This is Anfield: Liverpool's shameful truth – in pictures

Residents' bitterness derives from when the club started buying houses in Lothair Road, the street that runs adjacent to the stadium, without saying they were doing so or making their intentions clear
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

A poster in the window of one of the few occupied houses on Lothair Street
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Anfield seen from Back Rockfield Road
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Between January 1996 and March 2000 Liverpool bought 10 houses on Lothair Road
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

A property on Lothair Road, which backs on to the Anfield Main Stand
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

A goal painted on a wall on Alroy Road, one of three streets close to Anfield on which the club have been setting their sights
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

The club have bought many properties adjacent to the stadium, such as the ones seen here on Rockfield Road
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

With houses empty and demand for them falling in a city struggling to recover from its 1980s economic decimation, the Anfield area has collapsed into dramatic decline
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

A boarded-up window near to the stadium
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian