Municipal Dreams
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municipaldreams.bsky.social
Municipal Dreams
@municipaldreams.bsky.social
8.7K followers 1.7K following 1.7K posts
Social historian of housing. Author of 'A History of Council Housing in 100 Estates' (RIBA Books) and 'Municipal Dreams: the Rise and Fall of Council Housing' (Verso). I blog at https://municipaldreams.wordpress.com/.
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municipaldreams.bsky.social
The fight to save Sheringham's 1950s 'Streamline Moderne art-deco design' bus shelter (where I used to catch the bus to school from) has now made the national news:
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
The battle for Sheringham bus shelter: protesters defiant as bailiffs sent in
Norfolk county council wants to demolish a ‘beloved’ 1950s bus shelter in Sheringham, but campaigners are staging a 24/7 sit-in
www.theguardian.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:16 AM
municipaldreams.bsky.social
It's all kicking off in my home town of Sheringham over proposals to demolish this 'Streamline Moderne art-deco design' bus shelter from the 1950s ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Picture of bus shelter with painting of steam train on inside walls
December 7, 2025 at 3:42 PM
municipaldreams.bsky.social
1/ Two C15th misericord carvings (misericords were the ledges on which choristers perched) from St Andrew's, Norton, Suffolk: a cleric studying and a woman carding wool, separating and untangling the strands.
Wooden carving of cleric leaning over and reading book Wooden carving of woman wearing hat combing wool to untangle it.
December 7, 2025 at 10:01 AM
municipaldreams.bsky.social
Council housing, Norton, Suffolk
Semi-detached council houses with pink, blue and green paint wash seen on horizon across ploughed field.
December 7, 2025 at 9:38 AM
municipaldreams.bsky.social
Another example of the far-reaching impact of the 1951 Festival of Britain: the local history exhibition in Blaxhall, Suffolk (pictured Robert Savage and Henry Hewitt). The exhibition was organised by George Ewart Evans, rural historian and author of Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay.
Photograph of two men with rural farm implements
December 6, 2025 at 11:47 AM
municipaldreams.bsky.social
This week's new blogpost reviewed Ned Newitt's excellent history of social housing in Leicester:
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/12/02/b...
A yard off South Bond Street in 1936, showing the single tap providing the water supply. (Image credit: Record Office for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland) Block of four parlour houses, Braunstone Estate, 1928 (Drawing by Ned Newitt from the original plans) ‘Community Centre – western area’. This drawing showing the centre of the proposed New Parks Estate was displayed at the 1944 Post-War Reconstruction Exhibition. (Image credit: Record Office for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland) Iffley Close, Rowlatts Hill, built with the Laing’s Easiform system, c1968. (Image credit: Record Office for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland)
December 6, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
municipaldreams.bsky.social
🚨 New on Substack, my post on the postwar Regent’s Park Estate, St Pancras: ‘catering for the main bulk and backbone of our people’
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/the-regent...
Ainsdake House - four-storey vlock with ceramic tiled decoration Borrowdale House - 10-storey slab block Hawkshead House - eight-storey T-shaped block Swallowfield House - eleven-storey slab block with glass-fronted balcony access galleries
December 4, 2025 at 8:48 AM
municipaldreams.bsky.social
Fascinating exhibition on school meals at the @foodmuseumuk.bsky.social. You'll be pleased to see Bradford's pioneering role given due coverage, @rdrberry.bsky.social
Bradford was a hub of educational experimentation in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was the first area to bring in school dinners under the permissive 1906 Education (Provision of Meals) Act. They built a whole infrastructure to feed children at school and the first kitchen was opened at Green Lane School. Early 20th century Bradford school meals service depot with labour saving machinery Early 20th century Bradford school meals delivery van
December 4, 2025 at 8:14 PM
municipaldreams.bsky.social
🚨 New on Substack, my post on the postwar Regent’s Park Estate, St Pancras: ‘catering for the main bulk and backbone of our people’
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/the-regent...
Ainsdake House - four-storey vlock with ceramic tiled decoration Borrowdale House - 10-storey slab block Hawkshead House - eight-storey T-shaped block Swallowfield House - eleven-storey slab block with glass-fronted balcony access galleries
December 4, 2025 at 8:48 AM
municipaldreams.bsky.social
I'm in Thetford again, @grindrod.bsky.social! It's a good time to remind people about our chat about the town here:
johngrindrod.substack.com/p/monstrosit...
