LIVING IN THE SKY A HISTORY OF HIGH-RISE COUNCIL FLATS IN THE

FREE PUBLICATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS DEMOLITION CONTENTS & RENEWAL This is a small book but it represents a much allowing us to use his data and images, as C 27 bigger project – a project which has only been has Simon Briercliffe in creating a database possible with the help and support from dozens of all the high-rise flats in the area. A team of of individuals and organisations. Groups which voluteers has also helped in cataloguing the supported the original idea included archive, and I would like in particular to thank Community Information and Participation Jessica Bassam and Dawn Hazlehurst. A MISREPRESENTED A WORK-IN- Service, Tenants and Residents 3 HISTORY? 33 PROGRESS Association and Federation The staff of the four public archives services Tenants of Tenants’ Associations, all of whom in the Black Country have also been of great were partners to the project funding bid. I’m assistance in providing advice on the project grateful to Corinne Miller at Wolverhampton design, training to volunteers, and helping Art Gallery, Amanda Smith at English during the sourcing of archive images and THE BLACK COUNTRY’S LIST OF ORAL Heritage, Ros Watkiss at Wolverhampton other material. Ros Watkiss, Sue Whitehouse PART IN THE STORY HISTORY University, Malcolm Dick at and Harriet Devlin have also provided 5 37 INTERVIEWS University, and Ian Cawood and Chris Upton invaluable training to volunteers. at Newman University for their support and encouragement in the early stages of the I’d particularly like to thank our community project. My colleagues in Planning Services at engagement officers, Chaz Mason and José Wolverhampton City Council as well as those Forrest-Tennant for their energy, enthusiasm ‘RISING HEAVENWARD’ at Wolverhampton Culture, Arts & Heritage and patience. 7 Service were also very helpful. Several people have given me useful feedback Of vital importance to the ‘Block Capital’ on the draft of this document including Bob project, as it became known, was our grant Deacon, Carol Thompson, Cat Fuller, Dawn and we are grateful to Heritage Lottery Hazlehurst, Marguerite Nugent and Meave ‘LIVING IN THE SKY’ Fund for having the confidence to invest Haughey. As usual, any errors of any kind 11 39 INDEX in the idea. The Block Capital project has remaining in this document are entirely the subsequently benefitted from the time, energy responsibility of the author. and commitment of more than fifty volunteers whose names are listed on the inside back Paul Quigley cover. The distinctly black country network ‘IN QUITE A BAD STATE’ LIST OF Wolverhampton Art Gallery 19 41 VOLUNTEERS I would also like to thank everyone who has March 2015 contributed to our Block Capital digital archive (details on page 20) by either giving time to record an oral history interview, providing images or donating other material. Miles THE BLOCK CAPITAL Glendinning has been particularly helpful in 20 ARCHIVE

2 1 A MISREPRESENTED HISTORY?

It is now half a century since the peak that it is okay to blame any problems of tower-block housing construction in related to British high-rise council housing Britain. Over that period millions of people on either the idea of high-rise itself or, have lived in high-rise flats. alternatively, on the people who (not even always by choice) have lived in council- As you might expect, in a group of this built tower blocks. size there have been different types of people - some have led difficult lives, Our investigation of multi-storey flats others have been more successful. in the Black Country has found a more Yet the persistent view of the history of complex story. We have found a history in high-rise flats in Britain is one of almost which high-rise blocks have certainly not unmitigated architectural and social always led to isolation and alienation, and failure. have sometimes hosted largely happy and active communities. Indeed, in the history As we were writing this, two incidents we have found, the people who lived in Top: Three blocks on Parkview illustrated this point. Prince Charles them haven’t always been very different Road, Stowlawn. Approved published his ‘geometric principles’ to from those living in other types of social by Municipal Borough guide the architects of new buildings – housing. One of our Facebook followers Council in 1963, they were he wrote in a very straightforward way, summed up a similar view:- named after (from the left) the without room for doubt, that ‘high-rise then leader of the Labour Party, tower blocks alienate and isolate’. “I lived in one in late ‘90s for about 3 Hugh Gaitskell, and the wartime years. Good neighbours ...not always leaders Winston Churchill and As Prince Charles was writing, a major the horror stories people perceive Clem Atlee (Photo taken in 2013 UK greetings card manufacturer put on there to be”. by Matthew Whitehouse, sale a ‘comedy’ Christmas card which © Wolverhampton City Council) carried a picture of a high-rise tower We have found that, although there have block and suggested all its residents were been serious design mistakes, a more Left: Sandbank Estate in in effect workshy, alcoholic criminals. common cause of past failure has been (Walsall), pictured Recipients of the card were doubtless the way in which the blocks have been in 2013, is run by a tenant expected to laugh out of recognition. managed. management organisation, an arrangement which the area The card was later withdrawn, but these has been in the forefront of events still seemed to support the view developing.

2 3 In terms of their reputation, tower The Black Country’s blocks have coloured many people’s views of the whole British social part in the story housing programme, even though they In some ways the history of high-rise actually only represent a small fraction in the Black Country is like other large of it. For that reason alone, a better urban areas in Britain. But there are key understanding of their history is not only differences. important in itself, but also because it can help us understand how the history The Black Country has more residents of Council housing more generally than Birmingham but it is not a city. It has been represented – or perhaps does not have the same urban structure misrepresented. as, for example, Manchester, Leeds or Glasgow. Rather than having one This booklet is based on an archive centre, it is a network of towns on a created by Block Capital, a community disused coalfield. This has affected the heritage project conducted in the Black development of its public housing in Country between 2013 and 2015 and general, and particularly the construction supported by a Heritage Lottery Fund of high-rise flats. grant of £52,500. It draws on more than sixty oral history recordings of Each Black Country town has, tenants, housing officers, planners and historically, had its own local authority construction workers, as well as more and many of these commissioned high- than 300 photographs and other historical rise housing schemes, often with different documents. approaches.

A large part of the project’s work was City centre land-values have not completed by volunteers - people who generally applied. But there have were willing to give their own time out been the extra costs of making large of commitment to the preservation - or areas of derelict ex-colliery land fit for rediscovery - of this history. development.

There have not generally been the large outlying estates created by some cities, but rather they have been within the urban area. They have included many scattered blocks built in isolation or in pairs.

In the early 1960s the press were still using the word ‘skyscrapers’ Lastly, in the late 20th century, some to describe the nine-storey blocks at Lakefield Road, . important government attempts to take These would later be dwarfed by buildings more than twice as high. public housing in the Black Country out of Wolverhampton Chronicle, August 1962 (Courtesy Wolverhampton local authority control were withdrawn in Archives and Local Studies) the face of local opposition

4 5 ‘RISING HEAVENWARD’ 1930-55

Plans to build high-rise flats arose at a “Much as I would prefer to see our time of a desperate need for new homes. population spreading out rather than In mid-20th century Britain the public rising heavenward in their dwellings, authorities responsible for urban areas one has to face the fact that, for were faced with the task of re-housing a limited number of our people… thousands of families from substandard tenement provision must be made” Victorian accommodation. In 1948, for example, more than twenty three Later, Aneurin Bevan’s Housing Act in thousand houses in the central Black 1946 also added a specific subsidy for Country alone were identified as ‘property lift construction. So, both before and which should be condemned’, more than after the war, these subsidies would one in every five homes in the area. On have influenced discussions in the Black top of this, nearly half a million British Country and elsewhere about what kind Top: Arthur Greenwood was homes had been destroyed by war in the of housing should replace the Victorian the Labour Minister who, in 1940s. streets earmarked for clearance. 1930, announced the first Multi-storey flats had already been subsidy for multi-storey flats. It is often assumed that the expectation pioneered in continental Europe before Ten years later after his death that these homes would be replaced, the war. Britain followed, with more than he was commemorated in coupled with the lack of available space, eighty blocks having been approved in the name of Bilston’s first pushed local authorities to build upwards. London by 1948. high-rise tower block and, a In fact, there were other economic forces year later, his son Anthony at play - in particular central government In 1952, the only residential high-rise Greenwood would visit the subsidies. flats which had been approved by any Black Country to preside at English local authority outside London or the official opening of the flats As early as 1930, the then Minister of the South East were in Birmingham, an at Bolton Court, . Health, Arthur Greenwood, announced example being the (still surviving) flats at that a payment would be made from Duddeston. But by the mid-1950s tower Right: Arthur Greenwood the Exchequer to allow the building of blocks were starting to gain approval in Court, Bilston (Photo taken in ‘tenements’ above three storeys on most other English regions. 2013 by Matthew Whitehouse, expensive land. He said: © Wolverhampton City Council)

6 7 With more than four thousand high- Murdock Place and Boulton Place, rise flats approved by 1957, the named after local manufacturers, had region had the largest been designed as a pair of blocks with concentration outside the South a public open space between them. But East. Three quarters of these were there were plans afoot to construct much in Birmingham, but there were also larger planned landscapes of multi- approvals in the Black Country. storey housing. In 1955, on the other side of the Black Country, the Borough The first in the Black Country, in 1953, of Wolverhampton had just issued its were a set of six-storey blocks on the annual handbook to housing tenants with Yew Tree estate (later overlooked by the a futuristic impression of the Dale Street junction of the M5 and M6 motorways), flats, a twelve acre development which closely followed in 1954 by two much included the Borough’s first high-rise. higher eleven-storey blocks on the top of Cape Hill, (opposite). In fact, the next two decades - between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s - saw However, it is probably fair to say that the construction of all the Black Country’s there was not a clamour to build high-rise high-rise council housing. As in the rest flats in the Black Country. The two blocks of the UK, it was a change in national on Cape Hill, Murdock Place and Boulton housing policy which triggered this. Place, stood as the tallest residential buildings in (what is now) the Borough of Sandwell for several years. Their hilltop position would have not only have given their residents a commanding view of both Birmingham and the Black Country The twin blocks of Boulton but also made them a very visible symbol Place and Murdock Place of a new age in housing design. on Suffrage Street were approved by Smethwick Except, as it happens, their design wasn’t Council in 1954. These all new. Today it seems to clash with our images were taken by Joe ideas about what is ‘modern’ but the flats Russell ten years later in these blocks were heated by open and are reproduced with coal fireplaces. Marianne Monro lived in permission of Sandwell Murdock Place as a child and (in 2014) Community History & described the heating arrangements: Archives Service. On the bottom right the chimneys “We had a coal fire, it was really odd. I of the flats’ open fireplaces didn’t think it was odd at the time, but are visible and, in the centre, looking back I’m thinking how did that the playground referred to by happen?” Marianne Monro (see page 9).

8 9 ‘LIVING IN THE SKY’ 1956-75

The boom in high-rise construction was Dale Street flats were Wolverhampton’s in large measure due to the Conservative first high-rise and their opening in 1958 Government’s 1956 Housing Subsidies illustrated the very mixed feelings there Act. This strengthened the payments to were to elevated living. The sculptor local authorities for multi-storey housing Charles Wheeler spoke at the opening first put in place a generation before. ceremony and seemed to express the view that flats were inevitable rather than It is not clear whether the County Borough necessarily a good thing: of Wolverhampton foresaw this change, but work started at the same time on “I am a Victorian and I am not Dale Street. This was the first post-war altogether sure that the absence of the reconstruction of an area so close to the little backyard and a little garden is an town centre and, unlike the flats on Cape advantage. But we have to move with Hill, it was also an all-electric affair. the times.”

Top: The Estate on Dale Street close to its opening in 1958 (courtesy of Wolverhampton Homes).

There were also reports that, at least among existing tenants, there was no great desire to swap their house for a flat. Of all Wolverhampton tenants at the time, only 40 responded to an invitation to apply for a flat on the estate.

