5.0 out of 5 stars It wasn't meant to be like this ...

h. · 6 June 2010

Mention council estates to many British people and they're more likely to think of dysfunctional communities than "homes fit for heroes".During the 20th century, public housing was meant to eradicate slums, deflect revolution, improve the health of the nation and eliminate social inequality. So what went wrong - and can it be put right?Lynsey Hanley addresses these questions in this fascinating and often passionate account of a century of policy, ideology, greed and incompetence. What gives the book its edge, though, is the intermingling of formal history with the first hand experiences of Hanley and four generations of her family.My only criticism is that the author doesn't really look the development of council housing in rural areas and small towns; but perhaps that's another story.

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating and highly readable insight into the social housing history in the UK

M. · 17 February 2013

I was recommended this book by a friend after extolling the virtues of Owen Jones' Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class. I hadn't any specific expectation of the direction it would take or its scope but I found it enlightening, sobering, fascinating and depressing in equal measures. I've rarely read a book that's captured so readably the issues she addresses with regards to both the experience of growing up on an estate and her personal journey and the policies, plans and political climate which influenced the development of state housing and its eventual decline from public and policy favour.A must read for anyone interested in why estates are judged so negatively, why there's a crisis in housing and how the optimism of great thinkers can be sidelined by the realities of commercialism. It's not a hopeless tale but if people don't heed the lessons it shares, it could be. One to pass round to others after reading.

5.0 out of 5 stars social history

P.S.R.M. · 10 August 2011

I use this book teaching my course to undergraduates at university, but its aimed at the informed general reader. Its an excellent social history that also explains so much of current class politics in the UK. In understanding social exclusion, its important to take into account how much geography plays a part. Lynsey Hanley is a great writer, her journalism work for the Guardian is always stimulating and incisive. Would recommend.

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding the history and psychology

C.R. · 4 January 2016

Pure magic. In should be compulsory reading for anyone mouthing orf (sic) in public about social or housing issues. It is also suitable for giving to angst ridden colleagues who are personally still suffering from the effects of "the wall in the head", as it gives them a key to unlock their past.I have provided references from it to Wikipedia:Public housing in the United Kingdom.

3.0 out of 5 stars Potted history of social housing

L. · 18 May 2014

A declaration of interest first, like Lynsey Hanley I grew up on a council estate, and unlike the author I have actually studied social housing history at college.Estates for me falls uncomfortably between two stools, it's part popular history, part personal memoir / polemic. If you know little or nothing of the history of social housing in the UK it's probably reasonably informative, though needs treated with caution as this is a very personal take on that history. If you are reasonably familiar with the history you wont get any new information or great insight here.As a personal memoir it surprising lacking, we get a little about her early years outside Birmingham, but not a lot. For a book dubbed an 'intimate history' what's most noticeably lacking is the voices of the residents of those estates, people for whom Ms Hanley seems to have a curiously ambivalent attitude to.It doesn't help that I found her prose plodding and un-engaging, it's a book that cries out for some photographs and some more inspired presentation of information.Overall its disappointing if worthy.

5.0 out of 5 stars Deserves a wider audience

W. · 14 December 2014

Well written, and gives an insight into what it means to have been brought up on what was formerly known as 'a council estate'. Physically, the author 'escaped', but mentally, she remains affected by the experience . I can relate to that, as my experiences have been similar. The author's observations deserve as wide an audience as possible.

4.0 out of 5 stars A FORGOTTEN ASPECT OF THE WELFARE STATE

B.A. · 26 February 2012

I enjoyed Lynsey Hanley's social history of the council estate in modern Britain,and agreed with much that she said.I cannot believe that we would allow those other tenets of the Welfare State-namely the NHS and the education system to deteriorate to such a degree as we have allowed social housing to reach in the first part of the 21st century. Council estates still have a stigma-though aways have. They are undesireable places where undesireable people,but what makes people become the lowest part of society. They are the easiest people to push around, as Lynsey says of the education system on council estates no expectations are encouraged,so they will continue to play to the role that society has given them.The future certainly does not look encouraging with the restriction and cap on housing benefit, the reduction of benefits, and the general hopelessness of people at the bottom of the pile for whatever reason.Lynsey Hanley gives a personal view of life on council estates both in Birmingham and London. Her views are also her own based on experience,contact and background reading on the subject.The book makes you think about the aspect of social housing-sounds better than council estates.-and for those who have never lived on council estates a glimpse into what life is like-though the concepts are pushed through the likes of Waterloo Road and Shameless,do people strive to live upto the stereotype.This is required reading for those who want to know what has happened to social housing over the last fifty years from Bevan to Pickles

Intense

j.m. · 21 April 2020

I liked this book because it addresses a vital part of modern living which is often ignored or avoided - namely the provision of decent housing to people who can’t afford to buy.