Simon Jenkins (Spare these London flats the wrecking ball. But no more eyesore tower blocks please, 28 September) points out the potential defects of tower blocks, and favours a return to Victorian terrace housing as a better solution to high-density living. It is certainly possible to build good terraced estates, although in his example of Goldsmith Street in Norwich, planning regulations on minimum street width had to be suspended to fit in the required 100 dwellings.
Such dense terraces would have to be built across large swathes of land to provide an alternative to apartment blocks. If that happened, serious problems of access, service provision and adequate green space would soon arise.
Everyone’s favourite betes noires, high-rise council towers, were seldom built in isolation. They were in mixed developments of high- and middle-rise apartments together with terraced housing. It is true that many of these estates have not stood the test of time, but the reasons are complex.
It is not true that all council tenants hate living in high-rise apartments. Many like living in them and appreciate the space, good internal layout and quality of surviving blocks. It is unfortunate that many of the architects who designed such housing are no longer appreciated.
Berthold Lubetkin’s Spa Green estate in Islington, and Cranbrook estate in Bethnal Green, London, are still good places to live. Even Ernő Goldfinger’s Trellick and Balfron towers are experiencing revival after years of abuse. There seems little wrong with living in well-designed, properly maintained tower blocks, as many people living in the Barbican estate in the City of London would attest.
Nicholas Russell
Author of Lubetkin and Goldfinger: The Rise and Fall of British High‑Rise Council Housing
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