An artist’s impression of Dale Street The estate included three eleven storey (from: Martin Cook, ‘Building recording ‘point’ blocks (equalling the height of the at Wulfruna Court and Grange Court, Cape Hill flats) and two ‘slab’ blocks - the Dale Street, Wolverhampton’ 2007) latter with exterior deck access on each

10 11 Top: Dale Street flats in 1958 floor. This also maximised the number opened it to influence from outside the (Courtesy Wolverhampton of flats accessing the lift, thereby getting region. One still tantalising link is the one Archives & Local Studies). most return on the available subsidy. between ’s commissioning of the Charlemont Farm estate (starting Bottom: St Marks Road, Along with the Yew Tree Development in in 1960) and the development at Meaux, Tipton in May 1969. On the West Bromwich, Dale Street was among near Paris, which had opened the right of the road are Jellico the first high-rise estates in the Black previous year. Whatever the full story, the and Beatty Houses and, Country. But, by the end of the 1950s, the physical resemblance was striking. in the far distance, Bolton use of multi-storey flats in a wider process In any case, members of Black Country Court (image by Alan Price, of house building had spread to several councils were inspired by visits to courtesy Keith Hodgkins) nearby authorities - including Oldbury, London and Birmingham. After seeing Smethwick, Tipton, and Walsall. 15-storey blocks in Hackey a councillor said it “made his own authority, The County Borough of West Bromwich which thought it was progressive, look continued to be the most active. By the like a snail which had lost its way”. end of 1959, it had approved at least 18 Thus, by 1964, councils in the south blocks, mostly on the Yew Tree Estate. and west of the Black Country had also They were not particularly tall - mostly six started approving tower blocks, joining or eight storeys - but they represented Wolverhampton and those bordering a prolific collaboration with two building Birmingham. Along with Halesowen, these firms, Wates and Wimpey, in a way which newcomers included , , mimicked Birmingham. Wates would and . become the largest local builder of high- rise - described as a ‘trusty mainstay’ of Meanwhile in the north, , Black Country boroughs - and erecting Wednesfield, - and two fifths of all blocks in the area. Bilston all built their first high-rise in the first half of the 1960s, the latter naming Wates’ Midlands subsidiary operated an it’s first block after the former Minister, unusual approach to the production of Arthur Greenwood. Only , prefabricated parts. Most constructors and held out - the would deliver these from regional latter finally approving two blocks in 1966. production locations. Wates on the other hand liked to operate ‘factories on site’. In 1964 more than half of all council Another early Wates commission in the housing built in Britain was flats, and this Black Country was the construction of was also the peak year for high-rise in the two eight-storey blocks on Green Lane, Black Country - twenty-eight blocks were Walsall. With the addition of four later completed and a further twenty-five new blocks, this would become known as the blocks were approved. Burrowes Street estate.

Clearly, the Black Country’s use of national and international contractors

12 13 However, despite all this activity, in a The estate consisted of both low and wider national debate the tide was now high-rise blocks as well as communal turning against high-rise. This culminated facilities - a shopping centre, pub, in the subsidy regime for high-rise being school, and coal-powered boiler house ended in 1967 by Harold Wilson’s first which heated all the properties in the Labour Government. development. Officially opened in 1969, it came more or less at the end of the This fundamental change in approach building of multi-storey council flats and, came some months before the event along with the Chapel Street development which, for many, now symbolises the end in Brierley Hill stands as the largest of the tower block era. The disaster at cluster of high-rise in the Black Country. Ronan Point, London in 1968 (when an 18th floor gas explosion destroyed one Indeed, only four blocks were approved side of a block), is now iconic, but it did in the Black Country in the 1970s: two by not itself cause the end of tower block Wolverhampton in the suburb of Whitmore construction - that was already underway. Reans; and the last high-rise council flats in the Black Country, Alma and Leys For a short period at least, a few high-rise Courts in which were approved continued to be built after both the cut by Walsall in 1973. in subsidies and Ronan Point. Between 1967 and 1968 Smethwick started In all, 275 high-rise blocks were built by building four towers of more than twenty Black Country councils. Although this storeys - ultimately some of the Black was far fewer than Birmingham (458), it Country’s tallest. represented a third of all high-rise blocks in the West Midlands. Furthermore, Wolverhampton had in any case already it was more than the total for three started building what became the area’s English regions (East Anglia, the East largest concentration of high-rise, the Midlands and the South West) and Wales estate, including four twenty- combined. storey blocks. Designed by the Borough Architect and built by Wates, it replaced the old Victorian heart of the town with a new, Modernist village.

The French Connection? Flats at Charlemont Farm (top), approved by West Bromwich County Borough n the early 1960s, compared with those at Meaux, near Paris, opened in 1959 (Sources: www.skyscrapercity.com and http://astudejaoublie.blogspot.co.uk).

14 15 Top: Joe Russell’s shot of In the period since the 1950s, thousands “…they designed (the flats) with a children playing outside of Black Country families had been given play area with a swing and slide… Boulton Place (from: ‘Alton a new perspective on their neighbourhood and it was always ruined…but all the Douglas presents Joe Russell’s as they moved from houses to high-rise kids would come together… about a Smethwick’, 1984, Streetly flats. hundred of us, and we’d play hide and Printing) seek… or this thing called thunder Part of the early criticism of multi- and lightning where we’d knock on Bottom: Ann Worth and her storey flats, and which led in part to someone’s door and run” daughter Tracy in their flat on the termination of the subsidy, was that the 4th floor of Moorlands Court, flats were being used to accommodate Kids in tower blocks were even depicted Rowley Regis. Tracy has been young children in a way they were never on TV when, in 1969, the animation a Block Capital project volunteer intended to. According to this argument, ‘Mary, Mungo & Midge’ was screened on (image courtesy Mrs Ann Worth) flats should be used to meet a (newly BBC1. Brendan Hawthorne, who lived in discovered) post-war demand to provide a 7th floor flat, felt it was an attempt to homes for households of one or two normalise the idea of children in high-rise: adults, or for families with older children. Young families on the other hand were “I think it was a actually a cartoon that expected to be accommodated in, for was made to get kids to appreciate example, the maisonettes often built the tower block and to associate with alongside high-rise. where they lived”

Whatever the wider intention, young People who lived in flats as adults during children did live in Black Country this period are also known to talk about high-rise. Kevin Aston and Brendan it in positive terms. Winifred Shelly was Hawthorne, both lived as children in the the first person to move into Highfields Bolton Court flats in Tipton from the mid Court, Wolverhampton when it opened in 1960s. Kevin was thrilled by moving in: November 1967.

