Place, memory and the British high rise experience: negotiating social change on the Wyndford Estate, 1962–2015

Hazley, B., Abrams, L. , Kearns, A. and Wright, V. (2021) Place, memory and the British high rise experience: negotiating social change on the Wyndford Estate, 1962–2015. Contemporary British History, 35(1), pp. 72-99. (doi: 10.1080/13619462.2020.1845148)

Abstract

The ‘failure’ of Britain’s ‘high rise experiment’ remains one of the most heavily mythologised episodes within popular memory of post-war reconstruction. Despite this, the distinctive experiential, affective and representational dimensions of flatted estates have not been critically examined in recent work on the history of public housing in Britain. Based on the micro-analysis of a major development in Glasgow, this article interrogates this ‘design failure’ thesis, using residents’ personal narratives to develop a more nuanced interpretation of the lived experience of high-rise living, the historical factors shaping residential ‘decline’, and the memory processes by which ‘decline’ is negotiated

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Wright, Dr Valerie and Kearns, Professor Ade and Abrams, Professor Lynn and Hazley, Dr Barry
• Authors: Hazley, B., Abrams, L., Kearns, A., and Wright, V.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > History; College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences; College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Journal Name: Contemporary British History
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1361-9462
• ISSN (Online): 1743-7997
• Published Online: 18 November 2020
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor and Francis Group
• First Published: First published in Contemporary British History 35(1): 72-99
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy