Semantron 21 Summer 2021

Semantron 21 Summer 2021

Bichard Semantron 21

Summer 2021

Semantron was founded in 1992 by Dr. Jan Piggott (Head of English, and then Archivist at the College) together with one of his students, Richard Scholar (now Senior Tutor at Oriel College, Oxford and Professor of French and Comparative Literature).

The photograph on the front was taken by Sam Lambert in 1973. It shows Dawson Heights in East Dulwich from Dog Kennel Hill. The photo is included in Alex Whitwell’s essay in this volume (pages 1 - 13), where bibliographic information can be found.

Editor’s introduction

Neil Croally

History as text; text as history

Several weeks ago I was worrying that my view of the tragic was once again reducing the very idea to something true but somehow unsatisfactory: that there is more than one side to an argument; that conflict in areas of sharp moral concern is inevitable; that progress contains within it the seeds of its own destruction, etc.. It was in this (slight) funk that I started to flick through the Times Literary Supplement , where I found a review (by Edith Hall, I think) of Anne Carson’s new translation of Euripide s’ Trojan Women . 1 While I have a passing interest in that magnificent play, I was drawn to the review’s headline: Sweet Violence , also the title of a book by Terry Eagleton (subtitle ‘The Idea of the Tragic’). 2 And the name Eagleton, for people of my age, interested in literature but also in the political and other theory emanating mainly from France from the 60s onwards, is peculiarly evocative. He was still a fellow of Wadham College when I was an undergraduate in Oxford. One always sensed that there were plenty of academics involved in literary criticism around, but there was only one Terry Eagleton. At the age he was then (in the early 80s), he just about qualified as an enfant terrible , and he seemed to have his own sort of praetorian guard of students in the fearsomely committed campaigning group Oxford English Limited . He was, to be sure, a public intellectual, but he was definitely of the left, and neither respectable nor comfortable. Indeed, I sat near him once, during a lockdown in The Bullingdon Arms on the Cowley Road, as he loudly sang paeans to Irish Republicanism and its struggle. Only he – in his doggedly Marxist but also flamboyantly rhetorical way – seemed prepared to confront (and on their terms) the hyper-theorists disputing their differences in Paris. (I refer to Barthes, Derrida, Foucault and Lacan, of course, but also Kristeva, Cixous, Irigaray, Althusser and Deleuze.) 3 It was in that spirit that, at an event called Post-Structuralism Day (bizarrely held at that bastion of conventional politics, the Oxford Union), I saw him argue that the problem with the subject (or self) produced by Lacanian psychoanalysis was that they could never be capable of political engagement, could never, as he said, ‘bring down a Thatcher or a Reagan’. I had already heard him mount a very similar attack against Derridean deconstruction. But on this occasion, Eagletonwas speechless when amember of the audience told him that his desire to kill the father [sic] merely showed that he was in need of more therapy. Never did it seem more obvious that Marxism and post-structuralism were two discourses running in parallel, as it were, never to meet (hence the enigmatic statement at the top of this introduction).

Earlier in his career, in the 70s, Eagleton had tried to accommodate himself to post-1968 neo-Marxism. That produced some giddying prolixity and jargon richesse in Criticism and Ideology (1976), but soon after this Eagleton abandoned the Althusserian dance for a more direct, more rugged, more

1 Carson 2021. 2 Eagleton 2003. 3 Binet (2018) is an amusing, imaginative portrait of les maitres de pens ée.

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idiosyncratic marriage of criticism and ideology. 4 Thus, by The Function of Criticism (1984), Eagleton could write a sentence such as this: ‘The argument of this book is that criticism today lacks all substantive social function.’ 5 And it is in this same spare, provocative vein that, almost twenty years later in Sweet Violence , Eagleton takes on tragedy, and the idea of the tragic. In the first place, Eagleton is keen to distance himself froma form of leftist historicism that sees tragedy as fetishizing suffering and nobility, as trading in false universals, as promoting fatalism, and as privileging the individual over society. But it turns out that this form of historicism’s mistaken view of tragedy and of the tragic is actually a sign of a wider problem. For Eagleton sees this brand of leftist historicism as in thrall to a very post-structuralist, Franco-Californian attachment to plurality, self- fashioning and instability. As Eagleton says: ‘In a world of short -term contacts, just-in-time deliveries, ceaseless downsizings and remodellings, overnight shifts of fashion and capital investment, multiple careers and multipurpose production, such theorists seem to imagine, astonishingly, that the main enemy is the naturalized, static and unchanging. Whereas the truth is that for millions of harassed workers around the globe, not many of them academics, a respite from dynamism, metamorphosis and multiple identities would come as a blessed release.’ 6 For Eagleton, these leftists, because they are influenced by post-structuralism, have misunderstood the very basic differences between capitalism and socialism: ‘It is capitalism which is anarchic, extravagant, out of hand, and socialism which is temperate, earth-bound and realistic. This is at least one reason why an anarchic, extravagant poststructuralism has been rather wary of it.’ 7 Some leftists, then, have not grasped what late capital is, and what it does to those not fortunate enough to be paid for thinking about late capital in (sometimes) permanent jobs in the academy. 8 And those same leftists have also failed to understand history, which they wrongly see as primarily change rather than for the most part continuity. They fail also to see that the transhistorical (death, ageing, loss, the smallness of humanity in relation to the cosmos) is not to be feared as a concept, and that tragedy – capable though it is of dealing with the historically and politically specific – represents the transhistorical because it represents suffering, and explores the material and the objective because it represents the suffering body (‘aspects of sufferi ng which are . . . rooted in our species- being’). 9

I am not sure that all this takes us much further along in our understanding of the tragic; and the description of the post-structuralist position is perhaps something of a caricature. Indeed, for a classicist trained to explore (Athenian) tragedy as a political discourse arising out of and responding to

4 See, randomly chosen, Eagleton 1976 : 46: ‘The disjunction between historically coexistent LMPs [literary modes of production] may be synchronic – determined by the structural distribution of possible modes of literary production enabled by the social formation – or diachronic (determined by historical survivals). There is also the case of diachronic disjunction which arises not from survival but from ‘prefigurement’: LMPs which e nter into contradiction with the dominant LMP by ‘anticipating’ the productive forms and social relations of a future social formation (the revolutionary artists’ commune, ‘epic theatre’ and so on) . ’ I suspect that there are few who read Althusser these d ays. Judt (2008) is a convincing and devastating critique of Althusser’s brand of Marxism. 5 Eagleton 1984: 7. 6 Eagleton 2003: x – xi. 7 Ibid.: xi. 8 See Jameson 1984 for one of the most influential accounts of late capital as the postmodern. 9 Eagleton 2003: xiii.

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the conflicts and problems of a specific historical moment, some of what Eagleton says seems misdirected or barely relevant. The tragic, as presented in fifth-century Athenian tragedy at least, may partly be about the difficulties of accommodating difference, that is, about plurality, but about its problems; it may be about how the self (society) tries to deal with that it seeks to exclude, about whether the self (society) will fracture when confronted with desire and with the varieties of inevitable otherness. 10 What Eagleton views as prescriptive (a preference for pluralizing and destabilizing) may in fact be descriptive (plurality and instability as lurking and possibly dangerous). Or, to put it in Eag leton’s rhetorically reversed terms, the pluralizing and destabilizing he sees as so characteristic of a specific historical moment in theory may be transhistorical. But one thing Eagleton’s argument does do is illuminate unexpected differences between self-avowed leftists. There is certainly something interesting in seeing Eagleton argue for the importance of continuity and even of permanence. Is Eagleton’s approach almost – dare one say it? – conservative? In this edition of Semantron , I am very pleased to present what very well may be the best collection of essays I have been able to publish in the twenty- one years since the magazine’s rebirth. The range of topics the reader will encounter here is not now unexpected: we have essays dealing with the design of social housing, with music, with epigenetics, health service reform, supersonic flight, quantum computers, cybersecurity, with history from the Normans to the Cold War, to various problems in our legal system, to the strange directions inwhich the study of economics can take us. What is particularly arresting, however, and even moving, I would say, is the number of essays which are devoted to problems which the adults of this world have demonstrably failed to solve (for example, the varieties of inequality, climate change, the dark side of social media), and which we are leaving to the young. Perhaps the intelligence and thoughtfulness of what is printed here will give the reader some hope. Most of the contributions were originally drafted as extended essays, and a few as dissertations for the extended project qualification. Two – those of Max Franklin Davis and Aiken Furlong – were entered for last year’s Erasmus essay competition, in which Aiken Furlong’s essay was awarded third prize. Finally, we are honoured to have a fascinating essay by Professor John M. Blakey of Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, North Carolina on how the ancient Greek inscription on the lid of the font in the chapel is, as it were, the locus classicus of just about every known stylistic and rhetorical feature.

Bibliography

Binet, L. (2018) The Seventh Function of Language . Vintage Carson, A. & Bruno, R. (2021) The TrojanWomen: a comic . Bloodaxe Eagleton, E. (1976) Criticism and Ideology . London (1984) The Function of Criticism . London (2003) Sweet Violence . The Idea of the Tragic . Oxford Jameson, F. (1984) ‘Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of late capital’, New Left Review 146: 53-92 Judt, T. (2008) Reappraisals . London

10 In relation to this point, one could mention many Athenian tragedies , but Euripides’ Hippolytus represents the eponymous hero’s failure to accommodate desire and the destructive fragmentation he experiences as a result. And the same author’s Bacchae represents something similar, this time showing Pentheus’ refusal to accommodate Dionysus and all the otherness for which he stands.

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Contents

Form

1

The dream and decline of post-war social housing in south London ALEXWHITWELL

14

Fugues: Fixed or Free? NICHOLAS RICHARDSON-WALDIN

23

How does musical training affect brain development? DARRENWEI

29

A note on the inscribed font cover, Christ’s Chapel, Dulwich JOHN M. BLAKEY

36

Hunayn, al-Jahiz and the Graeco-Arab translation movement MIKYLE OSSMAN

Body

42

The aims of the NHS ROHAN PATEL

56

Super-spreaders ANDY CHI

60

How will epigenetic developments transformmodern healthcare? SAMUEL OMOTOSHO

64

Adipose Tissue, Obesity and COVID-19 THOMAS TAYLOR

69

Social media, body image, and eating disorders among adolescents MAX HEPWORTH

Earlier

79 The Norman occupation of England during the second half of the eleventh century BILL TAYLOR

83

The Habsburg emperors and their counter-reformation crusade: 1618 – 48 LUCAS DAWSON

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88 The Financial Ruin of France, following the American Revolution and the French Revolution in 1789 JACK BOWEN

92 Nationalism and mythology: popular history and the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s LUKE JENSEN-JONES

100

The limits of American power: the cold war (1947-57) RYAN KARA

Later

105

Comparison of levitation and propulsion methods for Hyperloop ALEXANDER BILIBIN

113

Silencing the boom: is there a future for supersonic flight? GABRIEL DE ALMEIDA

120

Skyscrapers: how do they resist wind? JUNIOR KHUSUWAN

125

To what extent can invisibility be achieved within this century? STEPHEN LIU

Justice

132

Lay Justice and the Magisterial Court System FRANKIE HORNBY

136

The role of the Judiciary in holding the Executive within the limits of law ALEKS KEZERASHVILI

140

The effects of reform to legal aid SAMUEL FLEMING

144

Human Rights THOMAS MULLEY

Cosmos

148

Ghostbusting: how we found the ghost particles HENRY BICHARD

154

Dark matter: the superglue of the universe? TOM BORRETT

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159

Habitable environments in the solar system ALEX CRABB

164

Redirecting resources away from string theory HILARY WU

Number

169

Non-Euclidean Geometry MAX MARCHINI

175

How will quantum computers improve computational power? NEDWILDGOOSE BULLOCH

181

What is cryptography and how safe is it? ALEX SILCOCK

187

Quantum cryptography and cybersecurity NICOLAS RICHARD CASTRO

192

Neural networks change the future of computing JACOB HERBERT

Authority

198

What can governments justly do? LORCAN GREEN

202

Is representative democracy equipped to tackle climate change? KASPER NOWAK

206

Is monetary policy exhausted MAX ROWLEY-SANCHEZ

210

The regulation of oligopolies JACK NUNN

214

Behavioural economics BEN KNOWLES

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Grounded

220

The environmental effects of lockdown CAMERON BROWN

How can sustainable development be achieved in the 21 st century? JAY CONNOR

227

231 Prisoners of geography or prisoners of unrelenting human conflict? Somalia and the DRC JABOB STOTT

234

Battery electric vehicles and climate change MAX HAMILTON

Levels

257

The Covid-19 crisis and inequality LOUIS MARC

264 Race, Sex, Bias: high maternal mortality rates and biological weathering of black women VINCENT IKEGBUNAM

270

Historical inequality MAX FRANKLIN DAVIS

273

Inequality as a poison in society which will never be eradicated AIKEN FURLONG

278

Legalized abortion and lower crime rates WILLIAM SACHS

283

The socially efficient level of crime BOBBY HAN

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The dream and decline of post-war social housing in south London

Alex Whitwell

World War II brought unprecedented structural devastation to Britain. With swathes of the country’s housing destroyed, and parts of south London completely flattened, a bold new attitude was needed to rebuild the nation and its capital; one which would not only heal the wounds of the war but also redefine Britain. This essay will explore the future as imagined by the architects of the post-war era: when, for the first time, it became the government’s duty and prerogative to provide homes for its citizens. With this bold new outlook came a bold new style: modernism. The designs created from the 1940s to the late 1970s were characterized by their rejection of ornament and by their embrace of modern materials and construction methods. The architects of such buildings had dreams of a more equal and fair society, where everyone is able to live in high-quality accommodation regardless of their background. At a time when society was still largely class-based, the idea that the wealthy and the less well-off would live together - even in the same building - was revolutionary. However, as governments and attitudes changed, so too did the reality of the modernist megastructures built after the war. Hasty implementation, poor maintenance, and new policy saw many housing projects fall into disrepair in the 1960s and 70s. Analysis of this process can be divided into three main sections. Firstly, the historical context beginning before the war and continuing to the 1979 Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher. Secondly, the visions of the architects, politicians and town planners who wanted to build the modernist utopia. Finally, the criticisms of the way this was carried out and the policy which was introduced to reverse it. By investigating how social housing has been affected in the past we can learn how it should be carried out in the future.

Historical Overview

As early as 1919, Britain was already facing a housing crisis. Private renting dominated, with 80% of tenants nationwide living in accommodation owned by private landlords (Schifferes, 2020). At this point, there were very few examples of social housing in the UK, with only a few experiments with council housing in south London (under the domain of the powerful London County Council). Following the end of the war, in 1919, the David Lloyd George-led coalition government introduced the first nationwide housing scheme, named ‘Homes fit for Heroes’. This was to be a subsidized three-year programme, building 500,000 homes around the UK (Schifferes, 2020). A key feature of the scheme was that it would end after the pre-agreed number of homes had been built. While this was the beginning of state-provided housing in Britain, it differs from social housing provisions today due to its closed nature and pre-set quantity. By the election of 1923, the half a million promised homes had failed to materialize, and Lloyd George was ousted from office. The Conservatives came to power and scrapped the ‘Homes fit for Heroes’ scheme, instead choosing to provide subsidies for private housing. This was ineffective. Britain’s housing problem was growing and so far, no solution had been found.

