Housing the Twentieth-Century Nation (Twentieth Century Architecture)

There was no bigger issue in the twentieth century than housing. In peace or war, people need homes, and a growing population and demands for better standards put architects, planners and sociologists to work. The century was known for its public housing, culminating in the tower blocks that once peppered major cities such as Birmingham and Glasgow, now fast disappearing. But that is far from the whole story.

This book considers housing from across the century, from rural Norfolk to inner London, via Scotland and Wales. It looks at the work of local authorities on meagre budgets, at the colourful world of housing charities in the 1920s and even at the problems of building highdensity flats for the rich. Other articles appraise Britain’s housing internationally. East Tilbury, built for a Czech industrialist on modernist lines, is studied in new depth. Cumbernauld and Peterlee – pillories of post-war planning – are reappraised, and forgotten housing figures from mid-century Liverpool and the Midlands uncovered. New light is also shed on such famous estates as Alton and Byker, with articles by architects who designed them.