Estates: an Intimate History
Lynsey Hanley
Granta, 256pp, £12
Lynsey Hanley’s book charts the rise and fall of social housing from the first council estates of the late 19th century to the current day. Initially she considered a more eye-catching title – such as The Estate We’re In – but decided on Estates on the grounds that few terms are imbued with more meaning in the English language.
Today, almost everything associated with estates is negative, but it was not always so. Why has social housing acquired such stigma? Hanley points to factors such as substandard ‘assembly-line’ building methods and dehumanising architectural designs, but also what she calls the ‘wall in the head’ – the sense of acute disempowerment that growing up in an area cripplingly deprived of opportunity brings. All this has formed the backdrop for the decline of council housing in the past decades.
Hanley defends the continued need for social housing to protect the vulnerable, but also argues that campaigners often place the principle of public housing above the people who actually live in estates.
Estates is not an academic text. While it draws upon research it also relies heavily on Hanley’s own experience of living in estates in Birmingham and London. This mixture of personal and social history does not always blend seamlessly. For example, Hanley’s personal experience is often more engaging than the written evidence presented alongside it. Nonetheless, the book and its compelling mixture of history and current analysis is a fascinating read, which refreshingly refuses to simplify or resort to stereotypes.