’s my fault we’re late.”I tried to explain to the teacher who just pushed there glasses further up the bridge of there nose.

“Well (Y/N) and Harry, go ahead and take the seats at the back of the class for me.”Mr.Jones nodded there head over to the two empty seats you were expected to occupy.

As the two of you sat down in the seats, you pushed a strand of hair behind your ear and felt your face flush a soft shade of pink.

Being late on your first day wasn’t so teething you expected to do. But they couldn’t really blame you.

You just didn’t want to make a bad first impression.

“I’m sorry about making you late.”You apologised to Harry, as you grabbed a pencil from your pencil case.

Harry waved you off with a reassuring smile. “— it’s all good.”

As the lesson progressed on you and Harry shared notes about the syllabus you were learning, helping each other with the work as much as you could without the teacher calling you out for speaking.

“Thanks for letting me sit next to you, you didn’t have to.” you muttered to Harry who was flicking through the textbook.

He smiled at you. “— honestly, it’s been my pleasure, and can’t wait to see where this friendship goes.”

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April 2nd, 2010 — Prom.

When Harry had invited you round his house on Saturday, you thought absolutely nothing of it.

Since you first started year eleven, you and Harry were quick to become best friends and would often go round each other's houses on the weekend and have a sleepover until Sunday.

When he opened the door after hearing you knock on it, you could instantly pick up on how nervous he was due to the fact his fingers were curled up into a fist.

“Hi, H!”you greeted him, leaning forward to press a kiss to his cheek.

There was no doubt that over the course of your friendship that you hadn’t thought about him in another way.

You spent every school day together since you started and most weekends together as well unless you were doing something with your families.

Harry opened the door a bit more. “— hey, come on in.”

Once inside, Harry led you out to the back garden seeing as it was a warm summer's day, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Until your eyes landed on the set up.

A picnic had been set up and a red and white chequered blanket was laid out on the greenery. A bowl of fruit in the middle with some sandwiches laid out as well.

“Wow..Harry,”you breathed out. “— what’s all this for?”

“I was thinking about Prom and how we weren’t too sure about if we should go,”he explained, sitting down on the blanket with you and wrapping an arm around your shoulders. “— I wanted to ask if you would be my Prom date? I wanted it to be special.”

Did you hear him right?

He wants you to be his prom date?

“Really?”was all I managed to speak, still trying to wrap my head around his question.

He nodded his head. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and I can’t deny that I like you, we’re friends and going to prom together would be the first step into getting something more.”

Was this way of him saying he liked you?

Holy fucking moly.

“You like me?”

He smirked at you. “— isn’t that obvious?”

He took a sip of strawberry water from his cup. “So what do you say? Will you be my prom date?”

You flushed a shade of red making him let out a small laugh. “I would love to be your prom date!”

When Prom night finally came around, your nerves were skyrocketing.

You stood at the top of the stairs after hearing from your mum who was peering out the windows that your prom date had arrived and was eagerly awaiting for your prom dress to get revealed, so that he could like you even more.

You took in a small inhale of air before your heel clad feet started making their way down the stairs, hand holding onto the railing so that you didn’t fall and trip, and that was when you saw him.

Harry.

He was wearing a grey suit, with a white crisp shirt underneath as well as a matching grey suit vest and a black bow tie to compliment the outfit even more, his hair was styled the exact same with his unruly curls framing his face and had some black shoes on his feet.

“Wow,”Harry’s mouth gaped as he stared at you, “— you look beautiful!”

You had no idea that you would be matching colours seeing as you hadn’t even known what each other was going to wear.

This was complete coincidence.

Your dress was a light grey strapless dress with a long skirt that was layered. There was a sprinkling of light pink flowers embroidered onto the torso of the dress to add the slightest pop of colour.

Your cheeks flushed. “Thank you, you don’t look too bad yourself.”

Your mother was standing next to your father at the bottom of the stairs as well, a camera was in her hands as Harry came and stood next to you, placing a hand on your hip and bringing you in closer to him.

“The two of you look lovely.”Your mother complimented as she continued to take photos.

“Thanks mom.”You let out a small groan of embarrassment as Harry let out a small laugh.

Your father clapped Harry on the back as the two of you made your way towards the front door, he was grinning at him. “— take care of my daughter tonight, Harry.”

“I will Mr. (Y/L/N)”Harry let out a nervous chuckle.

After the two of you had said your goodbyes to your parents, Harry who had just passed his drivers test grabbed his keys out of his pocket and opened your car door for you like a true gentleman.

Once the both of you were in the seats, Harry turned to look at you with a look of fondness. “You really do look beautiful by the way.”

“And you really do look handsome.”You told him in truth, tucking a curl out of his eyes.

The drive to the venue was one filled with laughter and comfortableness when the two of you arrived at the venue, strobe lights were lining up the exterior as a red carpet was rolled out.

Throughout the entire night, you and Harry continued to dance, moving your bodies and that was when you realised just how charming and considerate Harry really was.

All in all you had a great time together.

As the night drew to a close and prom king and queen was announced, Harry placed a hand on the small of your back as the final slow dance of the evening took place.

“How would you feel if I took you on a real date sometime?”

Your heart skipped a beat and your stomach felt as if butterflies had taken home there. “— I would feel privileged.”

What a great way to end the night.

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June 17th, 2010 — the first time.

“If you're not ready to do this…''Harry panted out as you wrapped your arms around his neck from where you were laying underneath him, both of you in nothing but your knickers. “…then we don’t have to, I’m not pressuring you into doing anything.”

“I really want to do this,”you whispered, pressing a kiss to his nose. “— there’s no one else I would rather be doing this with, I trust you Harry, baby.”

After your first date, you and Harry had been on five more before he asked you to be his girlfriend and after dating for two months you finally figured out that you were both ready to take the next big step in your relationship.

Harry nodded his head and started leaving kisses down her jaw, and lower down her neck, making you squirm slightly in his grip.

He slowly pulled the waistband of your knickers down from your hips and gradually down your leg making you wish he would simply hurry up.

“God, you're making me melt over here, babe.” Harry complimented as he took sight of your bare core, glistening and all for him.

He was a virgin also, so that factor made this even more special.

“Please..please har..Harry.”you whined, head thrown back as his hand teased at your bud of nerves, he tried not to whine as well at seeing you like this.

Your first time was together.

He was getting you ready for him and that made you even more nervous.

The condom was on his length before you even got a chance to blink.

His length was bulky and there was a large vein leading up to the top of his penis, where a drop of pre cum was starting to form.

Harry laced your fingers together as he slowly entered your soaking core.

It wasn’t as painful as you had imagined but it was definitely uncomfortable.

It would take a lot of getting used to.

His eyes rolled to the back of his head at the feeling and knowing that the moisture was all because of him and no one else.

“You feel so good (Y/N).”Harry groaned as he thrusted in and out of you at a gentle pace.

You reached your hand up and pulled at his curls as moans and groans fell from both of your lips and filled his bedroom.

He kissed you with everything he had, and that was what solidified the deal for you.

You loved him.

Your legs tightened and your stomach copied.

“Let go, sweet girl,”Harry spoke softly, making a tear fall down your cheek at the pleasure you were currently facing. “— come for me, babe.”

“Let go, let go for me, sweet girl.” A wave of ecstasy rolled over your body as you came undone and felt his lips against your feverish skin.

Harry pressed a kiss to your lips. “— I love you (Y/N) I love you so much.”