DuringWorld War II, modernist architecture became a symbol for the brighter future possible after the war. The first examples of this new style were beginning to appear in the capital, predominantly in the

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north. 11 The young, revolutionary architects of the time believed that modernism could destroy class divisions for good. Architect John Allan explains how the new modernist designs ‘ speak of an intense vision for a better future ’ (Cordell, 2018), just as the newWelfare State would. World War II brought seismic change to British society, devastating the country, and bringing crisis to millions. The class structure which had been so concrete before the war had cracked, and the country needed a new kind of housing to reflect this new order. Following a landslide win in 1945, the new Labour Government, led by Clement Attlee, set about to heal the battle wounds across the country with the new Welfare State. Architect Oliver Cox 12 described the mood in the country at the time as an ‘ atmosphere of hope rather than actual triumph ’ (Cordell, 2018). Key figures in the construction of s outh London’s new housing provisions emerged at this time: Labour housing minister Aneurin Bevan and town planner Sir Patrick Abercrombie, whose Greater London Plan guided the rebuilding of the city (Sutcliffe, 2006). Both men championed the importance of high-quality homes for everyone, with Abercrombie also focusing on how cities should be adapted to be better to live in. Bevan placed emphasis on community, and the government began building houses at a rate never before seen in the UK. A large number of the projects built at this time adhered to the principles of modernism, and the style became much more mainstream with modernist estates appearing around the country, with a high concentration in south London. With planning restrictions placed on private housing (Schifferes, 2020), social housing became the norm, and sequential governments on both sides of the political spectrum embraced it. The Conservatives won the 1951 election with the promise of 300,000 new homes each year (Schifferes, 2020), the target symbolic of the new importance placed on providing high-quality social housing. The new government also attended to slum clearance, however, shifting the focus and goal of new social housing to replacing existing homes rather than building new ones. By 1953, the number of privately rented homes decreased to 33% of the housing market (Schifferes, 2020), marking a dramatic change from before the war. For 34 years after the end of World War II, Labour and Conservative governments had both been in favour of state-led house building (although to different extents). When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, this all changed. Her government introduced a series of policies which would change the shape of housing in Britain . Championed by Michael Heseltine, Thatcher’s government introduced Right-to-Buy across the country and banned councils from building new social housing. Instead, house building again reverted to the private sector. This policy was later adopted by the New Labour government under Tony Blair and continues today. Modernismalso fell out of favour with the Thatcher government, as well as more generally in the country. By contrast, more traditional domestic architecture – semi-detached houses with front and back gardens – became more popular and was promoted by Alice Coleman (a geographer appointed to Number 10 by Thatcher).

The Dreams

Following the war, a new approach to housing was needed: one which could provide homes for the millions of people whose houses had been destroyed, especially in south London. Private renting had

11 One particularly famous example is the Finsbury Health Centre, designed by Berthold Lubetkin. 12 Responsible for much of the design of Alton Estate East in Roehampton, Richmond-upon-Thames

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already proven to be unsustainable, with millions living in squalid conditions, often with multiple families sharing two-story terraced houses (McInnes, 2019). All over London, large areas of poor quality Victorian terraced housing were designated as slums. As a result, it became apparent that the government needed to intervene in the housing market in order to facilitate the building of a substantial number of new homes: to replace those lost in the war, improve the existing stock in central areas of big cities (above all London) and build new housing for Britain’s growing population. This decision by Attlee’s Labour government coincided with, and was a part of, the new welfare state. The foundation of the welfare state had many roles in changing and restoring British society post-war. Kenneth Frampton, architectural historian, asserts that ‘ the class divisions which so bitterly divided the country . . . came to be partially alleviated by the welfare provisions of the Attlee Labour government ’ (Frampton, 1980 (A)). One of the core ideas of social housing was that new developments should be mixed tenure, providing homes for people and families from different backgrounds. This would help to deconstruct the rigid class structure which was so prevalent in the UK at the time, which reduced social mobility and resulted in a deeply unequal society. By removing one class barrier – that people of different classes tended to live in different, separate areas – the government could begin to reduce the concept as a whole.

In the decades after the war, the population in the capital began to shift from the centre to the outer regions, as shown in figure 1. As a result, considerable new development was needed to provide homes for the new families living in these areas. While in the centre, the predominant problem was the inadequate

Fig. 1: London's population over time ( Trust for London)

conditions of the existing housing stock, in the outer boroughs the problem was a lack of housing altogether. This coincided with Abercro mbie’s plan to take traffic away from the centre of the city, instead using a system of ring roads to move the stress points within the city (Sutcliffe, 2006).

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Frampton summarizes the need for a new, distinct architectural style, asserting that ‘ In architecture, as in other matters, Britain was in the final stages of relinquishing its imperial identity ’ (Frampton, 1980 (A). Neoclassicism was the dominant style used across the Empire, 13 epitomized by the Viceroy’s palace in New Delhi (figure 2), completed in 1929: a vast construction larger than Versailles built for the Viceroy of India (Frampton, 1980 (B)). Even before the end of the war, modernismwas seen as

Fig 2. Viceroy’s House, New Delhi: the east front (Gill, 1931)

in conflict ideologically with neoclassicism, both through its style and what it represented. While neoclassicism symbolized imperialism and belief in British superiority, modernismwas representative of hope for the future, and that the country could be a better place for all its citizens. When the war ended, this attitude was adopted by advocates within the London County Council’s (LCC) Architect’s Department. Many young architects placed huge importance on the ability of architecture and new developments to influence and create social change ( Building Sights Series 4: 6. Alton Estate. , 2019). Indeed, Architectural writer and historian Owen Hopkins comments that modernism was ‘ the most visible manifestation . . . of the post-war belief in the common good, and progress towards a country that’s more comfortable and affluent for all’ (Manson, 2016).

