the 60's 'slum clearances', what long term damage

[chooch]

In Leeds, where a lot of the back to back housing survives, it is considered far preferable to tower blocks.

...having (often) been gentrified, and upgraded with indoor toilet, heating, windows without a six inch gap to the brickwork, insulation and a shiny new owner-occupier. The condition of one of the two I lived in was pretty shitty, though the social environment was preferable to most estates because of the amenities that mostly served the gentrifiers. There are still some areas of back-to-back in something close to their original state which aren't pleasant at all.

 

[nino_savatte]

Look into any halfway decent text on the history of compulsory education in the UK and you'll find that middle-class fears of hordes of "feckless youths" freed up by the age provisions of the Factories acts and other child labour legislation were a motivator behind universal schooling.
Similarly we know from many sources that the Industrial Revolution meant pools of unemployed labour, which in turn stimulated worries about how such people would behave, and spawned legislation to curtail any such behaviour.

There's nothing new under the sun, which new labour should know as well as anyone given how much of their legislation is recycled tory pap.

For sure and many of the so-called slums were often 'no go' areas for the police (who often dispensed forms of summary justice on w/c people).

I would also suggest that some of the wars fought in the 19th century were viewed by the ruling classes as an excellent opportunity to cull the population of the unemployed proletariat.

 

[kyser_soze]

I would also suggest that some of the wars fought in the 19th century were viewed by the ruling classes as an excellent opportunity to cull the population of the unemployed proletariat.

And of course the Empire provided fantastic ways to co-opt or kill off the proles. Take a few w/c johnnies on some overseas adventure killing some natives in bongo bongo land, those that don't end up dead from some ghastly local disease can grab themselves a slice of the local pillaging action, buy themselves some nice starched collars and insinuate themselves into this 'middle class' thingy, what?

 

[nino_savatte]

And of course the Empire provided fantastic ways to co-opt or kill off the proles. Take a few w/c johnnies on some overseas adventure killing some natives in bongo bongo land, those that don't end up dead from some ghastly local disease can grab themselves a slice of the local pillaging action, buy themselves some nice starched collars and insinuate themselves into this 'middle class' thingy, what?

Exactly, the meat grinder that was the Crimean War is another good example. What a waste of lives...for what? There were aristocratic factions at each other's throats, or refusing to cooperate with one another, while loads of w/c soldiers died of starvation and disease. That's honour for you.

 

[Azrael]

Depends what you mean by 'slums'.

Erm, slums. Or to be more specific, row-upon-row of poorly built, unimproved terraced housing with fewer facilities than a farmyard shed. The sort of thing featured in The Road to Wigan Pier.

I'm not including houses that were cleaned up/electrified/fitted with decent plumbing. They had ceased to be slums.

 

[ELO]

I'm not including houses that were cleaned up/electrified/fitted with decent plumbing. They had ceased to be slums.

I suppose the question is, would it have been better to spend the money on doing this rather than tower blocks


(accepts not all terraces were worth or even could be uprgraded like this......)

 

[Azrael]

Surely it could have been a mixture. Some slums were structurally sound enough to be improved, some could have been bulldozed and replaced with decent terraces, others could have been replaced by well-built high-rise housing.

Most of all residents could have been consulted a lot more than they were. Instead it was often speed and quantity over quality, and dictated from above.