Introduction: the best of times, the worst of times

In 2008, a former resident of E11 (1938/400/h/Mid) posted on the internet: ‘just think of the people who lived in those houses, the good times, sad times, the laughter and the crying, weddings and the birthdays’. As Charles Dickens pointed out, not only can one place experience both the ‘best of times’ and the ‘worst of times’, but these times can exist simultaneously in the same place for different people, and even simultaneously in the same place for the same people (Dickens 2003:1). A series of vignettes show how each of the estates and their residents have experienced both periods of bare survival and periods when they genuinely thrived. Assessments depend on the point of view, which differed among residents, and between residents, staff, politicians and others. Assessments also depend on the aspects of estate life considered, and the time period or age of estates.

The best and worst of times at E1 (1929/300/h/NW)

In 1933, an alderman was reported in the local paper arguing for building E1 (1929/300/h/NW) and other new council homes in the local authority, because: ‘Corporation houses would at the end of 40 years become a capital value and were contributing to the health and morality of the people’ (Anon. E1 1933). However, in the late 1970s, when E1 was in its 40s, the local authority's director of housing said: “[it] was in a very poor order and grossly stigmatised … [it] served mainly as a receiving area for homeless families, – many of whom did not want to live there” (Director of Housing, E1's local authority 1987). A visiting researcher noted in 1982 that: ‘Building Services, Recreation, Engineers and Environmental Health [departments of the local authority] had virtually given up trying on the estate and political parties did not dare to canvass there’, and the repairs service was ‘almost non-existent’. Only 60 per cent of tenants had rubbish collected, and the roads were entirely unswept. The director of housing acknowledged that E1 had been the ‘poor relation’.