The potential for modernism’s success had been proven elsewhere already. As the war ended, Swiss architect and pioneer of modernism Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (who worked under the pseudonym Le Corbusier) began planning for his first Unité d’habitation (housing unit) in Marseilles (figure 3). When construction finished in 1952, it was seen by architects around the world as the future of living. The building contained a variety of amenities (a shopping street, a hotel andmore), andwas set in a broad expanse of parkland. The structure of the Unité is commonly referred to as a ‘slab block’ due to its rectangular silhouette and is set on pilotis. 14 Within the block itself, the apartments aremaisonettes – two-

Fig. 3

storey living units within another larger building. The windows are large and span the width of each unit, allowing the apartments to be filled with natural light during the day. The combination of light, green space, an enticing view, and a warm climate results in a pleasant living experience which differs significantly from the norm at the time: small terraced houses at street level. Le Corbusier’s interpretation of modernism, often called the International style, was revered and adopted by countless

13 Neoclassicismwas the architectural revival of the classical style: characterized by its enormous scale, geometric simplicity, Greek or Roman details, the dramatic use of columns, and blank walls. 14 Columns which support and suspend a structure from below.

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young architects, including many working in the LCC’s Architect’s Department. However, the adopted moniker would in fact be proleptic of one of the core issues with the slab design.

While Le Corbusier developed his revolutionary ideas in southern France, Sweden was also a site of dramatic architectural and social innovation with respect to housing. As Britain sought to birth its own Welfare State, those responsible for housing looked to Sweden’s own long-established social housing system for inspiration. While distinctly modernist, the Scandinavian architects incorporated traditional vernacular elements into their constructions. This came to be known as the Contemporary style, with the specific concept of introducing familiar elements named ‘people’s detailing’ (Frampton, 1980 (A)). Indeed, Frampton asserts that ‘ this so- called ‘people’s detailing’ beca me, with local additions, the received vocabulary of the left-wing architects of the London County Council ’ . In the post-war period, the battle between the International and Contemporary styles would be fought in architect’s departments in councils across the country; with one of the most visible within the LCC played out in the Alton Estate in Roehampton.

Fig. 4: Alton Estate, Roehampton - an eleven- storey maisonette slab with the twelve-storey point blocks seen in the

distance (Galwey, 1954)

Built in the 1950s under the LCC, the Alton Estate was and is one of the best examples of both the Corbusian approach and the Swedish style, set in the beautiful scenery of Richmond Park. The first phase (1952-1955) – Alton East – is deeply influenced by the Swedish Contemporary style. The towers, while resolutely modernist, are constructed from traditional, local materials. Architect Sir Richard Rogers 15 comments that, despite being eleven stories high, ‘ they retain the feel of an English house ’ ( Building Sights Series 4: 6. Alton Estate. , 2019). Moreover, the point towers 16 are arranged within the site in a way which complements the original Georgian landscape. 17 As a result, the overall impression is one of modernized tradition; that this is not revolutionary. It is the future of the English vernacular.

By contrast, Alton West strictly follows the Corbusian model. Comprising five slab blocks on pilotis, it is arranged in a stark rectilinear pattern with access granted to each block by a footpath leading from

15 Famous for designing the MilleniumDome, the Pompidou Center in Paris, The Lloyds building in London, Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport and others. 16 A tall building with a Gross Floor Construction Area not exceeding 743m². 17 Before the construction of the Alton Estate, the area contained a series of Georgian villas set in a landscaped garden.

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the road. The majority of the site is occupied by parkland, and the slabs are oriented such that every maisonette has a good view of nearby Richmond Park and receives a good amount of natural light during the day. Rogers remarks that ‘ the architecture feels Mediterranean ’ . While this can be seen as a positive, it also has drawbacks given the difference in climate between the Mediterranean coast and south London. What is a deeply attractive prospect in a warm climate with only unusual rainfall is not so desirable in an environment where skies tend to be overcast and there is often drizzle and strong wind. Living in tall buildings can become unpleasant if, on a daily basis, the occupant is greeted at their window not by streaming sunlight but by slanted and aggressive rain (McInnes, 2020). While this applies to both the point and slab blocks, it is relevant especially to the latter due to the design and layout of the housing units within, which prioritizes large windows and balcony space. These are common features of any modernist housing development (especially following the International style – a somewhatmisleading name given the issues it faces in different climates), and hence these problems are not unique to Alton Estate, but are instead concerns intrinsic to modernism in Britain.

