Homes for Heroes 100 Council Estate Memories Edited by Melanie Kelly Homes for Heroes 100 Council Estate Memories Edited by Melanie Kelly Published by Bristol Cultural Development Partnership 2019 This book has been published for the Homes for Heroes 100 programme, which is coordinated by Bristol Cultural Development Partnership (BCDP) in association Contents/ with its year-round Festival of Ideas (www.ideasfestival.co.uk/themes/homes-for- heroes-100) and biennial Festival of the Future City (www.futurecityfestival.co.uk). Foreword/ 4 BCDP is an Arts Council England NPO. It is a partnership of Bristol City Council, Business West, University of Bristol and the University of the West of England. Introduction/ 5 Paul Smith: Bristol/ 6 Joan Smith: Acton, Stevenage and Basingstoke/ 10 Homes for Heroes 100 is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Bristol Alan Johnson: North Kensington and Slough/ 16 City Council. Liz Clare: Cambridge/ 19 Brad Evans: The Rhondda Valleys/ 23 Natasha Carthew: Downderry/ 27 Individual projects are led by the Architecture Centre, Knowle West Media Centre, Local Learning (Hillfields Homes for Heroes) and Sea Mills 100. David Olusoga: Gateshead/ 30 Robert Walton: Cardiff/ 34 Ian Jack: Farnworth and Fife/ 39 Roger Griffith:Bristol / 43 Text copyright: The authors retain the copyright of their work. The names of the copyright holders of images are provided with the captions. Please contact BCDP Natalie Bloomer: Stevenage/ 47 if you are a copyright holder and you have not been credited correctly so we can amend this error in a future edition. Janice Galloway: Saltcoats/ 50 Captions for cover images: Front cover: Joan Smith with her parents. Inside front Lynsey Hanley: Chelmsley Wood/ 53 cover (top): Durre Shahwar; Brad Evans. Inside front cover (bottom): Roger Griffith; John Savage: London/ 56 Kerry Hudson (Mark Vessey). Inside back cover (clockwise from top left): David Olusoga; Joan Smith (Alexander Seale); Natasha Carthew; Mary O’Hara; Lynsey Cash Carraway: London/ 60 Hanley (Suki Dhanda). Back cover (clockwise from top left): Natalie Bloomer; Alan Johnson with his daughters; Clare Kelly, niece of author Andrew Kelly, with a toy Durre Shahwar: Cardiff/ 66 Goodyear blimp in the garden at her grandparents’ home; Janice Galloway with her mother; Robert, Maxine and Paul Walton. Mary O’Hara: West Belfast/ 69 Publication designed by Qube Design Associates Ltd. Xan Brooks: Frome/ 73 Printed by The Complete Product Company Ltd on FSC certified paper. Published by Bristol Cultural Development Partnership, Leigh Court, Abbots Leigh, Kerry Hudson: Scotland and England/ 76 Bristol BS8 3RA. Andrew Kelly: Wombourne/ 79 The views expressed in this publication are the individual authors’ own. They are not necessarily shared by the other authors or by BCDP. Further Infomation/ 84 A large-print PDF – without the illustrations – can be provided as an email attachment on request. BCDP can be contacted using the form on the Festival of Ideas website: www.ideasfestival.co.uk/about/contact 3 Foreword/ Introduction/ I am often asked what it was that made the Homes for Heroes 100 is a programme of difference in my life; what helped me move beyond coordinated community projects, special events the adverse circumstances of my childhood to and new publications marking the centenary of the become Mayor of Bristol. I list a number of factors. Housing Act 1919 and the development of the first Among them are my family, boxing, a couple of large-scale council estates in this country. committed teachers, outward bound, my faith and These specially commissioned essays have been written by a range of homes that were safe and secure. people who have lived in council housing, some of whom will be speaking at the Festival of the Future City (16-19 October 2019). In addition to Those homes were council properties. The first was a two-bedroom Bristol, the locations described include Basingstoke, Cambridge, Cardiff, ground-floor flat in Humberston Walk, Lawrence Weston. The second a Fife, Gateshead, Saltcoats, Slough, Stevenage, a rural village in Cornwall, two-bedroom house off Stapleton Road in Easton, the next street over the outskirts of Birmingham and several parts of London. The authors’ from my nan and grandad. experiences range from the brutal to the idyllic, demonstrating the best and the worst of council housing provision. A number of the essays refer I carried a sense of vulnerability as a child that extended to my mother and to the revelation that came with the transfer to secondary school, when sister. The importance of having a front door we could close to the outside children were first made aware that to be a council tenant might be world, a base that was ours and