Your pants made it hard to figure things out around you but you had definitely heard what he had said.

He loves you?

Harry Edward Styles really said he loved you.

You let out a small breath. “I love you Harry, I really do.”

There’s definitely a right place to say things like this and this was definitely the place.

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August 6th, 2010 — the news.

“I’ve got some news.”

You tilted your head to the side as you laid down next to Harry on the hammock in his garden, your legs entwined and your head rested on his chest.

You lifted your head up slightly. “What’s the news?”

“You know how you and mum are always saying that I’ve got a good voice?” He asked, running a hand up and down your arm.

You nodded at him as an answer, you did really think that he had a good voice, you would often hear him singing to himself getting changed in the mornings you would sleep over, you would hear him singing you to sleep at night when you were a little bit restless.

He was even part of ‘White Eskimo’ so if he was the frontman of a band then he obviously had a good voice.

“Well I think I’m going to audition for X-factor.”

You sat up completely, eyes wide as his words registered in your brain.

“You're going to audition for X-factor?”You exclaimed, “— as in the show with Louis Walsh and Dermot O Leary?”

He nodded his head. “I’ve been practising non stop, you hear me singing all the time, so it only seems like the right thing to do.”

“I’m really excited for you!” You leaned forward and pressed a kiss against his cheek out of pure affection.

“Do you have an idea about what you're going to sing?” You mused, staring at him softly.

“Yeah, I want to sing something that really showcases my voice so I’ve been thinking ‘Hey Soul Sister’.”

One of your favourite songs.

“That’s a really good song, H.” you informed him, lacing your fingers together. “— you're going to do absolutely amazing.”

He hummed. “You really think so?”

“I know so,” You assured him, the sun shining down on your skin to give it a nice sun kissed glow. “— and I’m always here if you ever want help practising.”

He laughed, throwing his head back slightly at your words, you both knew that you were a very bad singer so just the thought of you helping him out seemed funny.

“I’ll definitely consider that.”

Over the next few weeks leading up to the audition, you would hear Harry singing every chance he got.

Whether that be in the shower, in the car on the way to school, and sometimes when you stayed over you could swear that you heard him singing in his sleep.

But that only showed his dedication to impress the judges.

And that hard work definitely paid off.

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February 19th, 2013 — gaining permission.

It was a warm summer’s evening when Harry approached the front door of your childhood home.

His nerves were high as he raised his fist to knock against the wood, his mind still rehearsing everything that he was about to say to him.

After hearing someone knock against the front door, your father raised his eyebrows and went ahead towards it, opening it up and coming face to face with your boyfriend of nearly three years.

“Hello Mr. (Y/L/N)”Harry greeted the man he called a second father and offered him a grin.

Your father and Harry shook hands. “— Afternoon, Harry.”

You had absolutely no idea that Harry was going round to speak to your father tonight seeing as you were on a girls weekend with a few friends from school, and so Harry thought this would be the best time to speak to him, without you wondering where he was.

The timing was perfect really.

“I came to talk to you about something really important, if that’s alright with you.”Harry explained, his palms suddenly becoming slightly sweaty.

Your father invited him into the home and they both settled down on the sofas in the living room, Harry began speaking seeing as he couldn’t hold it off anymore.

"Mr. (Y/L/N), I know we're young, but I can't imagine my future without your daughter," Harry stated as he sat across from your dad.

"I appreciate your honesty, Harry. But marriage is a big commitment. Are you sure you're ready for that?" Your dad replied, folding his arms.

When Harry was placed as a member of One Direction, he didn’t think that his life would change drastically, he had heard stories of boy bands and their girlfriends always having a hard time, but you and Harry were beating all the odds.

The two of you were stronger than ever.

"Yes, sir," Harry answered confidently. "I've never been more sure of anything in my life. I love her so much and I want to spend the rest of my life making her happy."

Your dad leaned back in his chair, contemplating Harry’s words. "Well, I have to say, I'm impressed with your sincerity. It's not often you see such devotion in young people these days. Alright, I'll give you my blessing."

The singer let out a sigh of relief and a smile spread across his face. "Thank you, sir! I'll do my best to make her happy every day."

As Harry stood up to leave, your dad stopped him. "One more thing, James. Promise me that you'll take care of her. She's my little girl and I love her more than anything in this world."

"I promise, sir," Harry replied, nodding his head earnestly. "I'll always be there for her and do whatever it takes to make her happy."

As Harry left, your dad couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and joy. He knew that his daughter was in good hands with a man who loved her so deeply.

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March 1st, 2013 — the pier.

Coming to the pier was a bit of a last time for you and Harry.

It held a lot of memories for the two of you.

When you would spend the nights round his house on the weekends, you would sneak out of the house and go and spend some time at the arcades at the end of the pier, he even won you a stuffed unicorn once.

You had gone there after prom when he asked you out on a proper date to stare at the stars as they rested in the sky,

After your fifth date, Harry had brought you to the pier and asked if you wanted to be his girlfriend.

You had been on the pier when he told you that he was put in One Direction, you weren’t allowed to be at that audition because your parents said that school was more important, you were there when he told you that his life was about to change drastically.

As you and Harry walked along the pier, he held your manicured hand tightly.

“So how was your day, baby?” You quizzed him, swinging your hands back and forth slightly.

“It was good,”Harry replied, “— busy with getting things ready for the tour, but it was good overall.”

You knew how hard he and the rest of the boys were working so that they could get everything ready for the tour they were about to embark on, you were tagging along as well so that you could spend as much time with Harry as possible.

“I can imagine,”you offered him a small smile. “How’s all that going?”

“I think it’s going well, to be honest.”he squeezed your hand as you continued walking down the pier. “— we’re just working on nailing the set list and then everything should be ready to go.”

As the two of you walked, the topic of conversation shifted from work to your family and then to finally what you both wanted your future to look like.

Over the years you had learned to feel comfortable with speaking to Harry about everything and anything.

“Speaking of the future,” He spoke, making you glance over at him, your eyes locking. “— what do you see in our future?”

You had thought about an answer to this question for a while now and contemplated telling him, but now seemed like the appropriate time to say it.

“I definitely see us having a happy, loving life together,”you began to answer, breathing softly. “Maybe a house, marriage and definitely some kids, you’d be a great dad.”

Harry’s heart swelled after hearing your words. “That sounds absolutely perfect.”

The two of you gazed out at the moonlit waves crashing below the wooden slats that were holding the pier up.

Finally, you reached the end of the pier where Harry stopped and turned to face you.

"(Y/N), I know we're only young," he began, "but I love you more than anything in this world. These past three years have been the happiest of my life and I can't imagine spending my future with anyone else."

Your heart was pounding as she stared into Harry’s forest green orbs that seemed to sparkle in the moonlight.

"H, I love you too," you replied, your voice shaking slightly.

“Sweetheart, you're my best friend, actually your more than that, your my whole world, my absolute reason to wake up every morning, you’ve been by my side through all the hardships and to say you’ve made me a better man would one hundred percent be the understatement of the century.”

Your heart pounded in your chest, trying to regulate your breathing as your ears started ringing as you stared at the man you adored.

Your eyes widened as you watched Harry kneel down on one knee and pull out a small velvet box from his pocket. "(Y/N), will you marry me?"

Marriage.

Harry wanted you to be his wife.

You could barely see him through the tears that were falling from your eyes, but you could make out that he was crying as well.

Tears streamed down your cheeks as you nodded vigorously.