Dawson’s Heights: a case study

In the late 1960s, Scottish architect Kate Macintosh began designing Dawson’s Heights in Southwark, south London. The hilltop megastructure would become a familiar presence for the residents of the south east of the city, with its unusual form visible from a distance and silhouetting against the sky. Fortress- like in its design, Dawson’s Heights is daunting from the outside and protective from within. It is a bastion of post-war modernist design in the south of the city. Before Macintosh even started to envision Dawson’s Heights, the site characteristics, as with so many inner-city sites in the 1960s and 1970s, posed a significant challenge to any structure which might be built there. The hill itself is artificial and consists of clay displaced by the building of nearby railway lines. As a result, it is impermeable to moisture and there is a constant danger that segments of the hill will slip. Parts of the existing houses around the base of the hill were sliding down causing their collapse. However, despite these difficulties, Macintosh was attracted to the site due to its raised location and stunning views of the city. In my interview with her, Macintosh described how growing up in Edinburgh gave her an appreciation of the value of views on the quality of life. Consequently, with the advice of structural engineers, she created a pair of staggered and mirrored ziggurats (see figure 5) upon 30 metre piles driven into the hill beneath. The structures are arranged such that each of the 296 dwellings receives a view of the city. Despite being separate, they are symbiotic and interdependent: Macintosh states she wanted to ‘ produce a scheme which was a totality; had a unity about it and grew out of this hill ’ (Cordell, 2018). One of Macintosh’s key considerations was how to balance the radical modernist design of the estate with the otherwise Edwardian landscape and surrounding houses (Macintosh, 2020). While without a doubt the development is clearly differentiated from the nearby housing by virtue of its dramatic form and architectural style, there are elements which make it less intrusive. For instance, the brick used matches that of the surrounding houses; it is London brick which gives the structure its yellow colour. Secondly, the two ziggurats slope vertically as they reach their extent, and as a result are the same height as the neighbouring houses at the meeting points between the estate and the surrounding area.

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Fig. 6: Dawson’s Heights, seen from a nearby cricket ground (Lambert, 1973)

Fig. 5: Dawson’s Heights, distant view seen from a mile and a half north (Lambert, 1973 )

Fig. 7: A cross section of Dawson’s Heights, displaying the scissor section design (Jordan, 2018): a system whereby the space in a building is maximized for apartments and the number of entrance corridors is minimized. (McInnes, 2019).

Macintosh accepts the need for integration with the existing architecture but rejects the concept that new developments should be imitative.

Dawson’s Heights has benefitted from being well managed since its construction; first by Southwark Council and then by the Southern Housing Group (a charitable housing association). As a result, the condition of the building has not deteriorated over time. At the time of its opening, the development was criticized by architects as the philosophy of the time was changing away from totalitarian megastructures. Instead, the focus was on low rise, low density housing. In the Architectural Journal, fellow modernist architect Richard Padovan criticize d the inflexibility of the individual dwellings’ interiors, highlighting the excessive number of structural walls (Macintosh, 2020). Questions were also

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raised as to the architect’s decision to use scissor section flats 18 (see figure 7). However, Macintosh responds that this was to ensure that each living room was equidistant from the front door and could be south-facing to maximize natural light into what she considered to be the central area of the dwelling. As with every social housing project, Right-to- Buy affected Dawson’s Heights. It gave residents the ability to buy their homes at a drastically reduced price in order to boost the number of owner- occupiers. At present, approximately 30% of residents in the estate are owner-occupiers, with the remaining 70% being tenants of the housing association (Macintosh, 2020). The introduction of Right- to-Buy reduced the number of homes the housing association could offer to the community, and also ushered in the concept of buy-to-let, which undermined one of the original goals of the development. However, Macintosh suggests that a mixture of tenures is beneficial to the community overall, and that a monoculture of any one kind of tenant is detrimental. The architect believes that the current makeup is a ‘ healthy proportion ’ for the success of the development (Macintosh, 2020).

The Decline

While the Corbusian model proved to be effective in Marseille, as well as in south London, in Alton West, this was no guarantee that it could be replicated to the same level of success across the city. Following a Conservative government coming to power in 1951, housing policy changed to focus on slum clearance. In south London, this meant the demolition of Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses that were considered squalid and, in their place, the construction of new, modernist estates (McInnes, 2019). It is important to note that, to the residents of inner-city slums, these new developments provided drastically better living conditions; the space standards were much better, therewas clean runningwater and insulation, amongst other improvements. However, when exploring in greater depth how the construction of these new estates was carried out, issues begin to become apparent. The central concept of Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse is that the slab blocks are surrounded by an abundance of green space. This is essential to the standard of living within the blocks as it provides a connection with nature and the environment. In an inner city setting, on cleared land, this is harder to reproduce. Indeed, Sutcliffe (2006) points out that the estates built on this land were ‘ more adventurous ’ , but ingenuity could not replace nature or its benefits. Moreover, as mentioned earlier (see section 3.3), there are practical problems with the implementation of modernist designs (especially of the Corbusian variety) in south London. The climate is different to that which the French architect anticipated with his original design, and as a result so too is the living experience. Furthermore, many of the new estates built were in neutral tones – usually white or grey – which when combined with an overcast sky appears drab and uninspiring. The more successful developments (for instance Dawson’s Heights) 19 adapted the core principles of modernism to suit them for the London environment.

As well as adapting to the climate, successful modernist estates were designed to relate to the existing built environment. However, this was often not the case and the stark differentiation between new and existing caused tension in communities (McInnes, 2019). In his review of architect Rosemary

18 A systemwhereby the space in a building is maximized for apartments and the number of entrance corridors is minimized. This was often used to limit the number of lift-stops required, as the number of stops a lift needed had an impact on the price of the lift (McInnes, 2019). 19 Built from yellow London brick.

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Post-war social housing

Stjernstedt’s Central Hill estate in Lambeth, architectural historian and journalist Colin Amery (1976) comments that the ‘ puritan ’ modernism employed ‘ clearly marks it out as a “ new housing scheme ”’ . The aesthetic separation between the new estate and the surrounding houses immediately causes a sense of physical separation which can fragment the community. The community within the estate grows stronger (Architects for Social Housing, 2018), but there is little interconnection between the new development and the houses which exist outside of it. Indeed, Amery goes on to say that, in Central Hill, ‘ there is no hiding that this is “ housing ” not houses ’ . There are connotations of inferiority attributed to ‘housing’ as opposed to houses – the former seeming somewhat artificial as a result of its difference. Much of south London was built in the late Victorian and early Edwardian period, hence it follows a similar architectural language. Post-war modernist developments disrupted through starkly contrasting design, different materials and new building techniques. Not only was modernism different to existing housing architecturally, but its foreign origins also played a part in drawing criticism (McInnes, 2019). Some scepticism came directly as a result of the original proponents of modernism coming from other European countries (predominantly Le Corbusier, but also Berthold Lubetkin). 20 Against the backdrop of WorldWar II, there was a fear of other cultures imposing their own way of life upon Britain. Traditionally, England has not been a flat- dwelling society 21 and hence the introduction of a new apartment-based system for living conceived abroad came as a shock and even a provocation to some. Like most architects working for the LCC and borough councils at the time, Macintosh comments that flats are ‘ a very sound way to live in an urban environment ’ ; they are significantly more space efficient than individual houses. This raises another significant question as to the implementation of modernist ideas – to what extent were they based on theories rather than actua l practice? Indeed, the SwedishWelfare State and Le Corbusier’s Unité served as examples, but never before had there been an application of the scale and speed as there was in Britain after the war. Amery states that, in Central Hill as across south London and indeed the country, what was constructed was ‘ inevitably a built series of accepted theories ’ . The ideology and theory behind the construction of new modernist estates had never been tested, and yet construction continued regardless. Considering the state of Central Hill, Amery muses that Stjernstedt’s ‘ attractive brick square ’ is ‘ occupied by some depressingly un-let shops ’ . The architectural historian was writing at the time the estate was completed, and the situation has worsened today. Action group Architects for Social Housing documented ‘ leaking ceilings, mould and condensation ’ in a 2018 report. However, rather than attribute these flaws to the architect and her design, the group blames ‘ poor or inadequate maintenance of windows and roofs by the council ’ . These issues are in no way unique to Central Hill; rather they exist in an unacceptable number of post-war housing in south London. This brings into question who is responsible for a development after its completion, and their responsibility to its maintenance. In the capital, this duty falls mostly to borough councils (in the case of Central Hill, Lambeth Council). Local architect Ian McInnes believes ‘ councils should take a lot of the blame ’ , and that the modernist architecture itself has become a scapegoat for those who have neglected their role in the upkeep of post- war developments. Indeed, Lambeth Council’s cabinet member for housing, Councillor Paul Gadsby (2020), recognizes council-run housing ‘hasn’t been properlymaintain ed in the past ’ and this has led them to be in poor conditions today.

20 A modernist architect originally from the Soviet Union, but who lived and worked in London. 21 However, this is not so in Scotland (Macintosh, 2020).

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Post-war social housing

A key example of the role of the council is the landscape and environment within which modernist estates exist. The environment has always been a key part of the success of modernist housing, 22 and while some may blame the architect for the condition of the buildings, in south London the responsibility for the environment’s condition usually belongs to the council. Victoria Pinoncely (2016), a research officer at the Royal Town Planning Institute, states that ‘ the local environment plays a role in causing and deepening poverty ’ , implying that outcomes for which the architect is often held culpable are actually a result of council negligence. However, in most cases, the council is not ultimately responsible for the amount of money directed to estate maintenance, instead this comes from and is decided by central government (Gadsby, 2020). In the immediate post-war period, governments dedicated a substantial amount of money towards social housing in order to rebuild the depleted housing stocks. However, as public opinion turned away frommodernism and dissatisfaction grew with existing modernist housing stock, policy makers from both major parties sought new ways to supply Britain’ s housing demands.

Fig. 8: Tenure trends in London (GLA, 2017)

Right to Buy

Almost 40 years after its first conception, the cracks within Britain’s social housing system began to show. Modernism had fallen out of fashion as western society became enamoured with consumerism. By the 1970s, the new modernist social housing had lost its aspirational appeal. The quality of the private housing stock had improved along with an overall wealth increasewhich resulted in an increase in owner-occupation (see figure 8). During the 1970s, the rate of increase for the proportion of owner- occupied homes was greater than it had been in the decades previous. The 1974 Labour government

22 For instance, in the Alton Estate, where the Georgian landscape has been preserved. Le Corbusier advocated for the importance of the environment to the standard of living.

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Post-war social housing

was already considering how to adapt housing provisions across the country to be more in line with cultural changes. They proposed an ability for council tenants to buy their homes, albeit with heavy restrictions to maintain the overall stock (Schifferes, 2020). This was unpopular with Labour councils up and down the country and had to wait for a Conservative government for it to come into effect.

