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Municipal Dreams

@municipaldreams.bsky.social

Social historian of housing. Author of 'A History of Council Housing in 100 Estates' (RIBA Books) and 'Municipal Dreams: the Rise and Fall of Council Housing' (Verso). I blog at https://municipaldreams.wordpress.com/.

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Municipal Dreams@municipaldreams.bsky.social · 4d ago

🚨 New on Substack: Post-War Housing in Hackney: ‘Far removed from the pre-war conception of “council flats”' municipaldreams.substack.com/p/post-war-h...

Post-War Housing in Hackney: ‘Far removed from the pre-war conception of “council flats”‘

The drive towards high-rise housing which began in the late 1950s is often crudely represented as evidence of the inhumanity of architects and planners and the megalomania of their local authority ena...

municipaldreams.substack.com

Adam Chapman@adamchapman.bsky.social · 5d ago

A resource I hadn't come across (but based on the excellent Defence of Britain data - which recorded civil defence and anti-invasion structures from both World Wars), an interactive map of the data maintained by Steve Thompson. (to whom many thanks!):

eDoB Online

Online viewer for the Extended Defence of Britain Database as maintained by Steve Thompson. View the interactive map, or search through the database for a particular record.

edob.mattaldred.com

Municipal Dreams@municipaldreams.bsky.social · 6d ago

🚨 Brand new post: 'Dealing with "Unacceptable" Tenants' - how housing management diverged in Britain and the Netherland before 1939: municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2026/10/06/1...

Dealing with ‘Unacceptable’ Tenants: British Housing Management and the Dutch Woonschoolen before 1939

What to do with unacceptable tenants? The question how social housing providers should deal with those they believed would behave too badly to accommodate is a long-running and controversial one. E…

municipaldreams.wordpress.com

Municipal Dreams@municipaldreams.bsky.social · 6d ago

🚨 Brand new post: 'Dealing with "Unacceptable" Tenants' - how housing management diverged in Britain and the Netherland before 1939: municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2026/10/06/1...

Dealing with ‘Unacceptable’ Tenants: British Housing Management and the Dutch Woonschoolen before 1939

What to do with unacceptable tenants? The question how social housing providers should deal with those they believed would behave too badly to accommodate is a long-running and controversial one. E…

municipaldreams.wordpress.com

Municipal Dreams@municipaldreams.bsky.social · last wk.

On the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street (in which Jewish, left-wing and trades union activists battled police to block a fascist march), here's the mural unveiled in 1983 designed by Dave Binnington on the former St George's Town Hall to commemorate the event.

The work is inspired by the social realism of Diego Rivera, and the likely was influenced by the Depression-era murals of Philip Guston. Using a fisheye perspective, it shows the violent confrontation between police and protesters, with protest banners, punches being thrown, a barricade of furniture and overturned vehicle, police horse, Hitler (who was not actually present) being pantsed, and a police autogyro overhead. It uses the same artistic devices as Goya's The Third of May 1808 to evince sympathy for the protesters, showing them full face but a back view of the police
LCC municipal@lccmunicipal.bsky.social · last wk.

Colchester Town Hall from earlier today (I went on a Henry Collins and Joyce Pallot mural mooch earlier - more on that later). Anyway, this rather grand building in the Edwardian Baroque style was by John Belcher and opened in 1902. Reminds me of Alfred Brumwell Thomas’s Woolwich Town Hall a bit.

The view of the building and clock tower from the south east corner. Per Wikipedia: Construction of the new building began in 1897. It was designed by John Belcher in the Edwardian Baroque style and was opened by the former Prime Minister, the Earl of Rosebery in 1902. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto the High Street; the central section featured an arched doorway with the borough coat of arms in the tympanum and flanked by Doric order pilasters. There was an ornate balcony above the doorway and there were also three pairs of huge engaged Corinthian order columns spanning the first and second floors each carrying a broken pediment. Pevsner described the design as having been completed "with more braggadocio than anyone". A 192 feet (59 m) tower, funded by a donation from James Noah Paxman, the founder of local engineers, Davey, Paxman & Co, was erected at the east end of the building to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. It featured four allegorical figures by L. J. Watts representing engineering, military defence, agriculture and fishery. At the top of the tower the architect placed a large bronze figure representing Saint Helena (the patron saint of Colchester) holding the True Cross. Councillor Arthur Jarmin travelled as far as Italy to locate a suitable statue of the saint, but could only find one of the Virgin Mary, which then had to be modified locally. Just below this statue four bronze ravens by Francis Carruthers Gould could be found, representing the portreeve who ran Colchester's medieval port. A chiming clock with five bells was placed in the tower, with another 15th-century bell which is thought to have hung in the original moot hall. The clock is known locally as Charlie, after Charles Hawkins, who paid for it; it was manufactured by Smith & Sons of Derby. The bells, were by John Warner & Sons.The front of the building showing the main entrance. See previous image for description.
Alison Stenning@alisonstenning.bsky.social · 2w ago

Just (re)read this post; important to reflect on Meadow Well's past in the light of recent depictions (such as Daniel Hewitt's reports for ITV 2022: www.itv.com/news/2022-10... and 2026: www.itv.com/news/2026-04...) the newest round of regeneration, the Percy Main Pride in Place programme.

Municipal Dreams@municipaldreams.bsky.social · 2w ago

🚨 New post on Substack: my follow-up post on the unfairly maligned and stigmatised Meadow Well Estate in North Shields - ‘decent people living on a decent estate’. (Photographs Steve Conlan) - corrected link municipaldreams.substack.com/p/the-meadow...

Black and white photo of young children playing; semi-detached houses to rear
Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 2w ago

Breaking: the Met Police has submitted charging files to the Crown Prosecution Service resulting from its Grenfell fire investigation. The files cover 54 individuals and 20 companies and cover charges including fraud, misconduct in public office and manslaughter

Municipal Dreams@municipaldreams.bsky.social · 2w ago

Ciara Bolton & Kate Bolton, ‘Regeneration as Contested Contact in Post-War Estates’ - an interesting article and approach from the Scroope architectural journal. Read both the open access article and appraisals from myself and and Paul Watt. doi.org/10.60866/CAM...

Regeneratings as Contested Contact in Post-war Estates

This paper explores retrofitting post-war estates as a form of contested contact, interrogating how materially-driven interventions act not just as technical, environmental improvements, but as aesthe...

doi.org