A narrative history of council housing--from slums to the Grenfell
TowerUrgent, timely and compelling, Municipal Dreams brilliantly brings
the national story of housing to life. In this landmark reappraisal of
council housing, historian John Boughton presents an alternative history
of Britain. Rooted in the ambition to end slum living, and the ideals
of those who would build a new society, Municipal Dreams looks at how
the state's duty to house its people decently became central to our
politics.
The book makes it clear why that legacy and its
promise should be defended. Traversing the nation in this comprehensive
social, political and architectural history of council housing,
Boughton offers a tour of some of the best and most remarkable of our
housing estates--some happily ordinary, some judged notorious. He asks
us to understand their complex story and to rethink our prejudices.
His accounts include extraordinary planners and architects who wished
to elevate working men and women through design; the competing
ideologies that have promoted state housing and condemned it; the
economic factors that have always constrained our housing ideals; the
crisis wrought by Right to Buy; and the evolving controversies around
regeneration. Boughton shows how losing the dream of good housing has
weakened our community and hurt its most vulnerable--as was seen most
catastrophically in the fire at Grenfell Tower.
Municipal Dreams : The Rise and Fall of Council Housing - John Boughton
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£9.99