Municipal Dreams

Thank you. I have added that link to this week's and last week's post.

John Boughton photographed in front of two point blocks on the Pendleton Estate, Salford

For World Book Day, I'm going as my (slightly younger) self. Forgive the shameless self-promotion but here's a reminder of my two books available for purchase, 'A History of Council Housing in 100 Estates' (RIBA Books) and 'Municipal Dreams: the Rise and Fall of Council Housing' (Verso).

Post-war High-Rise in Birmingham II: ‘Get these people out of the slums!’ Last week’s post looked at some of the contextual forces behind Birmingham’s post-war volte-face – from a city proclaiming a ‘prejudice against flats’ as ‘one expression of its independence of charact...

🚨 New on Substack: the big buildings, large personalities and rampant corruption that marked Birmingham's high-rise council housing boom if the 1960s:
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/post-war-h...

Three-storey terrace

Two-storey blocks of flats in pastel shades

Two-storey blocks of flats and houses surrounding green open space

Two-storey blocks of flats and houses surrounding green open space

4/ The West Cross Estate, Mumbles - an estate built by Swansea Borough Council in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Aerial black and white photo of terraced housing on sloping site

3/ The Gaer Estate, Newport, designed by Borough Architect Johnson Blackett, built 1946-1951.

Terrace of housing down hillside towards Menai Strait with Snowdonia in background

Terrace of housing in pastel colours fronting green open space

2/ The Cae Bricks Estate, designed for Beaumaris Borough Council by Sidney Colwyn Foulkes, 1945-48. See also: municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/12/16/s...

Semi-detached housing in echelon formation up steep hillside

Four house pebble-dashed terrace with coat of arms in centre

1/ To celebrate #StDavidsDay, a short thread on some of the most spectacular council housing in Wales. Firstly, the Townhill Estate, Swansea, designed by Borough Architect Ernest Morgan and built between 1919-1924

Hyde Park Corner, Bloomsbury Street, in Duddeston 1953: 12-storey point block ('mud pie') to rear of remaining near derelict shops.

By 1960, 27 per cent of new council housing approvals in Birmingham were for blocks of over 15 storeys in height. My new Substack post tells how and why the city embraced high-rise construction on such a scale ((Photo credit: Phyllis Nicklin collection)
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/post-war-h...

Aston New Town - black and white photograph of three 14-stprey slab blocks in open landscape

🚨 New on Substack: In 1971, Birmingham City Council owned 464 tower blocks, built in the preceding twenty years. By 2001, through transfer or demolition, only 305 remained. This first of a three-part post begins that story.
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2015/05/19/s...

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Dirty Business Shocking real-life drama about the muck in our water and a corporate scandal

Please watch Channel 4's docudrama 'Dirty Business' on the pollution of our waters. There could not be a more shocking exposé of the human and environmental cost of privatisation, deregulation, corporate corruption and government complicity:
www.channel4.com/programmes/d...

Aston New Town - black and white photograph of three 14-stprey slab blocks in open landscape

🚨 New on Substack: In 1971, Birmingham City Council owned 464 tower blocks, built in the preceding twenty years. By 2001, through transfer or demolition, only 305 remained. This first of a three-part post begins that story.
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2015/05/19/s...

I think this source (pdf) suggests the first council housing in Buckfastleigh was built under the 1919 Housing Act - though I do have a reference to the local council intending to submit plans in April 1914. The IWW may have blocked those.
www.devonhistorysociety.org.uk/wp-content/u...

I think there was desperate need for *decent* rural housing and there was a problem with housing tied to employment but the politics of local councils was *rarely* sympathetic to council housing. It's the exceptions in the latter case that are interesting. (Unnoticed autocorrect in original reply.)

Semi-detached block of four cottage flats in red-brick with rendered upper storey

3/ Sunnyside Cottages, Malpas, Cheshire - twelve cottage flats built by Malpas Rural District Council in 1906. These and others are marked on my map of pre-1WW council housing here: www.google.com/maps/d/viewe...