bedrooms we could rest in – although considered a sign of failure. The authors have encountered class snobbery, we actually needed three bedrooms – should not be underestimated. We racism, crime and violence as well as supportive neighbours and previously were renting but it was our space. It was my house! It was a key part of the unimagined comforts like hot running water, and the sense of security that platform for mine and my family’s liberation. comes with knowing you hold the key to your own front door. In the hundredth anniversary of the Addison Act, the role of council Some contributors have chosen to focus on personal stories, those that housing is something to celebrate and learn from. It’s this history and the make them happy, proud, angry or regretful. Others have looked at the importance of council housing to my own journey that’s underpinned broader implications of council housing, its impact on those who live there my commitment to getting houses built in general and building council and the challenges for those responsible for its delivery. Reading these houses in particular. essays, it is clear that council housing can be perceived as both a bleak prison from which you long to escape, and a blissful haven after years of Delivering high-quality, secure homes in strong communities is one of struggle. Or somewhere in between. the key policy tools we have for tackling poverty; improving physical and mental health, and educational outcomes; and building the resilience of We are grateful to our volunteer proof-readers for their comments and our workforce and economy. And with the failure of the current housing corrections: Ed Bramall, Debra Britton, Jane Duffus, Jacqueline Gerrard, framework to deliver the quantity of homes and the failure of the private Julia Trow. rental sector to guarantee the quality and security of homes we need, it is essential we support the drive to unlock a new wave of council house The Festival of the Future City 2019 will include a series of sessions on building across the country. If we succeed, our cities and country will win. council housing past, present and future, among other themes. The festival will also showcase some of the work that has taken place during the Homes Marvin Rees for Heroes 100 programme. Visit www.futurecityfestival.co.uk for details. Mayor of Bristol 4 5 divide started to become clear. Many kids from Whitchurch looked down on those of us from Hartcliffe and they didn’t mix much with us Hartcliffe Paul Smith: kids after school hours. On reflection, whenever I was with teenagers from Whitchurch it was in Whitchurch or in town, never in Hartcliffe. Bristol/ The subtle and not-so-subtle stigma about living in council housing created a certain amount of siege mentality and Dunkirk spirit that developed into a pride in the area and a sense of identity. For some – not me – this developed into a gang culture that was played out in fights with For my parents, being allocated a council flat in the neighbouring estates of Knowle West and Withywood. Anyone from outside the area wouldn’t be able to tell you where Hartcliffe ended and the 1960s was a huge achievement. It symbolised Withywood began, but we knew. These rival gangs would come together security and independence. Being nine-months at Ashton Gate to fight similar gangs supporting other football teams. This sense of siege became greater in the summer of 1980, following the old at the time, I wasn’t aware of its impact. St Pauls’ riot. Most days, a riot van was parked near the shopping centre. Clearly, Hartcliffe would be next. My mum and dad had both grown up in council housing; my grandfather had been involved in building it during the post-war boom. Growing up The media would often describe Hartcliffe as an inner-city estate (it’s five on a council estate was just the norm for me, as all the relatives we visited miles from the centre of the city) and even a ‘no-go’ area. But it never felt also lived in such areas. My dad’s parents lived in Knowle West, built in dangerous or unsafe to walk around, and the contrast between the media the 1930s, and my mother’s parents lived on another, smaller estate in the portrayal and the reality was huge. Being on the edge of the city meant Cotswold town of Winchcombe. Until I went to secondary school, pretty that it was only a short walk into the countryside and the estate itself was much everyone I knew was a council tenant. It didn’t occur to me that we very green with plenty of open space. were separate or stigmatised or anything other than typical. At 18, I left Bristol to go to university. In some ways this was an escape; It seemed that the council ran almost everything and determined in others it became an assertion of identity.