“Yes, yes, of course, I will!" You exclaimed, throwing your arms around Harry’s neck.

Once the two of you broke away from the hug, he slipped the ring from the box onto your finger, both hands shaking from the adrenaline currently coursing through their body.

The two of you embraced tightly, feeling each other's heartbeat as the gentle breeze swirled around you. For you and Harry, this moment felt like the beginning of forever.

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August, 2014 — I do.

You took in a deep breath as you stood at the end of the altar next to your father, your arm linked with his as your other hand held a bouquet of flowers.

When the familiar chords of one of your and Harry’s favourite songs rang out throughout the small registery office that the two of you had decided to get wed at, that was when you realised that this was really happening.

You were getting married.

“Are you ready, sweetheart?” Your father asked you, head tilted to the side.

You took in a hesitant small breath as you nodded at the words your father had just spoken. “Honestly, this is as ready as I’ll ever be.”

He nodded his head at your words before opening the doors to the side of the room, your breath hitched in your throat.

Your groom lifted his head when he heard whispers filling up the room and that was all the clarification he needed to know that you were present.

He hesitantly lifted his head and salt water instantly filled his orbs.

You looked astonishing.

It felt as if it was just the two of you in the room, your eyes remained locked on each other as you got closer and closer, the moment was pure and heartwarming.

Harry’s curls had grown out since your engagement on the pier so they were pushed back by a simple headband, so they didn’t block his view of you and he was adorning a suit of black colour, a white frilled shirt underneath as a thin silk black tie hung around his neck.

Your wedding dress was what you had always dreamed your dress would look like on your special day. It was Lacey and hung loosely to your figure in certain areas, flowers embroidered the sleeves and around your collar.

As your heel clad feet came to a stop by your soon to be husband, your father left a gentle kiss to the crown of your head, before taking a seat at the front two next to your mother as well as Harry’s parents and sister.

Your hand slipped into Harry’s and he rubbed soft circles on the back of it to reassure you that everything was going to be okay.

“You look beautiful, m’love.”Harry whispered as his own eyes filled with more tears.

The officiant glanced around at the people around you that were gathered in the small room before clearing his throat and beginning to speak.

“(Y/N) and Harry have decided to write their own vows as a declaration of there love for one another as well as there marriage,” the man began, looking down at the notes in his hands.

You and Harry locked gazes with each other and both offered each other a small smile, this was really happening.

“God, Harry I don’t even know where to begin,”you looked down at the piece of paper in your hand that was filled with your handwriting.

“— just for this day, I had to Google what the definition of a soulmate was but then I realised I didn’t have to. You were the definition. Plain and Simple. When we first met our first conversation was me asking you for directions, but over the past three years of getting to know you and fall continuously in love with you, I have come to known that you have showed me new directions of life, directions I didn’t think I would see unless I hadn’t of met you. You continue to make me proud and that’s one of the main reasons I love you.”

You glanced up at him when you had finished reading your vows and watched as a single tear rolled down his cheek.

Harry turned to look at the small gathering of people you had invited to be here for this special moment, and a wet chuckle fell from his lips. “How on earth am I supposed to beat that?”

He turned back to look at you, unfolding a piece of paper from his shit pocket and starting to read aloud. “— My sweet girl, m’love, when we first started dating, straight from the get go I had promised to cherish you from then on out, from our first meeting you instantly captured my heart, you’ve made me a better person, and for that I simply can’t thank you enough, your all I ever want and more, I love you and will continue to love you as long as my heart remains beating.”

There was definitely not a dry eye in sight when Harry had finished reading.

“(Y/N) (Y/M/N) (Y/L/N), do you take Harry Edward Styles to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward?”

“I do.”

“And do you Harry Edward Styles take (Y/N) (Y/M/N) (Y/L/N) to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward?”

“Of course I bloody do!”

Harry’s best man, his stepfather Robin Twist steps forward from where he’s sat next to Anne, offering both of you the rings.

The ring slipped onto Harry’s finger effortlessly.

His hands worked delicately to slip yours on.

The officiant smiled adoringly. “— with the power invested in me, I now declare you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride!”

Harry didn’t waste a second in bringing his lip balmed lips down against yours, as the taste of strawberry filled your senses, the kiss was one full of tenderness and love.

It was all official.

You were now Mrs. (Y/N) Styles.

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June 18th, 2015 — the delivery.

"I'm here!"

You looked up from the hospital bed you were currently laying on to see your husband run into the room, his eyes wide as he assessed the situation.

You were laid on the hospital bed, tears falling freely down your cheeks as your mother crouched at your bed side holding your hand and soothing you.

"H..Harry…"You spoke, voice coming out dry and hoarse.

The man rushed to your side, taking a hold of your hand and pushing some of the hair that had dried around your forehead out of your face. "— it's okay sweet girl, it's all okay. I'm here now"

Your mother gulped and looked down at the two of you. "I'll wait outside, give the two of you some space"the older women turned to look at her daughter. "You've got this (Y/N)"

Got what exactly?

Let’s answer that question.

You and Harry never really got to have a proper honeymoon after your wedding, due to the fact he was touring and didn’t have enough time to change the plans when they surrounded the band and management.

So almost six months ago, the band had decided to go on a little break near Christmas time so that they could spend the new years at home with their families and so you and Harry went back to holmes chapel.

And on Christmas Eve, the two of you christened the night and an explosion of love was formed.

You got pregnant.

And now, not even near the full term of pregnancy, your waters had broken when you were on a coffee date with your mother, your nerves were heightened especially when you had four months left in your pregnancy.

Once your mother had left the room, you turned to look at your husband, swallowing roughly. "I can't do it Harry..it's too early..they're not gonna make it!"

"Don't think like that, everything's going to be fine, I promise.” and with that he pressed a kiss to your damp cheek, grabbing ahold of your hand and rubbing the back of it softly.

Suddenly, you pinched her eyes shut and let out one of the most ear piercing painful cries Harry had ever heard, his heart beating erratically against his rib cage.

He stood up. "— I'm going to go and get some help alright..i'll be back as soon as possible"

He ran out of the room his wife was in and towards the reception area, his eyes landing on nurses who were sat there talking away. "— I need some help..my wife's having our baby"

You were clutching your stomach when Harry sprinted back into the room and resumed his position next to you, the nurses coming in followed by a doctor all smiling at you in the bed.

"Hi Mrs Styles, my names Dr Armstrong and I'll be helping you deliver your baby today, to make this experience as calm as possible, I'm going to need you to lift up your legs for me so I can check how dilated you are"

"You've got this"Harry whispered, his lips pressed against the shell of your ear.

You hesitated for a few seconds due to the fact the only person that had ever looked between your legs was harry, and the thought of any other man seemed daunting, but after Harry gave you a gentle look you slowly raised your legs up so they were bent on the bed and watched with watery eyes as the doctor slipped some latex gloves on his hand before slowly placing his hands between your legs.

The doctor then pulled his hands back, Harry letting his eyes fall on the blood on the top of the gloves, the doctor muttering a few things to the nurses, who then walked over to the other side of the room and started picking up blankets and towels.

What was happening?

"Mrs Styles, Mr Styles"the doctor cleared his throat. "— this probably isn't what the two of you were expecting but this baby is coming rather fast, and when I say fast I mean very, very fast"

Harry gulped and shook his head. "But she's only five months, surely that's not right"

The doctor smiled at the soon to be father. "That is very soon yes sir, but I have delivered babies much sooner than five months, and if we do everything right and take our time everything should be fine, I assure you"

The words just made your throat go even more dry, like sandpaper upon hearing that you were ten centimetres dilated and was soon going to be having the baby which just sent a sense

of dread to vibrate throughout your body.