“I was so chuffed about it that I went to “Well we liked living in the sky” school the one day, and I brought three of my school teachers home to show After 48 years, she still lives in the same them the flats – much to my mum’s flat. surprise.”

A six year-old Marianne Monro lived in a 9th floor flat in Smethwick with her sister in the early 1970s:

16 17 Top: Juanita Williams celebrates Christmas in her ‘IN QUITE A BAD STATE’ flat on the Lion Farm estate in Oldbury in the early 1970s. 1976-1995 Bottom: Lion Farm in the 1990s (©Rob Clayton Photographer / www. lionfarmestate.co.uk). Although many high-rise blocks continued Lack of maintenance, vandalism and to be well-maintained and appreciated by offensive behaviour, the break-up of the their residents, the 1970s is the period first generation of occupants and/or the in which some felt that the longer-term arrival of newcomers have all been cited problems started to appear. as features of the onset of low demand and stigmatisation. The poor reputation In the context of growing homelessness of some estates fed a spiral of decline and unemployment some estates started and, in some places a ‘ghettoisation’. to house tenants with deeper social This prompted a discussion of who or problems, and the disaffection which what was to blame including, as has been accompanied them affected the blocks’ mentioned, the idea that high-rise housing wider reputation. It has also been argued was always doomed to failure. that these problems were seized upon and exaggerated by the tabloid media In this context, the Thatcher which had little sympathy for the ideals of Government’s introduction of ‘Right to social housing. Buy’ (RTB) in 1980 was the first and most notorious move to encourage the transfer Whatever the cause, it affected tenants of housing stock out of local council who had previously been comfortable control. Councils had always been able to in high-rise blocks. Dave Woodhall had, sell their houses (indeed the Conservative since 1965, lived on the 9th floor of the chair of Wolverhampton’s housing 17-storey Ryder House in West Bromwich committee was advocating as much in and described it as ‘a nice place to grow 1969), but until RTB they could not be up’. However his family had moved out by forced to do so. Combined with a decline 1983: of building, RTB led to a shrinking public housing stock overall and “the flats were going downhill… also an imbalance - more houses than it wasn’t a pleasant place to live flats were bought. anymore… we knew less and less of the people who had moved in…the Continued on page 22 neighbour was anti-social, a notorious violent drunk”

18 19 LOCATIONS OF TOWER BLOCKS IN THE THE BLOCK CAPITAL ARCHIVE BLACK COUNTRY 1980

The archive is a collection of digital The archive also includes council reports resources on the subject of the history which led to the demolition of many tower of high-rise council housing in the Black blocks. It features a list of all 275 tower Country since the 1960s. blocks built in the Black Country based on the one published by Miles Glendinning WOLVERHAMPTON It is all material collected by volunteers or and Stefan Muthesius in their book ‘Tower donated to the project. It includes more Block’ (pictured), and mapped opposite. than 150 items, including photos, official WALSALL guidebooks, such as the one marking See the catalogue of the archive the opening of the Bolton Court flats by visiting distinctlyblackcountry. (pictured), org.uk/blockcapital/archive or by as well as emailing distinctlyblackcountry@ municipal tenants’ wolverhampton.gov.uk or, if you live in handbooks. the Black Country, by asking at your local It includes public archives. testimony from people who have lived in or who have had SANDWELL experience of high-rise blocks such DUDLEY as Dave Cocker (pictured). You can also listen to some of our interviews with

current and former Data provided by Simon Briercliffe, residents on our oral based on the publication ‘Tower Block’ history webpage, (1994) by Miles Glendinning and Stephan Muthesius Sharing Storeys.

Thatcher enacts the Government subsidisesApproval of lift firstFirst 11-storey6-storey flats blocks Government built in Wolverhampton’ssubsidies create first Wilson GovernmentExplosion ends atHeath Ronan Town PointLast estate of Black opened Country’s in right 275 to buy First demolitions of high-riseThe Government’sRaid on Estate pubSandwell reported Housingas the Action ‘Decent Homes’ prompts Latest high-rise demolition in construction in Black CountryBlack Country high-rise boomhigh-rise opens high-rise subsidyflats in EastWolverhampton London high-rise approved council in the Black Country Action initiativeHeath starts TownTrust riot abandoned reviews of high-rise the Black Country housing

1945 1946 1953 1954 1955 1956 1958 1965 1967 1968 1969 1973 1975 1980 1980’s 1985 1986 1989 1990 1995 2000 2005 2011 2015 TIMELINE 20 21 Left: This image taken from the twenty- storey Bover Court, Wednesfield in 1976 accompanied a news story about a residents’ protest over a broken lift. The flats had only been approved for construction eight years before (courtesy Express and Star).

The complete redevelopment of the site of these blocks was, for some years at least, very much an exception. And by no means all high-rise was in dire straits - raising questions about was claimed to be the inherent hopelessness of multi-storey flats. In a survey perhaps never to be repeated, Miles Glendinning and Stefan Muthesius viewed first-hand all high-rise blocks in the UK:-

‘During our own investigations, we visited all multi-storey blocks of public housing in the UK, and were surprised to discover how few were in a state of serious dilapidation - in contrast to high flats’ general ‘media image’’

In the Black Country, this media image was influenced by the reporting of a disturbance in Heath Town following a police drugs raid on a local pub in May 1989, reported in the national media as a ‘riot’. Although this may in fact have come at a turning point in the estate’s fortunes, Other initiatives introduced in the Councillor at the time, describes how this But it was as if this was the start of a it remains shorthand for the decline of the mid-1980s included the Estate Action became a turning point in the life of the divergence in the journeys taken by area and the undesirability of its high-rise. Programme, which involved councils estate: different high-rise blocks in the Black bidding to the (then) Department of the Country. Some would go on to survive Environment for funding to improve “During the ‘80s and ‘90s … it was in well into the 21st century, others were council estates. Funds were, for example, quite a bad state… we used to call this deemed to be beyond salvation. The obtained to improve the Burrowes Street place ‘The Ice Blocks’…but we were first Black Country blocks to be turned estate in Walsall. Richard Worrell, now able to get some progress” to rubble were among the oldest - the a resident of the estate but a local mid-1980s saw the demolition of Boulton Place and Murdock Place in Smethwick.