Me pointing to a sign saying 'Welcome to Thetford' with a town map
December 3, 2025 at 6:25 PM
municipaldreams.bsky.social
An article about an interesting new book by Eoin Ó Brion, ‘Flats and Cottages: Herbert Simms and the Housing of Dublin’s Working Class, 1932–1948’
www.irishnews.com/news/norther...
Architect of the young Irish Free State’s public housing drive left ‘enormous legacy’
Book explores the work of Herbert Simms and asks what can be learned to tackle today's housing crisis
www.irishnews.com
December 3, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
municipaldreams.bsky.social
I'm looking forward to talking with Jessica Field about her fine new book, Eviction: a Social History of Rent, at Bookmarks, Bloomsbury, next Friday 5th December. Free event but reserve your place here:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/authorsboo...
authors@bookmarks: Jessica Field | Eviction
Join author live in conversation to discuss "Eviction: A Social History of Rent" at Britain's leading socialist bookshop
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 28, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
municipaldreams.bsky.social
🚨 New post - my review of Ned Newitt's excellent new book, 'Housing the People of Leicester – a History of Social Housing'.
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/12/02/b...
Book Review: Ned Newitt, Housing the People of Leicester – a History of Social Housing
Ned Newitt, Housing the People of Leicester: a History of Social Housing (Leicester Pioneer Press, 2025) When I started this blog almost twelve years ago, council housing was a strangely neglected …
municipaldreams.wordpress.com
December 2, 2025 at 7:56 AM
municipaldreams.bsky.social
King Charles the Martyr, Selland, and St Mary's, Woolpit, Suffolk; morning and late afternoon.
Church under bright blue sky in crisp sunlight Church bathed in golden light afternoon light
December 2, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
How I wish this London Transport wonder at Manor House from 1933 had survived! As well as the signpost it masks a tram/trolleybus overhead pole with a remarkable "UD" Underground finail. Sigh.
1933 photo - a winter scene - of the road junction above Manor House Underground station in north London . A points duty policeman controls the junction that is dominated by a decorative sign post above the illuminated arms of which is a foursided London Transport roundel with a canopy above. Through the centre - a tram overhead pole that has a "UD" finial for Underground.
December 1, 2025 at 10:04 PM
municipaldreams.bsky.social
🚨 New post - my review of Ned Newitt's excellent new book, 'Housing the People of Leicester – a History of Social Housing'.
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/12/02/b...
Book Review: Ned Newitt, Housing the People of Leicester – a History of Social Housing
Ned Newitt, Housing the People of Leicester: a History of Social Housing (Leicester Pioneer Press, 2025) When I started this blog almost twelve years ago, council housing was a strangely neglected …
municipaldreams.wordpress.com
December 2, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
Ah - the usual air of breezy optimism in an 'architects sketch'; this as part of an advert for Fram Russell Construction & the Richmond Park estate in Ashton-under-Lyne from the Borough's 1968/9 official guide. @municipaldreams.bsky.social #housing #architecture

↘️ flic.kr/p/2rJoZty
Fram Russell Construction Ltd. : advert in : The Borough of Ashton-under-Lyne : Official Guide and Industrial Handbook : E.J. Burrow & Co. Ltd. : nd [c.1968-69]. Like most British towns and cities the 1960s was a decade of redevelopment and reconstruction and Ashton was no different. The guide contains information regarding the town's new housing schemes and town centre shopping parade along with adverts by the relevant developers and builders. This double page advert was issued by one of the era's largest development and construction companies who were involved in many local authority housing schemes; Fram Russell Construction Ltd. They built various types of 'system built' homes such as the FRAM house, using precast concrete panels, and on the 'Large Panel Block System", multi-storey tower blocks as seen here in the town's Richmond Park development. As can be seen it won the Ministry of Housing and Local Government's 1967 award for good design in housing in the North West England category. The advert lists the various engineers, architects, planners and surveyors involved in this extensive scheme. It uses a tried and tested architects 'sketch' vision, dated 1964; the scheme went into construction in 1965 at the height of the redevelopment boom. Hindsight has taught us that many of these developments contained unitended flaws - both in terms of construction quality and social engineering but I suppose we ought not to forget that many politicians, although not all, and councils involved really felt that they were making a real difference to lives lived in appalling, out-dated and slum housing. The main blocks survive here, on Katherine Street and Margaret Street but much of the estate appears to have been refurbished and/or reconstructed in recent years.