"I don't want to do this Harry," You cried. "I don't want to do this..I can't"

Harry stroked a hand through your hair that was sticking to your forehead. "— you can do this sweet girl, I know you can, wouldn't have put our sweet baby in you if I didn't"

You nodded your head with all the energy that you could muster up and sat up a little bit further in the bed, your tight grip on Harry’s hand only getting tighter.

"Okay Mrs Styles, give me a nice gentle push."the doctor instructed, the nurses coming over to be on standby.

The next contraction hits your body and you ground your teeth together as you push, putting all the counter pressure in your hips.

Pushing kind of felt like when you were going to the toilet, only this was much more painful.

Tears continued to slide down your cheeks, Harry’s slightly calloused hands rubbing across her own as his own eyes welled with tears seeing the girl he loved and adored in so much pain.

"That was so good Mrs Styles,"the doctor complimented. "You're doing so well, repeat what you just did for me when your next contraction occurs, okay?"

Harry kissed your temple, just as another contraction ripped through your body, making it feel as though you were on fire.

"I can see the head."

The voices were numb to your ears, seeing as you were too busy focusing on pushing, your teeth were gritted together as your head was tucked down to your chest.

"We're so close to meeting them Sweet girl, so close,"Harry encouraged, looking in the eyes of his wife whose eyes were black.

The usual colour were filled with a pain filled black.

"The next push and you should have your baby, give me a big push Mrs Styles."

You pushed, this one feeling much longer than the others, keeping a white knuckle grip on Harry’s hand.

And that's when you heard it.

A cry filled the room, a literal babies cry.

Your and Harry’s babies cry.

"Is everything okay?"Harry quizzed, not removing his hand from your sweaty grasp.

You watched as the doctor nodded his head, letting his eyes flicker from between the two. "— congratulations Mr and Mrs Styles, you have a beautiful baby boy."

A boy.

You had a son.

A beautiful baby boy who was your’s forever.

"Would you like some skin to skin contact with your son, Mrs Styles?"Dr Armstrong asked, holding the baby in his arms.

"Yes please."You answered, perhaps a bit too quickly.

The doctor walked forward and gently laid the baby against your bare chest, moving the hospital gown out of the way.

The second your sweet baby boy was placed against your chest, you couldn't help but loud out a few cries.

Sobs even.

It may have been a bit earlier than the two of you expected, but now you simply wouldn't change it for the world.

The Styles were complete.

Harry couldn't help but let a tear fall down his cheeks, not bothering to wipe it away.

This is all he had worked for, and now it was finally here he couldn't be happier.

"Do we have a name?"one of the nurses asked, smiling at the sight of the mother holding the baby.

You locked eyes with Harry. "You tell them sweet boy"

Harry swallowed and nodded his head, not letting his eyes falter from the baby boy attached to his wife's bare chest.

"August,"he spoke. "— August Harry Styles."

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July 2nd, 2015 — the announcement.

As Harry Styles sat down for his interview, his long hair cascaded down his shoulders as he sat with the rest of the boys on the James Corden Show, a striped shirt hugging his body made of different shades of blue silk, with some black skinny jeans and a pair of chelsea boots.

He greeted James with a warm smile and sat down in the middle of Niall and Louis, he couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. It had been a while since he had spoken to the press, and he knew that they would have a lot of questions for him.

The first few questions were easy enough - how was his music career going? What were his plans for the future? But then, James asked him the question he had been dreading.

A question regarding his son.

Harry couldn’t be mad at James, it was his job after all and he knew for a fact that it was bound to come up one day, James was his friends, he wasn’t alone in the interview seeing as he was surrounded by his band mates, so he didn’t really have a factor to worry about.

"Harry, there have been rumours circulating that you have a son. Can you confirm or deny these rumours?"

Harry took a deep breath and looked directly into the camera. "I can confirm that the rumours are true," he said, his voice steady.

The host raised an eyebrow. "Can you tell us more about your son? How old is he?"

"He's just a baby," Harry replied, not wanting to really give away much about him. "I don't want to get into too many details, but he's the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me."

And it was true.

Just over three weeks ago, little Auggie flew into there lives and made them just that much better than they already were.

The sleepless nights brought the two of you closer,

Nappy changes brought the two of you closer,

And baby sick made the two of you closer.

The interview continued, but Harry's mind was elsewhere. He couldn't shake the feeling that he had just revealed a major secret. What would people think of him now that they knew he was a father?

But when Harry left the studio and checked his phone, he was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from his fans.

They sent him messages telling him how happy they were for him and how much they respected him for being honest.

In the end, Harry realised that being a dad was nothing to be ashamed of - it was something to be proud of. And with his fans by his side, he knew he could handle anything that came his way.

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25th May, 2023 — tour life.

Touring with your husband whilst he completed his last leg of tour was something you would never get over.

Especially now that you had two little munchkins touring with you, it made you think of all the different places the two of them would get to visit at such young ages.

Your little August was weeks away from turning seven and recently you had welcomed a little girl into the family, well not really recently.

A little girl named Margot.

Margot ‘gigi’ Anne Styles.

Touring was amazing, you got to spend all day surrounded by the people you adored to the end of the earths.

You were currently in Edinburgh.

And the two of you had woken up early due to your teething newborn and decided to head down to the hotel gym whilst it wasn’t busy and get in a little workout alongside your husband to try and get your body back to its pre baby shape.

Whilst you got ready and pumped some milk that Margot would be eating later, Harry had taken the kids down to the gym with him and told you to meet him there as that would be easier.

It really was.

As you walked into the gym, your eyes instantly landed on your husband Harry who was on a treadmill, already working up a sweat.

Seeing him working out always seemed to do something to you, and you have no idea why.

Maybe it was because you liked the look of the way the sweat would be rolling down his skin and making it sticky.

Or the way his hair stuck to his temple making him even look more delicious.

Almost ten years of marriage and you still got fireworks erupting your body whenever you were in his presence.

You smiled to yourself as you made your way over to him.

"Hey there good looking," You greeted him with a kiss on the cheek, making him freeze slightly before registering that it was you and smiling softly to himself.

"Hey m’love," he replied, slowing down the treadmill to join you, he leant over the handles of the machine and leaned down so that you were the same height.

"How's it going?"

"It's good. I’m knackered, but it’s good,Just trying to keep in shape for our little ones," he said, pointing to your son August, who was playing in the corner and drawing in his notebook, whilst your eight-month-old daughter Margot, who was asleep in her stroller, thumb in her mouth and head pulled to the side.

"I know what you mean. It's crazy how much our lives have changed since we got married," You answered, wiping down the machine before hopping on and starting up on the treadmill with a brisk walk.

"Yeah, it's wild to think about. But I wouldn't change a thing. We have a beautiful family and I'm so proud of everything we've accomplished," he said, glancing over at the kids, a smile involuntarily making its way onto his face.

"Me too," You agreed, adjusting my speed so that you were now in a slow jog. "Sometimes I can't believe we went from being just two kids in love to parents of two."

It really did blow your mind sometimes.

You remember the first time that you met Harry and your nerves skyrocketed. You were new to the school and knew absolutely no one, so when you and him became friends, it was like the two of you were meant to be.