22 23 Following the purchase of individual was demolished, impetus was given to homes under ‘Right-to-buy’, the the growth of a tenants’ movement in the government opened the possibility of Black Country, and a more decentralised large-scale transfer of council housing to approach to managing council housing new landlords. Significantly in the Black was adopted in the Borough. Country, the Secretary of State attempted a transfer of high-rise and other stock to Tenant management organisations a proposed Housing Action Trust (HAT) (TMOs) started to become significant in on three estates: Lion Farm in Oldbury; the Black Country in the late 1980s and and Cape Hill and Windmill Lane in early 1990s. In Walsall they were to take Smethwick. on the management of four high-rise estates - Chuckery, Burrowes Street, The move was actively opposed by both Leamore and Sandbank. And by the end tenants and the local authority and was of the 1990s there would be eight TMOs abandoned as a result. However the in the area. attempt (and the local response to it) left a mark on both the local skyline and the organisation of both the tenants and local housing authority. Much of Lion Farm

Left: Written at almost the end of the Borough’s high-rise programme, the 1969 tenants’ handbook included several promotional images of tower blocks including, on the front cover, three blocks at Merry Hill flats built two years earlier (Courtesy Wolverhampton Homes).

24 25 DEMOLITION & RENEWAL 1996-2014

By the mid 1990s the challenges of high-rise. Following a contested ballot high-rise council housing had provided of tenants, the vote to transfer was not more fuel for opponents of both multi- supported and this rejection, like that of storey flats and large scale publically- the HAT some years before, would go on owned housing in general. The trend to influence the future ownership of public was swinging further towards either the housing in the Black Country. transfer out of public ownership or, in the case of high-rise blocks especially, In the same period there were other demolition. transfers in the Black Country - for example Sanctuary Housing Association By the end of the twentieth century took over the vacant 23-storey Alder 37 tower blocks had already been House on the Heath Town estate, since demolished in the Black Country - the renaming it Hampton View. vast majority by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council. As a housing authority, The Labour government’s ‘Decent Homes’ Sandwell had never commissioned a programme from 2000 again spurred tower block itself, having only come into councils to transfer their housing stock existence in 1974. But it was to gain a to a new landlord or at least a separate national reputation for pulling them down. company to manage it. In the ‘80s and ‘90s the Borough’s demolitions had included a large number The first option was taken by Walsall of the older multi-storey flats built in the Council and in 2003 its entire stock was 1950s, including 13 of the original 15 passed to two new landlords, Walsall blocks on the Yew Tree estate. Housing Group and WATMOS. WATMOS was a further development of the local In 1995 the Government returned to the TMOs and it is now landlord for most idea of transferring council housing en of the remaining high-rise blocks in the masse to new landlords with the creation Borough. of the Estate Renewal Challenge Fund (ERCF). Attracted by the promised funding, Sandwell MBC was one of In the years either side of 2000 the residents of Sandwell were frequently disturbed by the the early bidders, although the estates sound of high-rise being detonated. Here onlookers view the explosive demolition of Hamilton identified did not include the Borough’s House in Smethwick (Images with kind permission ©Phil Hill)

26 27 In Sandwell and Wolverhampton stock A similar review by Sandwell MBC in 2007 transfer was less popular, in part because recommended consulting with residents of the tenants’ rejection of the HAT and over the demolition of the surviving blocks ERCF in the 1990s, and instead Arms of Bolton Court in Tipton and Beaconview Length Management Organisations House on the Charlemont Farm estate. (‘ALMOs’) were created in 2004 and 2005 In the event Beaconview survived and respectively. Only Dudley Metropolitan Bolton Court - ‘The Gateway to Tipton’ Borough Council, with the fewest tower - finally bit the dust in 2011. This was blocks - thirty or so - decided to continue the last of more than 60 demolitions by to own and manage its housing stock. Sandwell MBC, about half of which have been carried out by controlled explosion. But by then the vast majority of tower- block demolitions had already been Beaconview House is only one example completed. In the first handful of years of of a block reprieved from demolition. the 21st century a further 34 blocks had Another is St Mary’s Court in Willenhall, been demolished. Sandwell still made closed by in 1997 and the running, disposing of three 17-storey earmarked for demolition. A change of blocks on the Lyng estate in West plan later saw it sold off instead - it was Bromwich, and Jellico and Beatty Houses refurbished by a private construction in Tipton for example. company and re-opened under a new name, The Pinnacle. But this time Wolverhampton and Walsall were also in the fray, demolishing eight and nine blocks respectively. It was the end of the line for three 1950s blocks at Blakenhall Gardens and two 1960s blocks in Darlaston. More surprising was the demolition in 2001 of Leys and Top Left: Bover Court and Alma Courts, the Black Country’s newest Wodensfield Tower in Wednesfield, blocks, which had only stood for a little in advance of their recent over 25 years. refurbishment (Photo by Miles Glendinning 1987; University of This phase of Wolverhampton’s Edinburgh/Heritage Lottery Fund demolitions had in part been informed ‘Tower Blocks’ Project’) by a study published in 2000. This took into account tenants’ views on a range of subjects including the condition of their Bottom Left: St Mary’s Court was flat and block, the reputation of the area, closed by Walsall Council in 1997 and community solidarity. The three and earmarked for destruction. Portobello blocks, built by Willenhall After a review of the economics of in the early ‘60s and later acquired by demolition, a change of plan Wolverhampton, scored lowest in the saw it sold to the private sector survey and they were demolished three (Photo by Chaz Mason) years later. 28 29 Indeed, given that a large majority of between blocks. Some have provided 1960s tower blocks remain, and that homes to newcomers to the country: in many of those demolished are not so the early 2000s for example, Heath Town dissimilar from those that are left, the drew national attention for the range of pattern of demolition defies a simple nationalities among the asylum seekers architectural explanation. and refugees housed there. Until the arrangement was terminated in 2011, There are however, one or two marked the estate was for some time the largest trends. After Wates, Wimpey was the single concentration of these groups in construction company most used to build the Black Country. Black Country high-rise, but Wimpey’s blocks have not survived as well as those Partial redevelopment is now proposed of other large builders. In fact more than on Heath Town, with the removal of most half of Wimpey’s blocks have gone, in of the 1960s deck access and the use proportion a loss rate of twice that of of much of the original green space for Wates. individually heated private housing - thus diluting the original vision of a communal In general, and although it is not difficult boiler facility for the estate. to find former occupants who have been glad to see them come down, the trend The last few years have seen some towards demolition has passed. Only two elements of the older order return. The blocks have been brought down the in arms-length management organisation Black Country in the last five years, and ‘Sandwell Homes’ returned to direct demolition is not now always seen as the council control in 2012 and the first way forward for high-rise flats. council housing in Sandwell for decades was built, as it happened, on the site of a Of those that remain, the experience demolished tower block. of occupants has varied considerably Across the Black Country, refurbishment supported by the Decent Homes programme has transformed many high-rise blocks, often including brightly coloured exterior thermal cladding. This has provided a sharp contrast to earlier duller concrete and brick exteriors but perhaps also, to the casual observer, disguised their origins Wulfruna and Grange Courts were the only high-rise blocks to have been included on Council’s local list in mid-twentieth century post- of buildings with architectural or historical interest. They were demolished in 2009. war housing crisis. Right: Image courtesy Dave Cocker