December 1, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
pasttensehistories.bsky.social
There’s a few more examples in our post :

wp.me/p74yfw-vH
Class Walls – Cutteslowe, Downham and roadworks…
Some of last week’s news outlets covered the row about road resurfacing In Oxford, where the local council had ordered one end of a street re-tarmacked, but the work stopped abruptly. Local residen…
wp.me
December 1, 2025 at 6:56 PM
municipaldreams.bsky.social
1/ Like the infamous Cutteslowe Walls in Oxford and a wall built at the Downham Estate in south London, we are seeing barriers going up between council estates and their posh neighbours.
www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...
‘Posh-poor divide’: the rise in areas of England where wealth and deprivation appear side by side
Data shows increase in neighbourhoods where few metres of asphalt, hedgerow, or wall can separate deep inequality
www.theguardian.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:46 PM
municipaldreams.bsky.social
'The 'Pillar of Salt': a Grade II-listed road sign designed in International Modern style by Basil Oliver, Borough Architect, for Bury St Edmunds Town Council in 1935.
Finger post sign on thick white pillar with illuminated top beacon. Medieval abbey gatehouse to test.
December 1, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
municipaldreams.bsky.social
Attractive scheme of flats on Aylesford High Street/Mount Pleasant, built by Malling Rural District Council in 1968. The plaque gives due credit to C Brown Architect, Engineer and Surveyor to the Council 1954-1967.
Three-storey brick built flats with bay windows and entrance porch Entrance to car park with flat above and staggered terrace Plaque on scheme. Text reads: MALLING RURAL DISTRICT COUNCIL This development was designed and supervised by:- C. BROWN ARIBA. ARICS. AMTPI. Dip T.P. AMIMunE Architect, Engineer and Surveyor to the Council August 1954 – December 1967 5th April 1968
November 27, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
municipaldreams.bsky.social
The Hufeisensiedlung (Horseshoe Estate), Berlin - a modernist masterpiece designed by Bruno Taut and and built by the socialist trades union housing association, GEHAG between 1925 and 1927.
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/the-hufeis...
Interior view of estate showing shops and facilities Interior view of estate showing wooded pond and green open space with flats to rear Interior view of estate showing private gardens and terrace Interior view of estate showing curved terrace
November 29, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
Ipswich's council housing - ahead of the game according to the c.1949 Official Guide with this aerial view of the borough's Racecourse Housing Estate first laid out according to then 1920s contemporary town planning on the site of the Racecourse that closed in 1911. @municipaldreams.bsky.social
From the c.1949 - 1950, Official Handbook of the Ipswich Corporation that contains as is often the case details as to the administration, amenities, trades and industries of the county town of Suffolk. It includes a section on the borough's council or social housing. Like most British municipalities the construction of council housing, to relieve both slum conditions as well as provide new homes for "heroes" and a growing population, began seriously in the post-WW1 years following the adoption of new legislation. This aerial photograph, showing 'how far ahead Ipswich is' shows the very obvious planned nature of the Racecourse Housing Estate so called it is was constructed on the site of the town's Racecourse that had formally closed in 1911 and been sold to the Corporation for housing in the 1920s. This is, I think, looking south west over the estate. A near circle of roads around a central 'circus' is shown with streets, crescents and cul-de-sacs of semi-detached housing is shown. https://flic.kr/p/2rHVP7b
November 29, 2025 at 11:56 AM
municipaldreams.bsky.social
The Hufeisensiedlung (Horseshoe Estate), Berlin - a modernist masterpiece designed by Bruno Taut and and built by the socialist trades union housing association, GEHAG between 1925 and 1927.
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/the-hufeis...
Interior view of estate showing shops and facilities Interior view of estate showing wooded pond and green open space with flats to rear Interior view of estate showing private gardens and terrace Interior view of estate showing curved terrace
November 29, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
municipaldreams.bsky.social
🚨 New on Substack: the Hufeisensiedlung, Berlin; Bruno Taut's modernist masterpiece of the 1920s - ‘light and air, dignity and order’.
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/the-hufeis...
Aerial view of estate showing distinctive horseshoe shape of central block and surrounding terraces and greenery
November 27, 2025 at 7:53 AM