But now, through all the good and the bad, the two of you had made it out on top, through all the hate from his fans, and all the hardships you now had the most perfect family, one that you would be able to cherish for the rest of your life.

"I know, right? But we make it work and we make each other better. And that's all that matters," Harry leaned forward and pressed a kiss to your cheek before hopping back into his workout mode, matching your pace on the machine.

The two of you continued to work out, talking about the things you normally would, like what dreams you had during the night and what you wanted to do the day before his tour.

“I was thinking we could take the kids to a cafe for lunch today,” You suggested, taking a break on the machine to take a sip out of your water bottle. “— I was thinking it would be something different, I don’t want the kids to get bored, y’know?”

Harry pondered the idea for a second before nodding his head. “Yeah, sounds like a good idea.”

It wasn’t long before you were all heading out for cafe.

It was a warm and sunny afternoon when you l, Harry and the kids approached the cosy little cafe in the heart of the Scottish city.

After your little gym session this morning, you and Harry had both gone back to the hotel room, had some showers and then got yourselves and the kids ready.

Harry was wearing a dark grey t-shirt with some pastel coloured designs on the front of it, blue ripped jeans hugging his legs accessorised with a pair of blue and white chequered vans, a blue cap and his iconic white bug eyed sunglasses over his face.

Harry had gotten Margot ready this morning, as you were in the shower. She was wearing a dark green romper, with a nice white bow headband pushing her curls out of her face, some knee high white socks adorning her feet.

After making sure that August was ready, his outfit consisted of a beige coloured oversized shirt, a cap on his hat so that he could match his daddy and a cap so he could match his daddy, and a pair of black shorts on his legs.

Once all of the kids were ready, it was then your time to get ready for the day. You shifted through the suitcase containing your clothes and decided on a simple outfit. It consisted of a pink oversized jumper paired with a matching pink pair of cycling shorts, some sunglasses and a pair of trainers on your feet.

It seemed like forever until you were all ready to leave the room.

As you made your way inside the cafe, you could see August's eyes light up with excitement as he eyed the pastry display case.

A worker greeted the four of you as you approached the counter, pulling your sunglasses up so that they were resting on the top of your head.

Your little boy turned to look at you with puppy dog eyes. "Mommy, can I have a chocolate croissant?"

"Sure, sweetie,” You nodded your head, adjusting your hands that were resting on the stroller handles as they were getting a bit sweaty. “— But just one, okay?"

You really didn’t want to deal with him having a stomach ache if he ate too many Pan Au Chocolates.

All the food sounded so good.

"I think I'm going to get a sandwich,” Your Husband spoke.

“What about you, baby?" Your husband spoke up, looking at the menu that was hung above your heads.

"I'll have a panini, I think,” You told him, turning to look at him and offering him a small smile. “And Margot is just going to have some pureed veggies."

You placed our order and then proceeded to sit down at a cosy table by the window, the sun beating through the windows. Little Margot comfortably nestled in her stroller beside you and Harry whilst August sat on the other side of the round table so that he was also next to both of you.

It was filled with small talk whilst you waited for your order to arrive at the table, the Scottish weather really was amazing this time of year.

"Daddy, did you know that I spelt a really big word with Mrs. Addams today?" August piped up, leaning forward in his seat eagerly.

August was coming up to seven so that meant that he would have already started school, but due to the fact you and the kids were touring the world with Harry that means he wasn’t able to go to school as much as he would have liked.

So in order for him to continue his studies, you and Harry both agreed that a teacher coming on tour with the two of you would be what’s best, and so far it’s been really good.

There’s been times where August’s kicked off about being too tired to learn but Harry being his father just learns that he inherited his stubbornness.

August was definitely a daddy’s boy through and through, in personality and appearance, he definitely had a little bit of separation anxiety when it came to Harry, but that was totally plausible due to the fact he was away for work quite a lot.

When Margot came into the world, she completed your family, she filled a void that the three of you didn’t know were missing and made your hearts just that much fuller.

Both children were spitting images of their father, you wouldn’t think that you were the one that carried them at all.

They both had his iconic brown curls (Auggie’s were a bit more longer due to the fact he had seen a photo of Harry with long hair and insisted he grow it out.) they had his green eyes that you fell in love with, and had his dimples and bunny teeth.

“Really? That's amazing!” Your husband gushed, reaching forward to fist bump his son with a proud smile on his face. “— What word did you spell?"

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"

"Wow, that's quite a mouthful,”Harry leaned forward to press a kiss against his mini me’s forehead. “I'm proud of you, buddy."

August smiled at his fathers words before you all began to chat about something else.

As the four of you chatted and waited for your food to arrive, Margot began to fuss and squirm in her stroller.

"Looks like someone's getting hungry,” You went to stand up and go to her aid, her veggie purée that was in the baby bag under the stroller. “Let me get her a bottle."

"I can do it, love,” Harry grabbed a hold of your wrist softly, and stood himself up to approach the stroller “You stay here and eat. I'll take care of Gigi."

You smiled gratefully at your husband as he took Margot out of her stroller and sat her down on his lap as he started feeding her the purée you had made this morning in the hotel room while August and you chatted about what he wanted to do for the rest of the day.

As you finished your lunch, Harry chuckled and began to speak, "I don't think I've ever been surrounded by this much cuteness before."

That was true, your kids were the absolute cutest and the two of you weren’t biassed at all.

“And we wouldn't have it any other way." You sighed contentedly, they were your entire world, without the kids and Harry you're not sure what you would be doing right now.

With full bellies and happy hearts, you gathered your things and headed back out into the bustling city, ready to take on the rest of the day together as a family.

As you left the cafe in Edinburgh, you watched as Harry pushed Margot’s stroller, and held August’s hand so that he was close to you. You could see the fans waiting outside, and knew that you had to be careful.

As you made your way to the car, the fans started to call out your husband's name. "We love you, Harry!" they would shout.

You could feel August's grip on your hand tightening. He was scared, and you didn't blame him. You had been going out with Harry for thirteen years and still his fans didn’t cease to make you anxious. But you knew that you had to keep moving, to show that August couldn’t be scared because he would be scared if you were.

You reached the car, and Harry quickly put Margot in her car seat. August climbed into the back, and I got into the passenger seat, whilst Harry got in the driver's seat. As you drove away, you could see the fans in the rearview mirror, still calling out your husband's name.

"Mommy, why do they want to see daddy?" August asked, you could hear a slight quiver in his voice.

You offered him a gentle smile as you turned back to look at him in the backseat, his hand was holding onto his Sister’s,"Because he's a very talented singer, Auggie. A lot of people love his music."

August nodded, and you could see that he was starting to relax. You knew that it was going to be a long tour, but you were determined to keep your family safe and happy.

As Harry drove through the streets of Paris, you could feel the excitement building in the air. Harry’s husband's tour was going to be huge, and you

Knew that he was going to be amazing. But you also knew that it was going to be hard on all of you.

"Mommy, can we listen to daddy’s music?" August asked from the backseat.

"Of course, sweet boy," Harry enthusiastically reached forward, turning on the radio. Adore You came on, and I could see August's face light up.

"Your so good," August exclaimed, “— your the bestest singer in the whole wide world!” He was tapping his foot to the beat.

You and Harry both smiled, You were feeling proud of your husband and his talent. But also knew that being a pop star wasn't easy. There were always fans waiting outside, always paparazzi trying to get a photo.

You and your family arrived back at the hotel, and you quickly got Margot out of her car seat whilst Harry picked August up, although he was almost seven years old almost, he still like a cuddle.

