FOCUS
Clarity above all Transparency, says Tracie Williams, is the only way
to end a tangled web of injustice and decades of public distrust in high rise social housing
exceptionally high. But this has not occurred as a direct result of the tragedy: the speculation surrounding the safety of tower blocks has existed for decades, and requires definitive action to bring it to an end once and for all. Britain’s relationship with tower blocks began
F
in 1951, following the devastation of WWII, after German aerial bombings destroyed many inner city buildings. ‘Quick fi xes’ were required to help recover from the lack of housing. The first tower, named ’The Lawn’, was
completed in Harlow, Essex, and this is now a Grade II listed building. By the 1960s, tower blocks were a popular form of social housing, as they could allow a greater population of occupants in a much smaller space to account for and meet rising housing demands. Towers built five storeys or higher accounted for just 9%1
of local authority buildings between 1953
and 1959, but increased in the early 1960s to a peak of 26% in 1966. They were used by councils to signify post war progress and impress voters
28 JUNE 2020
www.frmjournal.com
OLLOWING THE events of the Grenfell Tower fi re on 14 June 2017, public distrust in high rise residential buildings has been
with their futuristic style, but it didn’t take long for public distrust in the imposing, high rise buildings to seep in. On 16 May 1968, in a chilling premonition of
Grenfell, Ronan Point – a 22 storey tower block in Canning Town, east London – partly collapsed, just two months after opening. A gas explosion, compounded by poor design and construction, caused the collapse of one entire corner of the building, killing four people and injuring 17 others. This partial collapse of the tower block
triggered changes across building regulations, with new legislation highlighting the need for any building over five storeys to resist an explosive force before it could be inhabited by residents. As the fi rst in a long string of high rise disasters, this marked the beginning of half a century of fear and deadly incidents affecting residents who have no choice but to live in these buildings. Another fire on 3 July 2009, at Lakanal House in Camberwell, south London, saw six people killed and at least 20 injured. A BBC London investigation2
in September 2009 then found that at least 300 social housing
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