Homes in High Flats: Some of the Human Problems Involved in Multi-Storey Housing PDF
Preview Homes in High Flats: Some of the Human Problems Involved in Multi-Storey Housing
SELECTED WORKS OF PEARL JEPHCOTT: SOCIAL ISSUES AND SOCIAL RESEARCH Volume 5 HOMES IN HIGH FLATS HOMES IN HIGH FLATS Some of the Human Problems Involved in Multi-Storey Housing PEARL JEPHCOTT with HILARY ROBINSON First published in 1971 by Oliver & Boyd This edition first published in 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1971 Pearl Jephcott © 2023 Josephine Koch All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-032-33020-4 (Set) ISBN: 978-1-032-33029-7 (Volume 5) (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-33042-6 (Volume 5) (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-31788-3 (Volume 5) (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003317883 Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace. New Foreword to the Reissue of Homes in High Flats The slums of the 1920s and 1930s, alongside the ravages of war in the 1940s and the subsequent call for homes for heroes meant that the UK needed to invest heavily in housing to ensure that people had decent places to live that reflected the aspirational post-war period. In most instances, urban planners looked to the brutalist and minimalist styles of architecture that were working so well in continental Europe. Such designs enabled significant numbers of people to be housed in multi-occupancy, multi-storey concrete tower blocks that used vertical space. To build up rather than build out, using modern building techniques and materials offered an efficient and effective way to solve the problems associated with slum dwellings. Homes fit for a modern era. Glasgow and other UK cities such as Manchester, Sheffield, and Birmingham were at the vanguard of this change. Building ‘up’ in a high-rise meant to move away from the squalor and unsanitary conditions of in- ner-city tenement housing. In Glasgow, this meant sweeping away decades of problems and the wholesale modernisation of a city. Al- though ironically, the tenement-style houses so denigrated during this time would become incredibly fashionable, desirable, and very expensive in subsequent decades. Given this modernisation push and Pearl Jephcott’s established interest in family community and young people, it is obvious for Pearl to turn her attention to the realities of living in high-rise ac- commodation. Her book, Homes in High Flats, possibly the very first study of what it was like to live everyday lives at ‘height’, is typi- cally ‘Jephcottian’. Having moved to Glasgow for her book, A Time of One’s Own, Glasgow offered a prominent locale for studying high- flat living. Yet not content with merely observing lives in high flats from a distance, Pearl moved into one of the ‘slab blocks’ herself to experience first-hand life in the tower block. Funded by the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust, Jephcott and her team considered the social implications of domestic housing in high flats between July 1, 1966, and 1969. As part of this study, the team interviewed 60 people in the pilots and then nearly 1000 as part of the main sam- ple. Alongside the main study, Pearl also undertook smaller studies involving interviews and observations comparing multi-storey and low-rise households, the experiences of young people aged 15 to 22, experiences of mothers with children and the views of caretak- ers. She undertook interviews with tenants’ associations. She also documented services and facilities, lift waiting times, playgroups, and the use of gang-based graffiti. As with her other studies, Homes in High Flats becomes much more than a simple study of domestic housing. Pearl considers ‘whole situations’ as to how people are ex- periencing life at height. What results is a richly precisely detailed and thoroughly documented study combining interview data, dis- cussion group data, photographic materials, maps and diagrams. It is Pearl Jephcott at her very best – imaginative, creative, lateral thinking in a way designed to document the reality of everyday life for ordinary people. More than any of her studies, it was the use of photography that sets this book apart. For example, to highlight the loss of commu- nity that living at height brings, Pearl photographed one resident sitting in her chair to document what she could see from her win- dow – which, when sat down, was the sky and the clouds. Only when stood up was it possible to see the other houses and signs of life below. Pearl has neatly captured the impact of social isola- tion that came with homes in high flats in these two photographs. Jephcott also includes pictures of children playing and laments the sparsity of provision in the high-rise flats for young people’s social and leisure time. Finally, in appendix C, there is perhaps one of the first critical discussions of the role and function of graffiti. Here Pearl records the graffiti offered by Glasgow gangs of the time, including the marks made by the ‘Tiny Shamrock’ and floats the idea that graffiti is a mark of territory designed to intimidate or provoke. Homes in High Flats, for me, serves another purpose. It was writ- ten when one way of life was swept away in the Glasgow tene- ments. This way of life was to be replaced by what, at the time, was perceived to be something better. Pearl’s study captures the moment the mothers of Glasgow tenements had to change their behaviours and move away from cosy meetings on the doorstep or chats out of the tenement windows. The book chronicled the point when the everyday experiences of Glasgow’s children were changed forever and are humorously accounted for in The Jeely Piece Song. Yet, given the passage of time, many of the high-rise flats that Pearl wrote about in this book have subsequently been demolished, making way for yet further changes to the housing stock and ways of living. Homes in High Flats also documents the very short-lived experiment with brutalist architecture. Homes in High Flats is a book that speaks to a specific point in time. However, we can still learn from it as it is methodologically rich and explores challenging housing experiences, the lessons of which are still relevant today. John Goodwin University of Leicester October 2022
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