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May 26th, 2023 — late night talking.

“Can you believe it's been almost ten years since we got married?" You asked Harry as you lifted up his hand to play with the wedding band sitting around his ring finger.

You laid in bed with Harry in Edinburgh, after his show and the two of you were absolutely knackered.

His show was incredible like it always was, he got the crowd going like always and brought a smile on not just your face and the children’s faces but every fan's face in the stadium.

He was in everybody's safe space.

You had put the kids to bed earlier and had both shared a shower together before crawling into bed and snuggling up against one another like always.

Harry chuckled and replied, "I know, it feels like yesterday. We were so young and naive back then."

You smiled up at him, shifting on your side and placing a hand on his naked torso (he liked to sleep in just his boxers), "But look at us now, we have a beautiful family and a great life."

Harry nodded his head. "Yeah, we've come a long way. I'm proud of us."

You looked at Harry, "Remember when we used to talk about having kids? We were so scared."

Harry laughed, "Yeah, we were clueless. But now we have August and Margot, and I’d like to say we're doing just fine."

Parenting was definitely hard at times, but you and Harry always worked together to make sure that everything was going smoothly at all times, you both agreed you didn’t want your kids growing up in a household where there was animosity.

You grinned,pecking a kiss to his chest, "August is growing up so fast. He's already six years old."

Where had the time gone?

Where was your itty bitty five pound baby?

"I know, it's crazy,” Harry nodded, rubbing a hand up and down your back in a soft manner. “—And Margot is already eight months old. Time really does fly."

You sighed contentedly, "I'm so grateful for you and our family. We've been through so much, but we always come out stronger."

Harry smiled lovingly at you, pressing a soft kiss to your nose, "That's what love does. It makes us stronger."

It was true.

You and Harry always came out stronger when the two of you had a little disagreement, and that’s what made your relationship worth while.

You and Harry continued talking, reminiscing on your lives, feeling grateful for their life together. You knew that you had both come a long way, but if there was one thing you were looking forward too, it was to see what the future for their family.

"Are you okay?" You asked Harry as you noticed him struggling to keep his eyes open.

Harry shook his head, "I'm just feeling a bit tired today. I didn't get much sleep last night due to Gigi teething and the routings just started to get to me, nothing that a good nights sleep can’t fix.”

Yoy looked at Harry with concern, "Why didn't you tell me? Tonight, when the baby monitor goes off, I’m going to get Margot, I don’t care if you insist I sleep, I’m going, you need to be well rested.”

Harry smiled at you once again, yawning shortly before. "Thank you. But I wanted you to get some rest too. You've been working so hard lately."

You felt touched by Harry's words.

You knew that he was always looking out for you, even when he was struggling himself.

“Let’s try and get some shut eye.” You turned to the left and switched off your lamp on the bedside table before turning back around and snuggling into your husband's chest once again.

This was definitely your favourite sleeping position. His arms made you feel safe, as if no harm could ever come to you or the kids.

“I love you.” Harry spoke, looking down at you and puckering his lips slightly.

“And I love you, darling,” You replied, pressing one last goodnight kiss to his lips. “— from here to eternity?”

“From here to eternity.”

[crepesuzette2023]

Hi! Because someone just asked me, I'd love you hear your Top 5 favourite McLennon fics!

You made my day! Nothing could have made me happier than this ask.

I'm not going to evade your question. I will post my top-five, even though it hurts to choose. But you inspired me to finally write a longer (okay: very long) post about some (not nearly all!) of my favorites, which will be under the cut.

(Sorry for not knowing every writer's tumblr, by the way. Please feel free to let me know, so I can tag authors where appropriate. Thank you!)

My Top 5:

MIRACLE WORKER by @scurator. What can I say. Every time I need my heart broken and to feel an inkling of what grace truly means, I go to this masterpiece about Paul and Robert Fraser finding each other again at Cavendish in 1981.

COAST STARLIGHT by bookofapril is "Miracle Worker's" cosmic twin. The sun to its night. Paul and Robert Fraser on Fire Island in 1974. Nothing I can say will do it justice, so I won't try. This is the "other world" conjured in "Tug of War," so powerfully and joyfully imagined, it's real. (I'm always thinking of this story, but I did so extra hard when I came across a prompt recently: 'They aren't each other's first love, but they're each other's true love'.)

SAME AS IT EVER WAS by RedheadAmongWolves. My favorite Outsider's POV. An ageing newsstand owner from Liverpool remembers John and Paul as boys and young men. There's something magical about the relationship coming alive in these glimpses. A story filled with tenderness that reminds me to always look closely.

AN ORGASM OF SOUND by @pauls1967moustache. The insanity of John and Paul in 1967 got the tribute it deserves. I sleep easier since I read this story. It feels cosmically right that it exists.

PLANT A SEED by @eveepe. Paul in his slutty sailor outfit in Miami. He and John are into each other, and happy, and fuck slowly. Afterwards, Paul has an idea for a new song. That's it. Tender, glorious, hot perfection. Apply at least once a week for best results.

For more thoughts about some of my favorite stories, sorted into very much defined-ad-hoc categories, read under the cut.

Young Love:

I love the myth of their first meeting, and stories that speculate about the sexually loaded creative fireworks/gritty jealousies/tentative hand-holding/topping and tailing during the first years. Here are some faves:

Paul finds music, and John, and his life is changing. In STREETS OF OUR TOWN (@with-eyes-closed) you can taste the upheaval and promise of first love and growing up. Deeply sensual, even without on-page sex. The shaky, sweet, and all-consuming fire of John and Paul’s first kiss is immortalized in ALL I KNOW SINCE YESTERDAY (RedheadAmongWolves). In NON NOBIS SOLUM (@downtothe-lastdrop), art student John simply has to know how far grammar school boy Paul will go to please him. But Paul matches him play-by-play. In THE CAST IRON SHORE (@m1ssunderstanding) Paul earns extra money through music and sex. John finds out. They fall in love, and hide their mutual pining behind transactions—but in the end, they man up to pair up, and get their band back on track. (The first part is finished; I can’t wait for part 2.) John and Paul’s ’61 trip to Paris has been honored in fiction many times; WHEN YOU ARE YOUNG THEY ASSUME YOU KNOW NOTHING (@lilypadd23) is a slow-burning, blessedly long story that blossoms sweetly. DON’T THINK ABOUT IT is the concept by which Paul measures both his pining for John and their deeply satisfying (but surely not really queer?!) sex life. Perfectly realized Paul POV by @merseydreams. Finally: I NEED YOU DARLIN’ (verse) (by @beatlessideblog) would have fit many categories, but I put it here, because in the end, it’s about young John and Paul becoming friends, making music, having sex, and falling in love. No more, no less. Embedded in a late 50’s/early 60's Liverpool omegaverse in which there's a place for their bond. But, surprise (?!): It’s still complicated. I can’t overstate how charming and satisfying and funny and hot this work is.

Old John and Paul:

Is there anything as lovely as imagining John and Paul growing old together?

In HERE TODAY (@herspecialagent), John and Paul found happiness with each other in Scotland. On 8th December 1980, they invite friends for a party, and fight an inexplicable sense of doom. A reminder that our other lives can be closer than we think, and to keep our loved ones even closer.

GROW OLD WITH ME (@inherownwr1te): Old farmers and husbands John and Paul enjoy domestic bliss, deal with a broken arm, and make sweet love.