In addition to cultural changes, questions were raised as to the safety of council estates. One of Margaret Thatcher’s senior advisers, Alice Coleman, believed that the long corridors and open green spaces which characterized post-war modernist estates ‘ contributed to crime ’ (Cordell, 2016).

(Figure 9: Dunleavy, 1978, p. 457)

She was not alone with this thinking, and indeed in the late 1960s newspaper coverage swung from 43% in favour of high-rise flats to no articles ‘ advocating increased levels of high rise housing provision ’ in 1968 (Dunleavy, 1978), as shown in figure 9.

In the 1979 general election, the state of social housing was a key issue, with the Conservatives proposing and later conducting a radical departure from all previous governments, of both parties, since the war. Thatcher’s primary housing policy – Right-to-Buy – simultaneously forced councils to sell all council-owned homes at a drastically reduced and subsidized rate (if the tenant wanted to buy), while banning the construction of any new homes. In south London, which is constrained by the Greenbelt, this resulted in the social housing stock rapidly decreasing, as evidenced in figure 8 which shows the decrease in social renting following Thatcher coming to power. Hopkins explains that, behind the Right-to-Buy scheme, was the belief that the post-war modernist ‘ concrete tower blocks were so alien to their inhabitants that they somehow served to exacerbate the problems of social deprivation they were designed to alleviate ’ (Manson, 2016). However, much of the research conducted by the Government which led to the scheme was based on unstable premises. For instance, Coleman used vandalism and mental disorders as a measure of the failure of modernist estates (Cordell, 2016). Despite the connection between these factors and modernist social housing being unclear, Thatcher’s government moved away frommodernist high -rise housing towards subsidies for private builders to build much lower density housing; Coleman believed that individual houses with a front and back garden teach respect for private spaces. Right-to-Buy has been maintained by all governments since Thatcher, and indeed still exists today.

Conclusion

The history of modernist social housing in Britain is the dream of another way to live: a way which reduces inequality and promotes social cohesion. At modernism’s core lies a deep desire to improve the

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standard of living, and it is inherently a radical design ideology which challenges the status quo by its very existence. These attributes made modernism the right choice as the style to represent social housing, which shared the aforementioned goals. Consequently, the earlier estates constructed on the outskirts of the city (for instance the Alton Estate built in the early 1950s) were successful as they followed closely themodernist ideology, providing residents with views of expansive green landscapes. As the architecture itself is therefore proven, culpability for the decline of modernist social housing falls to those responsible for its implementation and maintenance. Time pressure resulted in inner-city estates following the same design as those on the outskirts, creating oversized structures which did not provide the same connection to nature. Budget cuts and the introduction of Right-to-Buy hindered s outh London councils’ efforts to maintain estates, and they began to degrade. As the quality of life in post-war modernist buildings decreased, so too did support for social housing as a whole. The connection between the two ultimately resulted in the demise of both. Today, the problems which modernist social housing was developed to solve still exist. In spite of this, the trend is clear: social housing is still decreasing, and private renting is increasing (Greater London Authority, 2017). History shows us the danger of a society with high levels of unregulated private renting, and we should heed its message. The government should properly regulate the private rental sector, while investing in public sector housing on a large scale. This new housing should be available regardless of financial background to ensure a healthy diversity, prevent monocultures and promote social mobility. Without a more equal housing system for all, we can never attain a more equal society.

Bibliography

Amery, C. (1976) ‘Suburban Slopes: Central Hill housing in Lambeth, London by Rosemary Stjernstedt’, The Architectural Review . Available at: https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/ suburban-slopes- central-hill-housing-in-lambeth-london-by-rosemary-stjernstedt/10029002.article (Accessed: 19/11/19). Architects for Social housing (2018) Central Hill: A Case Study in Estate Regeneration . London: Available at: https://architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk/2018/04/10/central-hill-a-case-study-in-estateregeneration/ (Accessed: 09/12/19). BBC. (2019). Building Sights Series 4: 6. Alton Estate. [Online Video]. 24 August 1997. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01rtkbd/building-sights-series-4-6-alton-estate (Accessed: 19/12/19). Birch, J. (2019) Building homes fit for tomorrow: the lessons from Parker Morris, Inside Housing . Available at: https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/comment/building-homes-fit-for-tomorrowthe-lessons- from-parker-morris-60237 (Accessed: 13/01/20). Cordell, T. (2018). Utopia London [Online Video]. 4 December 2018. Available from: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/utopialondon (Accessed: 01/02/20). Dunleavy, P. (1978) The politics of high rise housing in Britain: Local communities tackle mass housing . PhD thesis. University of Oxford. Available at: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:81c699e0-4ee8413c- a18108a617f28d58 (Accessed: 02/04/20). Fainstein, S. (2019) Urban planning . Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/urbanplanning (Accessed: 19/12/19). Frampton, K. (1980) ‘ New brutalism and the architecture of the welfare state: England 1949-59 ’, in Frampton, K. (ed.) Modern Architecture: a critical history. London: Thames & Hudson, p 262-268 Frampton, K. (1980) ‘ Architecture and the State: ideology and representation 1914-43 ’, in Frampton, K. (ed.) Modern Architecture: a critical history. London: Thames &Hudson, p 210-223

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