30 31 A WORK-IN-PROGRESS

Within this very brief history, lots of demolished - and sometimes before the questions remain unanswered about high-rise. This seems to suggest that the story of high-rise council flats. problem is one of failed estates rather However, one issue does seem to be than necessarily a failed housing form. relatively clear: it is difficult to argue that Whether the demolitions were all high-rise flats are inherently doomed or absolutely necessary might also be a somehow always ultimately uninhabitable. question worth asking in the context While their economics will certainly be of the successful refurbishments (and questioned, it is clear that multi-storey reprieves) which have taken place since. flats can provide some people with a Certainly some of them did not, it seems, home they are glad to occupy. take place in the face of clear demand for an alternative use of the land. The sites First there is the inconvenient fact that of former high-rise estates like those at the Black Country’s tallest residential Portobello and Bolton Court have lain building was not built in the 1960s but vacant for years for example. much more recently - in the 21st century in fact. The student accommodation at That said, the stories of urine-in-the-lift, Victoria Hall is as tall as any council tower noise, burnt-out garages, and sky-high block built in the area and its existence heating bills are not made up. Multi-storey seems to suggest that the construction of flats, and no-less those commissioned by Top: The Chapel Street Estate is the largest new high-rise has not been abandoned by councils in the 1960s can be, and have development of high-rise in the south of the Black everyone. been, at times, horrible places to live. Country and on a clear day is visible from the Malvern Hills, 30 miles away. But there are other clues. It might be But how then can it be that in the true that no other type of social housing surveys of tenants’ opinions mentioned Left: The boiler serving the estate-wide district has been demolished at the same rate above there can be such a diversity of heating scheme was one of a number of as high-rise tower blocks, but often the responses? While some blocks have been community facilities designed into the Heath Town low-rise or maisonettes built as part of rife with problems and dissatisfaction, development in the late 1960s. the same development have also been others have been appreciated and valued.

32 33 The answer may be in the tenants’ The Black Country has played some part responses themselves. If their concerns in this story. Both Sandwell and Walsall are addressed (and these might include, have, for example, gained national for example, some attentive security reputations for the achievements of high- system, thermal insulation, timely rise tenants. maintenance and local facilities) opinions can be positive. But there is some way to go. Not only do difficult problems in high-rise housing still Top: Tenants celebrate the Perhaps the most encouraging story persist, but the documented history of refurbishment of Russell House, to emerge from this study is the way in council housing in the Black Country is Wednesbury in 2012 (Courtesy which tenants and tenants’ organisations littered with unanswered questions. We Express and Star). have been able to claim some influence hope this study will at least encourage over the management and ownership of further exploration of a subject relevant to Bottom: Lancaster House, high-rise flats in the Black Country. the lives of thousands of local people. Rowley Regis in 2008 and 2015, before and after refurbishment If anyone were to read the ‘tenants (Photo on right taken by Matthew handbooks’ issued by Black Country local Whitehouse, © Wolverhampton authorities in the 1950s and 60s they City Council) could surely only remark that the overtly paternalistic attitudes they represent now appear to be from a completely different age. The fact that they do seem out of time is in part a tribute to the historic change in the position of tenants and the way they are viewed by local authority housing departments.

Right : St Anne’s Court and, at the rear, St Giles’ Court were built by Bryant in the early 1960s for Willenhall Urban District Council (Photo taken in 2013 by Matthew Whitehouse, © Wolverhampton City Council)

34 35 ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS

Interviewee Date of Interview Interviewer Mins. Location

Jessica Archer 25 Sept 2014 T Shelly 4 Burrowes St., Walsall K Aston & P Whiting 25 June 2014 T Shelly 22 Bolton Ct., Tipton Tony Bason 21 Feb 2015 R Collins 29 Heath Town, W’ton James Bunce 28 Jan 2015 D Cocker 24 Graiseley Estate, W’ton Norman Bracken-Ridge 29 July 2014 P Rodwell 30 Grosvenor Ct., Wednesfield Malcolm Cartridge 25 Sept 2014 D Cocker 10 Burrowes St., Walsall Vincent Clarke 07 Aug 2014 D Cocker 15 Long Ley, Heath Town Dave Cocker 29 July 2014 C Bason 23 Various, W’ton Victor Collins 29 May 2014 C Bason 26 Longfield Hse., Heath Town Barry Cotgrove 20 June 2014 P Rodwell 20 Darley Hse, Rowley Regis Luke Caulton 25 Sept 2014 H Crawford 10 Regent Hse., Burrowes St. Elaine Daws 25 Sept 2014 H Crawford 22 Burrowes St., Walsall Bob Deacon 26 Nov 2014 C Bason 24 Heath Town Geoff Deakin 25 June 2014 B Dakin 10 Bolton Ct., Tipton V Foster 31 May 2014 C Bason 9 Heath Town, W’ton Thomas Furnival 25 Sept 2014 D Cocker 11 Burrowes St., Walsall Brendan Hawthorne 06 May 2014 P Rodwell 21 Bolton Ct., Tipton Mavis Hawthorne 25 June 2014 C Bason 22 Bolton Ct., Tipton June Mary Haydon 25 Sept 2014 D Cocker 12 Burrowes St., Walsall Jack Hoult 25 June 2014 B Dakin 7 Bolton Ct., Tipton David Hubball 24 Feb 2015 P Rodwell 42 Eve Hill, Dudley Don Jones 31 July 2014 C Bason 15 Various Colin Lewis 02 July 2014 T Shelly 29 Wilson Hse., Lion Farm Wendy Lloyd 24 Feb 2015 C Bason 29 Whitmore Reans Godfrey Minay 09 Dec 2014 S Pennell 4 Heath Town, W’ton Marianne Monro 25 Sept 2014 P Rodwell 30 Various, Sandwell Madeline Moorcroft 25 Sept 2014 A Mohammed 11 Burrowes St., Walsall Shaun Pritchard 03 July 2014 C Bason 10 Various Trevor Purcell 14 May 2014 P Rodwell 7 St Giles Ct., Rowley Regis Sandra Purcell 14 May 2014 P Rodwell 20 St Giles Ct., Rowley Regis Emma Rennocks 25 Sept 2014 T Shelly 7 Burrowes Hse. Victor Roden 07 Oct 2014 C Bason 18 Arthur Greenwood Ct Winifred Shelley 16 Dec 2014 S Pennell 33 Highfields Ct., W’ton Elieen Smith 25 Sept 2014 T Shelly 6 Burrowes St., Walsall Heath Town, Wolverhampton in 2012 (Photo taken by Matthew Whitehouse, © Wolverhampton Jean Smith 17 June 2014 C Bason 7 Heath Town, W’ton City Council) Dave Spittle 25 June 2014 T Shelly 7 Bolton Ct., Tipton Nicki Statham 25 Sept 2014 D Cocker 13 Burrowes St., Walsall Martyn Steed 30 May 2014 C Bason 18 Heath Town, W’ton Peter Thompson 26 Feb 2015 R Collins 22 Wychbury Ct., Dudley Louise Ward 22 July 2014 D Cocker 32 Blakenhall Estate, W’ton Lynda Whitebeard 25 Sept 2014 D Cocker 8 Burrowes St., Walsall Juanita Williams 09 Oct 2014 P Rodwell 21 Chiltern Hse., Lion Farm

36 37 Interviewee Date of Interview Interviewer Mins. Location INDEX Dave Woodhall 02 Oct 2014 P Rodwell 18 Ryder Hse., West Bromwich Richard Worrall 25 Sept 2014 A Mohammed 11 Burrowes St., Walsall 1930s, 6, 7 Coseley, 13 A & R Worth 3 Feb 2015 P Rodwell 17 Moorlands Court 1940s, 7, 20 Criminals, 3 (Anonymous) 06 Aug 2014 T Shelly 4 Bolton Ct., Tipton 1950s, 7, 9, 11, 17, 20, 25, 27 Dale Street, 9-13, See also Graiseley (Anonymous) 06 Aug 2014 T Shelly 8 Moorlands Ct., Rowley Regis 1960s, 13, 17, 20, 27, 29 Darlaston, 15, 21, 29 (Anonymous) 10 Aug 2014 C Bason 11 Heath Town, W’ton 1970s, 9, 15, 17, 19, 21 Decent Homes, 21, 27, 31 (Anonymous) 25 Sept 2014 D Cocker 14 Burrowes St., Walsall (Anonymous) 10 Aug 2014 C Bason 21 Heath Town, W’ton 1980s 19, 21, 22, 23, 25 Deck access, 11, 31 (Anonymous) 18 July 2014 T Shelly 6 Romsley Ct., Queens Cross 1990s 18, 21, 25, 27-30 Demolition, 20, 21, 23, 26, 27, 29-31, 33 (Anonymous) 25 Sept 2014 D Cocker 12 Burrowes St., Walsall 2000s, 21, 26-31, 34 By controlled explosion, 26, 29 (Anonymous) 11 Aug 2014 C Bason 22 Heath Town, W’ton 2010s, 21, 29, 31, 35 Dilapidation, 23 (Anonymous) 21 May 2014 T Shelly 12 Darley Hse Rowley Regis Alder House, 27 Duddeston, 7 (Anonymous) 10 Aug 2014 C Bason 18 Heath Town, W’ton Aldridge-Brownhills, 13 Dudley, 13, 21, 29 (Anonymous) 25 June 2014 C Bason 7 Bearwood Hse., Smethwick Alma Court, Darlaston, 15, 29 East Anglia, 15 (Anonymous) 07 Oct 2014 C Bason 8 Arthur Greenwood Ct., Bilston ALMOs, see Arms Length Management East Midlands, 15 (Anonymous) 25 June 2014 T Shelly 7 Shelley Ave., Tipton Organisations Estate Renewal Challenge Fund, 27, 29 Aneurin Bevan, 7 Estate Action, 21, 22 Arms Length Management Organisations, Families, 7, 17 29, 31 Government, 5, 7, 11, 15, 19, 20, 21, Arthur Greenwood, 6, 7, 13, 37 25, 27 Chervil Rise on the Heath Town estate, Wolverhampton (Photo by Miles Glendinning 1987; University of Asylum seekers, 31 Graiseley estate, Wolverhampton, 10, Edinburgh/Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Tower Blocks’ Project) Beaconview House, West Bromwich, 29 20, 37, See also Dale Street Beatty House, Tipton, 12, 29 Grange Court, Wolverhampton, 10, 11, 30 Bilston, 2, 6, 12, 13 Green Lane, Walsall, 13 Birmingham, 5, 7, 9 Hackey, 13 Blakenhall Gardens, 27 Halesowen, 13 Bolton Court, Tipton, 12, 17, 20, 21, 29, Hamilton House, Smethwick, 26 33, 37 Hampton View, 27 Boulton Place, 8, 9, 16, 23 Harold Wilson, 15 Bover Court, Wednesfield, 22, 23, 28 HAT, See Housing Action Trust Brierley Hill, 13, 15 Heath Town, 15, 20, 21, 23, 27, 31, 37, 38 Burrowes Street, 13, 22, 25, 37 Heating, 9, 32, 33 Cape Hill, 9, 11, 25 Highfields Court, 17 Chapel Street, Brierley Hill, 15, 32 Housing Action Trust, 21, 25, 27 Charlemont Farm, 13, 14, 29 Hugh Gaitskell Court, Bilston, 2 Charles Wheeler, 11 Jellico House, Tipton, 12, 29 Children, 9, 16, 17 Land-values, 5 Chuckery, 25 Leamore, 25 Cladding, 31 Leys Court, Darlaston, 15, 29 Clem Atlee Court, Bilston, 2 Lift construction, 7 Coal, 5, 9, 15 Lion Farm, 18, 25, 37 Coalfield, 5 London, 7, 13, 15, 20