HAVING COFFEE (@feathersandblue): John Lennon and Paul McCartney, “one of the most iconic gay couples in history,” look back on their early love, the Beatles, and being outed in the 80’s, in this oh-so-glamourous, well-written 2020 portrait…

Magical re-tellings of J/P and/or the Beatles Story:

No matter where you come down on the blessed vs. cursed continuum—they were living through something magical.

In KISSING THE BLARNEY (@zilabee) the Beatles draw love and music from kissing Paul, and each other, until the stupid world interferes. But fear not, all ends well. How to tell the truth through whimsy: this story demonstrates it.

In WE ARE ALL TOGETHER (also by @zilabee), John and Paul switch bodies. It helps.

I WAS A YOUNGER MAN NOW (THEN) (POST HOC) BY @fingersfallingupwards: Paul is a time traveler and braids his life together with John’s, out of order, through the years. And yes, they do grow old together—but not without losing each other first. I’m in awe of this story.

A darker time-traveling story is A MATTER OF TIME (D12Fan), in which John and Paul love each other, over and over, and never manage to make it work—but Paul won’t give up.

FOR THOUGH THEY MAY BE PARTED (@downtothe-lastdrop): The misery of the 'Get Back' sessions and memory-stunting technology imported from “Severance” are not enough to kill off John and Paul’s attraction and longing for each other. Again, this is basically what happened, so.

John and Paul without the Beatles?

Yes, please! Sometimes, the best way to dissect and celebrate (and fix?) this mesmerizing and exasperating partnership is to lift it from its context and drop it elsewhere. Anything goes.

WHATEVER FATE DECREES by @dailyhowl: A gorgeous, finely spun, securely handled, self-contained vision of how John and Paul could have worked as artists in love, without a band to 'legitimize' and constrain their bond. I love this homage to their deep and complicated love that needed trust and breathing room.

1967 by @walkuntilthedaylight: What if John and Paul had gone to Spain together and not come back? This story not only explores their relationship layer by layer, it also dives into the the feelings of those who knew them 'before' and who now meet them again, as a couple. A fascinating alternate history. Not a fluffy one.

TOMORROW I'LL MISS YOU (@pauls1967moustache): Paul abandons John in Hamburg—or John stays behind without bothering to write, depending on who you ask. This "Before Sunset"—AU reunites them, years later. They ride a bus and write a song, and the love and tension are sweet and painful.

DOUBLE FANTASY (by @javelinbk): Modern AU in which John and Paul meet at John's flower shop and manage to ignore and creatively re-interpret their feelings for one another for a surprising amount of time, before fate has mercy. I love how their sweet, well-matched eccentricity makes the world a warmer place for both of them.

WE ARE STARDUST (Unchained_Daisychain): AU. John and Paul meet at Woodstock, fall hard and fast for each other, and have to decide what to do with it: Paul's life is back home in England...except...

Angst, darkness, and courage:

Pain, fear, grief, and other dark emotions are part of the real J/P story, so it makes sense to honor and harvest them in fiction. One of my favorite brands of McLennon angst is the one triggered by their feelings for each other, and the thing they become once they're together™. When they're scared of how much they need each other, and of what will happen next.

ONE AND ONE AND ONE IS THREE and MANAGING EXPECTATIONS (both by @pauls1967moustache), for instance. The first is a terrifying threesome with Yoko (at John's instigation, of course), in which trust is never rewarded and sex resolves nothing. The second is Paul wondering, in thoughts both messy and crystal clear, whether he exists independently of John. He turns to Brian for answers. They fuck. It feels like a human thing compared to what is going on in Paul's mind. Just astounding.

SUNDAY DRIVER (@boshemians) dives into the theme of Paul and John being afraid of themselves in the aftermath of Paul's accident (moped, sexual) with Tara Browne. This one, like "Managing Expectations," ends on a lovely grace note.

MACABRE (@dovetailjoints). Lennon and McCartney go too far.

OPEN HEART (@paisanas). Paul drinks John's blood. John lets him. But Paul starts to hate himself for how much he needs John, which John feels as rejection. I love how this story ends on Paul embracing his need. You can see the painful, bare bones of their malnourished love under the lush sensuality of the vampire sex. Raw and rich.

SILENCE (@ohjohnnysblog). Short and piercing. If there is someone you love—tell them. Don't wait.

THE LATE, GREAT JOHNNY ACE (@midchelle). Reeling with grief, Paul is recording an album in 1981. George and Ringo are there. John is not. But in the end—he is. And they touch. I've always admired Paul's resilience in the face of having to perform or "prove" his love of John in public, and this story showed me, without sugar-coating, where this resilience comes from.

Light, hope, and fixing things:

There is also much lightness and brightness in McLennon, because John and Paul were ridiculous, and horny, and weird. And also: they deserve a laugh. They deserve the fluffiest of happy endings. They deserve high-quality, life-affirming smut. They deserve silly, because silly is what they were. You know their names, look up their number.

1980. John is in BERMUDA (@scurator), Paul visits. Paul comes prepared, John just comes. Sometimes, it can be this simple. This story always leaves me in such a good mood. Paul is the (more) experienced one, and it...really works for me.

GOT TO GET DOWN (@eveepe): In praise of John's obsession with Paul's...precious. His small and perfect prick.

ADVENTURES IN TOTAL HONESTY (@merseydreams). Pithy and sexy, and, I quote from the tags: #Excessive Margarita Mixing.

ANINUT (@pauls1967moustache): The Beatles heal, together and separately, after Brian's death. Once more, I quote the writer: "The Beatles did not follow any of the Jewish mourning traditions, and frankly, they should have."

The unhinged weirdness of the Mad Day Out, with John and Paul escaping and Francie, Yoko and Mal not missing them...much, is rightfully celebrated in one of the insaner stories I read: JOHN, I'M ONLY DANCING (@skylikeaflame)

FAIR'S FAIR (@javelinbk): John and Paul are being silly during a press conference, resulting in acute arousal requiring John's skilled intervention. I love the unexpected care and tenderness in this one!

WHERE THE POETS WENT (RedheadAmongWolves): Tender and enchanted story in which Paul and John go to a bookstore, where they're not as famous as everywhere else. As delicate as the chiming doorbells and the pages murmuring around them.

TAKEN AWAY (@crumblingcookies) Extraterrestrial Intelligence intervenes to reunite John and Paul.

CAN I TAKE MY FRIEND TO BED? (manhattanvalleys). Paul fucks the band in sequence and gets off in the end, as is his due. This is a story like Prince's KISS. No filler, all effect.

THEY SAY IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY (@ohjohnnysblog). Warm and nostalgic phone sex in the 70's.

KEEP THE LIGHT WE'RE GIVEN (@backbenttulips). Amidst the rise of Beatlemania, Paul and John expect their first child. This is Paul's 1962 diary.

More Outsider POV's:

STILL MATES (@pauls1967moustache): in 1968, Peter Asher takes the leap to act on his feelings for his sister's spiraling ex fiancé. This isn't about Paul as much as about Peter, and who he wants to be. Gutting character study. It made me love Peter.

ANOTHER GIRL (@boshemians): Astrid reunites with the Beatles during the making of AHDN and registers their words and deeds with the same stark objectivity as her camera. I love how she seeks the shelter of obscurity while they are being dragged into the limelight. But she sees them, wherever they are. J/P in this story feels incredibly real to me.

