Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
A little missing at the start.
Journalist and author Michael Collins presents a hard-hitting and heartwarming history of one of Britain's greatest social revolutions - council housing. At its height in the mid-1970s, council housing provided homes for over a third of the British population. From the 'homes for heroes' cottages that were built in the wake of the First World War to the much-maligned, monolithic high rises of the 60s and 70s, Collins embarks on a grand tour of Britain's council estates. He visits Britain's first council estate, built as an antidote to London's disease and crime-ridden Victorian slums, the groundbreaking flats that made inter-war Liverpool the envy of Europe, the high rise estate in Sheffield that has become the largest listed building in the world, and the estate built on the banks of the Thames that was billed as 'the town of the 21st century'.
Along the way he meets the people whose lives were shaped by an extraordinary social experiment that began with a bang at the start of the 20th century and ended with a whimper 80 years later.
(BBC)
Inspiration from the garden city movement shaped many post-WW1 housing estates, including the huge Becontree estate in Essex, built to relieve London’s East End. European modernism inspired council flats built between the wars, particularly in London and Liverpool, such as Liverpool’s St Andrew’s Gardens. In Liverpool writer Jimmy McGovern remembers the housing of his youth. After WW2 new towns such as Stevenage emerged to cater for the aspirational working class. Higher rise blocks and the Smithson’s aspiration to build streets in the sky were another route taken. The Park Hill estate in Sheffield completed in 1961 attempted to provide more of a community than Becontree. The Smithson’s Robin Hood Gardens in Poplar, east London, was completed at a time when council flats were entering a reputational crisis. The decline of the high rise was accelerating as many of them suffered from shoddy construction and became associated with crime and anti-social behaviour and a feeling in the 1970s that a lot of the housing built to replace the slums had become slums. The Thamesmead Estate in Woolwich, London promised to learn from the mistakes of the past and become the estate of the next century, but was undermined by changing regulations. The arrival of Margaret Thatcher with her policy of giving tenants the right to buy their council properties was the death blow for the Twentieth Century council housing movement. But the movement was already in deep trouble; Michael Collins argues that the previous Labour government’s switch to prioritising those in greatest need over the local working class community (and, with it, the removal of strict vetting procedures for prospective tenants was the cause). London’s Heygate Estate, once a hope for a brighter future, became dogged by itinerant tenants and sub-letting. Collins argues that plans at the time of making of the documentary, to make new tenants apply for renewal of their tenancies every two years and move on if their circumstances had improved, would be yet another nail in the coffin of council estates as viable communities.
Written and presented by Michael Collins. Directed by Chris Wilson
A little missing at the start.
Journalist and author Michael Collins presents a hard-hitting and heartwarming history of one of Britain's greatest social revolutions - council housing. At its height in the mid-1970s, council housing provided homes for over a third of the British population. From the 'homes for heroes' cottages that were built in the wake of the First World War to the much-maligned, monolithic high rises of the 60s and 70s, Collins embarks on a grand tour of Britain's council estates. He visits Britain's first council estate, built as an antidote to London's disease and crime-ridden Victorian slums, the groundbreaking flats that made inter-war Liverpool the envy of Europe, the high rise estate in Sheffield that has become the largest listed building in the world, and the estate built on the banks of the Thames that was billed as 'the town of the 21st century'.
Along the way he meets the people whose lives were shaped by an extraordinary social experiment that began with a bang at the start of the 20th century and ended with a whimper 80 years later.
(BBC)
Inspiration from the garden city movement shaped many post-WW1 housing estates, including the huge Becontree estate in Essex, built to relieve London’s East End. European modernism inspired council flats built between the wars, particularly in London and Liverpool, such as Liverpool’s St Andrew’s Gardens. In Liverpool writer Jimmy McGovern remembers the housing of his youth. After WW2 new towns such as Stevenage emerged to cater for the aspirational working class. Higher rise blocks and the Smithson’s aspiration to build streets in the sky were another route taken. The Park Hill estate in Sheffield completed in 1961 attempted to provide more of a community than Becontree. The Smithson’s Robin Hood Gardens in Poplar, east London, was completed at a time when council flats were entering a reputational crisis. The decline of the high rise was accelerating as many of them suffered from shoddy construction and became associated with crime and anti-social behaviour and a feeling in the 1970s that a lot of the housing built to replace the slums had become slums. The Thamesmead Estate in Woolwich, London promised to learn from the mistakes of the past and become the estate of the next century, but was undermined by changing regulations. The arrival of Margaret Thatcher with her policy of giving tenants the right to buy their council properties was the death blow for the Twentieth Century council housing movement. But the movement was already in deep trouble; Michael Collins argues that the previous Labour government’s switch to prioritising those in greatest need over the local working class community (and, with it, the removal of strict vetting procedures for prospective tenants was the cause). London’s Heygate Estate, once a hope for a brighter future, became dogged by itinerant tenants and sub-letting. Collins argues that plans at the time of making of the documentary, to make new tenants apply for renewal of their tenancies every two years and move on if their circumstances had improved, would be yet another nail in the coffin of council estates as viable communities.
Written and presented by Michael Collins. Directed by Chris Wilson