38 39 Maisonettes, 17, 33 The Lyng estate, 29 Mary, Mungo & Midge, 17 The Pinnacle, 27 Merry Hill flats, Wolverhampton, 24, 25 Tipton, 6, 11, 12, 13, 17, 29, 37 Miles Glendinning, 23 TMOs, See Tenant Management Modernist, 15 Organisations Murdock Place, 8, 9, 23 Victorian, 7, 11, 15 Neighbours, 3, 19 Wales, 15 Newcomers, 13, 19 Walsall, 2, 11, 13, 15, 21, 22, 25, 27, Oldbury, 13, 18, 25 29, 35, 37, 38 Paris, 13 Walsall Housing Group, 27 The Pinnacle, 29 War, 7, 11, 17 ‘Point’ blocks, 11 Wates, 13, 15, 31 Portobello, 29 WATMOS, 27 Prefabricated parts, 13 Wednesbury, 13, 34 Private housing, 28, 29, 31 Wednesfield, 13 Public open space, 9 West Bromwich, 11, 13, 19, 29 Refugees, 31 West Midlands, 9, 15 Reputation of high-rise, 5, 19, 29 Whitmore Reans, 15 Right-to-buy, 19, 23, 25 Willenhall, 13, 29 Ronan Point, 15 Wimpey, 13, 31 Rowley Regis, 13 Winston Churchill Court, Bilston, 2 Russell House, Wednesbury, 34 Wodensfield Tower, Wednesfield, 22, Ryder House, 19 23, 28 Sanctuary Housing Association, 27 Wolverhampton, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 29 Sandbank, 2, 25 Wulfruna Court, Wolverhampton, 10, Sandwell, 8, 9, 21, 25- 27, 29, 31, 35, 37 11, 30 School, 15, 17 Yew Tree, 9, 11, 25 Sedgley, 13 Smethwick, 9, 11, 15, 17, 20, 23, 25, 26, 38 VOLUNTEERS South West, 15 St Mary’s Court, 29 The Block Capital project volunteers have been: Andrew Howlett; Andy Lopez; Anna Stefan Muthesius, 20, 23 Silvani; Ben Hall; Brendan Hawthorne; Brian Dakin; Chris Parsons; Christine Bason; Stock transfer, 27 Clive Wilson; Damian Hansford; Dave Cocker; David Burbidge; Dawn Hazlehurst; Stourbridge, 13 Derek Woodmass; Elaine Powney; Eve Phillips; Glenys Roberts; Greg Worwood; Stowlawn, Bilston, 2 Hannah Crawford; James Yates; Jessica Bassam; Julie Wilde; Kari Nyakunu; Kate Subsidies, 11 Gomez; Leah Bond; Lewis Barton; Louise Thomas; Luke Price; Marian Innes; Mary Subsidy by government, 7, 11, 15, 17 Cartwright; Mary Collins; Matthew Terry; Matthew Whitehouse; Morgan Miller; Nicholas Tenant management organisations, 2, Banda; Pat Rodwell; Phillip Pennell; Ray Parton; Rosalind Watkiss; Roxie Collins; Ruth 23, 25 Beardsmore; Sal Pennell; Shaun Pritchard; Simon Briercliffe; Stephen King; Susan Tenants, 2, 5, 9, 11, 19, 20, 25, 27, 29 Dangor; Susan Woolnough Holt; Tony G. Bason; Tracy Shelly; Victoria Hillman; and Thatcher, 19 Wendy Lloyd.

40 LIVING IN THE SKY A HISTORY OF HIGH-RISE COUNCIL FLATS IN THE BLACK COUNTRY

The Block Capital Project A Participative History of High Rise Council Flats A distinctly black country project, supported by Heritage Lottery Fund In association with Sandwell Community Information and Participation Service, Walsall Tenants and Residents Association and Wolverhampton Federation Tenants of Tenants’ Associations.

Copies of this booklet can be obtained by contacting: Wolverhampton Art Gallery WAVE (Wolverhampton, Arts, Venues, Experiences) Wolverhampton WV1 1DU [email protected]