6.30pm Thursday March 31st 2016
Westminster Arts Library
35 St Martins Street
London WC1
Admission: £6 / £8.50 in advance only HERE
From 19th century almshouses to modernist towers, affordable public accommodation has been a fundamental feature of London’s landscape for the last century. But in these febrile days of privatisation, desperate demand, dizzying property prices and high-rise rents, what does Social Housing mean? Who deserves it? Can it survive?
BBC journalist BRIAN WHEELER and social historian JOHN BOUGHTON trace the secret and surpising history of the London council flat.
A soundtrack for the city will be provided by The Clerkenwell Kid.
In 2013, John Boughton created the online archive Municipal Dreams to celebrate the achievements of London's municipal reformers. Since then he has curated an extraordianry series of illustrated articles recording the capital’s extraordinary social housing. John will join us to provide a chronological history of the London council estate from the now wonderfully atmospheric courtyard building of the 1890s to the tower blocks of the 1970s, seeking to celebrate their achievements and understand their failures.
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From Lloyd George's promise of "homes fit for heroes" to Margaret Thatcher's dream of a property-owning democracy, shelter has been at the centre of British politics for more than a century. But Labour voters lived in council houses, Tories owned their own homes. BBC political journalist Brian Wheeler charts the revolution initiated by the "right to buy” schemes begun in the early 1970s, their explosion in the 1980s and the subsequent property booms, credit crunches and social changes which have seen London property prices, rents and demand massively escalate whilst its social housing stock dwindles. Who now gets housed by London's councils?
John Boughton is a social historian and author of the blog Municipal Dreams – a celebration of the pioneering reforms of local government with a particular focus on social housing. He has given many talks on the topic to a range of audiences including two contributions to the South Bank’s Changing Britain festival in April 2015. His book on the social and political history of council housing will be published next year.
Brian Wheeler is a senior political and broadcast journalist at the BBC. He has been on the Westminster beat for the past 12 years, writing about the big political issues - including housing - and broadcasting on Radio 4's Westminster Hour, Today programme and the World Service. He has also written for music magazine Mojo. A native of the North-East of England, he grew up in Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency and now lives in Kentish Town, North London.
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SALON FOR THE CITY is an ANTIQUE BEAT production in association with HENDRICKS GIN