WHY BUY THE COW (RedheadAmongWolves). The milkman sees everything on his early morning rounds: the arrival of a nice new family, the McCartneys, the mother's illness, the sadness after her death...and the arrival of a new love in the older son's life. He shouldn't approve—should say something, in fact. But a small inner voice holds him back.

SLEEPLESS IN WALES (thinkpink20). Mike overhears Paul and John whisper in bed. He doesn't understand everything they say. I do. Adorable.

Not each other's first love, but each other's true love

THIS YEAR'S FOR ME AND YOU (@skylikeaflame): After a long life, after deep and loving partnerships with other people, John and Paul, encouraged by their grown-up children, finally meet their mutual love head on. A festive story about waiting the perfect amount of time.

THERE ARE ALWAYS FLOWERS (tarenas): The Beatles are in the past; John and Paul's love is in ashes. Paul, who is fragile and bereft, lives with George, who is content. The four ex-Beatles unite for the second wedding of Mike McCartney. At times, the aching grief in this story is almost unbearable. But the love between George and Paul is unusual and real. This is unfinished. I'll keep waiting for the final chapter.

Beyond J/P

WANT ME WHEN I'M NOT THERE (@backbenttulips): Linda catches Paul cheating on her with John. She divorces him. Finally: a story that puts her most likely reaction front and center, with no mercy for the messed-up geniuses.

In the Rebecca-AU LOVE LIKE GHOSTS (@backbenttulips), Yoko becomes Mrs. Lennon. Soon, she discovers that her husband is haunted by the ghost of his first love. It's pleasing how well this re-telling matches the events as they (alas) (almost) happened. The ending is chilling. Genuinely horrifying. I love seeing Yoko as the sensible one and as the focus of empathy.

THE BASS LESSON (@aquarianshift). Paul and Stu fool around without letting go of their mutual resentment for even a moment. And it works. "Let's never do this again." I don't think so.

TELL ME ALL MY LOVE'S IN VAIN (@midchelle). Forget about quote unquote platonically obsessed male rock stars: This about about Maureen and Patti through the years. The web weaving continues.

SPOTLIGHT ON JOHN AND STU (@dailyhowl) A love story in letters—too brief, like Stu's life, but sounding as if the writer transcribed their dictation. Some of the best descriptions of what it must have been like to play on stage with the Beatles during the mania are in NO I IN THREESOME (@with-eyes-closed). George finds himself in the beam of attention between John and Paul, and nearly loses his mind. But he's determined to stay and become part of them. Paul is daddy and "fucks like music" as seen through George's eyes. The whole story is vicious and hot and uncomfortable—until there's the love and quiet at the eye of the storm.

Not for the faint of heart! WHAT THE CIGGIE CARTON SAW (@waveofhand): Paul McCartney having his way with cigarettes.

This is getting out of hand...but I'll stop here. There are so many more stories I love. And I can think of many other categories that would deserve their own post.

So, who knows: To be continued?

[alicesloughbridge]

@liverpoolstudentlettings #liverpoolstudentlettings

[chloeelizabethsibley]

Helping to raise awareness

[foxstreetstudios]

Important information for our Fox Street Block E & Block A residents.

Block E door Code: 7788

Block A door code: 0736

Laundry room/washing machine room code: C24578

[liverpoolstudentlettings]

Christmas Jumper Day 2023.

[dontexpectmuch]

(if ur still taking requests) smth abt jude surprising a very stressed out student for their bday! i'm projecting horribly here 😍😍

author: happy (belated (?)) birthday!!!

—

you feel your phones vibration against your desk, gently tickling your skin. it pulls you out of a trance you didn’t even know you were in, your eyes now focused on the device.

a tired smile stretches on your lips, the contact name making you chuckle.

[from; The bestest best boyfriend]: open the door !

sighing, you get up from your chair and move to open the door of your small apartment, the sound of your steps as the only sound inside.

you open the door, immediately being met by a huge bouquet of blood red roses and red balloons, judes happy face the center of your sight. stepping to the side to let him enter, you take the flowers from his hands and move them to your face, the gentle scent of roses meeting your nose.

“hey, baby.” jude leans down to press a kiss on your lips, pelvis moving closer to press against yours.

you greet him back, though you see his eyebrows draw together, forehead creasing.

“you okay, love?” jude pushes your body towards your living room slash working space, placing the sweets tied to the ballon onto the table, taking the flowers from your head to put them on your desk.

you sigh for the nth time today, leaning against his body, slightly relaxing as you feel his warm hands caress your back.

jude speaks up again, voice laced with confusion, “babe?”

“‘m so tired, i don’t even know what to do.” you explain your behavior, though it doesn’t even come near to what you actually feel.

on top of being stressed and tired, you start to feel even worse because you can’t be happy to see your boyfriend. he doesn’t deserve to be greeted by your gloomy self like that, but you also know that he would never be mad at you for your feelings, immediately trying to help wherever he can.

“why aren’t you ready?” he asks, siting down on your couch and pulling you along by your wrist, positioning you on his lap.

“for what?”

you feel his hand move up and down your thigh as you lean against his body, head resting on the crook of his neck as you take in his manly scent, his aftershave tingling your brain in a way that you wouldn’t dare to put into words.

jude gasps, pushing your head up to hold it between his hands, thumbs drawing circles against your cheeks.

“your birthday dinner? you wanted to eat at that restaurant when we visited liverpool?” his words making bells ring in your head.

you loudly gasp as you stand up, “jude, babe, i,” your heart sinks as your eyes skim over his face, “i forgot?”

he tucks you down again, your legs caging his as you come face to face. “did you forget your own birthday?”

though jude smiles at you, thinking that this situation is quite funny, a moment the two of you would remember in your graying days, you can’t help but feel sad, closing your eyes as you put your forehead against his shoulder.

“exams are stupid.” you mumble, finally understanding why so many people have been calling you throughout the day.

you two sit on your couch for a while, small talk being exchanged between you. that is, until jude decides to get up to get your present that he left by the door, your heart’s rate picking up as you watch him sit next to you, a big bag placed on your lap.

“you didn’t have to-“

he puts his finger against your lips, successfully stopping you. “just, i hope you like it.”

you smile at him, thankful to have him in your life before you look down to pull out a rectangle box from the bag. your eyes widen as you are greeted by a white box, the familiar apple logo making tears sting your eyes.

your voice is soft, looking at your boyfriend who shyly looks at you through his lashes, “jude, i, oh my god, thank you so much.”

you move towards him to hug him tight, gratitude expressed through soft kisses spread over his neck.

“you said that your laptop was slow, and how many breakdowns you had because of it, so i thought, well, yeah.” he explains, his hand resting on your cheek once again, warmth radiating from his eyes.

your heart beats against your rips, heat creeping up your neck.

you knew that is an incredible person, someone who cares about his loved ones, giving as much as he can without expecting anything in return. you knew that he pays attention to everything you say, almost hanging on every word spilling from your lips, never making you say anything twice, but right now, fuck.

right now you feel loved in a way you never knew that existed, you feel so warm, so safe and comfortable that you wish to bathe yourself in this feeling for eternity, never once thinking of leaving this feeling. all the negative energy, all the thoughts of failure and the pain of final season wash away as you continue to look at your boyfriend, him returning your gaze of adoration twice as much.

“i love you.” you whisper, afraid of losing the moment.

jude leans forward to kiss your forehead, engulfing you with his scent.

“i love you even more.”

LETS FUCKING GOOOOIOOOOOOOO

(exams make me question my existence.)