A brick terrace of four council houses

2/ The first council homes in Essex - Many Weathers Houses, Maldon Road, Bradwell on Sea; six cottages built by Maldon Rural District Council in 1905.

Terrace of four brick built houses

1/ Only around 740 council houses were built in rural areas before 1914; a short thread featuring a few examples: White Horse Cottages, Tynings Lane, Bratton, Wiltshire - four 'artisan's cottages' built by Westbury Rural District Council in 1904.

Bungalows for elderly people.

Semi-detached brick-built family homes

Three-storey flatted block

Four-storey flatted block

2/ Cockpit Close, Woodstock - bungalows for elderly people, family homes, and flats built by the Borough Council in the 1960s.

1930s semi-detached council housing

1930s semi-detached council housing

1930s semi-detached council housing

1960s two-storey flatted scheme around green open space

1/ Bear Close, Woodstock, Oxon: council housing of the early 1930s and a 1960s' era scheme of flats built by Woodstock Borough Council.

Douglas House five-storey tenement block and arched entrance

Douglas House five-storey tenement block courtyard view

Douglas House five-storey tenement block external facade

This is Douglas House on the Marshalsea Estate.

View of terraced housing downhill to Menai Straits and Snowdonia to rear

The Cae Bricks estate to the north of the town centre is worth a look - a lovely postwar council estate designed by Sidney Colwyn Foulkes.

Four-storey balcony access tenement block in neo-Georgian style in yellow stock brick, red brick quoins

Four-storey balcony access tenement block in neo-Georgian style in yellow stock brick, red brick quoins

Four-storey balcony access tenement block in neo-Georgian style in yellow stock brick, red brick quoins

Oliver Goldsmith Estate, Peckham; a London County Council Estate completed in the early 1930s.

Brick-arched entrance with LCC plaque above

Brick arched entrance with further five-storey tenement block seen to rear

Archway to staircase giving access to tenements

Making a grand entrance and a fairly grand doorway: Fairwall House on the Glebe Estate, Camberwell, an LCC estate completed in 1939.

It was designed by Rick Mather Architects. Not sure if they were fans of Tetris.

Photo of Erwin Knopfler

Yes, he was a Jewish emigre from Hungary in 1939 who practised architecture in Glasgow and then Newcastle upon Tyne. He was also an accomplished chess player.

Whittington Estate - four storey stepped maisonette block

Highgate New Town, stage 2: three-storey high-tech design in glass and steel

Dartmouth Park Hill - yellow and redbrick three-storey terrace

Chester-Balmore scheme - passivhaus scheme

Highgate New Town - 'dreams and nightmares': an essay on the architectural fashions that have shaped council housing and the political and social forces which have moulded the lives of its residents.
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/highgate-n...

None-storey slab block to rear of green space and play area

Edwin House, Bells Gardens Estate, Peckham; designed by the LCC Architect's Department in 1953, built 1957-9.

Black and white photo of children playing on swings in concrete playing area with stepped terrace of white-rendered flats to rear, 1979.

🚨 New on Substack: my final post on Camden's Highgate New Town looks at the new trends that marked its later development - Defensible Space, Right to Buy, and the new demand for sustainable development. (Photo credit: Martin Charles / RIBA Collections
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/highgate-n...

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Red brick in Flemish bond with rubbed brick and terracotta and artificial stone dressings. Netherlandish Renaissance style. EXTERIOR: roof parapeted. Gable facing elevation of 5-window range, which contains offices and caretaker's room. Single-storey bath halls to rear

Camberwell Public Baths, 1891, designed for the Camberwell Vestry by Spalding and Cross in 'Netherlandish Renaissance' style according to its Grade II listing. 2d for a warm wash, 1d for a cold, soap 1d extra. Fully renovated 2011, now the Camberwell Leisure Centre.