Municipal Dreams (@municipaldreams.bsky.social)

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 13, 2026, 7:01 AM

🚨 Brand new post: Dutch housing authorities pursued extraordinarily harsh measures to deal with allegedly antisocial tenants. My post tells the story of the interwar and post-war 'woonschoolen' intended to inculcate respectable behaviour.
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2026/10/13/w...

Black and white photo showing residents of Zeeburgerdorp, 1934; the sign reads ‘Temporary Home for Families’ © Stadsarchief Amsterdam

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 12, 2026, 2:13 PM

Council housing, Fieldway and Wyck Road, Wigginton, Herts - built by Berkhamstead Rural District Council in the 1960s.

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 12, 2026, 9:05 AM

Just a quick reminder that we're spending a huge amount on housing; we're just not investing enough in building new housing. In 2024-25 we spent £36 billion on Housing Benefit and the housing element of Universal Credit and £2.84 billion on providing temporary accommodation for homeless families.

@mia-gray.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 8:49 AMReposted by @municipaldreams.bsky.social

Very good post on the history of "problem tenants" in early public housing in the Netherlands and the UK.

If interested in urban history, @municipaldreams.bsky.social really worth following.

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 9:09 AM

Thank you.

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 8:01 AM

The first of two posts on how British and Dutch housing management attempted to deal with tenants deemed 'unacceptable' - from women supervisors to segregated and controlled communities ... (Part II on Tuesday)
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2026/10/06/1...

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 9:45 AM

Thank you - that's kind. I think De Ravelijn and the two earlier Amsterdam 'woonschoolen' discussed in next week's post make a fascinating study.

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 8:46 AMReposted by @municipaldreams.bsky.social

The gatehouse to Zomerhof in the Hague (nicknamed the machine-gun nest by residents) - a segregated estate created by the municipality to train 'unacceptable' tenants to better behaviour. More on British and Dutch interwar housing management here:
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2026/10/06/1...

Two-storey gatehouse to segregated estate photographed in 1923

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 8:38 AMReposted by @municipaldreams.bsky.social

From low-rise to high-rise - the story of Hackney's post-war council housing ...
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/post-war-h...

Morland Estate, three-storey terrace of flats

Somerford Grove - terrace of two-storey houses

The Beckers - eleven-storey point block and terrace of two-storey houses

Trelawney Estate - 14-storey tower block

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 9:38 AM

Just a quick reminder that the seminal 'Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland' by Miles Glendinning and Stefan Muthesius, published 1994, is available for free download as a pdf here:
towerblock.org/TowerBlock.pdf

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 9:32 AM

Not in detail but Frampton Park begins as a typical London County Council estate of ealy-mid 1950s based on prewar model of five-storey walk-up balcony access blocks plus added lifts and storeys. Tradescant House in 1965 marks subsequent shift to modernist slab block deck-access.

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 9:10 AM

Trowbridge Estate

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 8:55 AM

Goodmerhill Woods, Buckinghamshire, on the Ridgeway. #FingerpostFriday

Wooden four-way footpath sign in sunny woodland clearing

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 8:46 AM

The gatehouse to Zomerhof in the Hague (nicknamed the machine-gun nest by residents) - a segregated estate created by the municipality to train 'unacceptable' tenants to better behaviour. More on British and Dutch interwar housing management here:
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2026/10/06/1...

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 8:38 AM

From low-rise to high-rise - the story of Hackney's post-war council housing ...
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/post-war-h...

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 7:23 AM

🚨 New on Substack: Post-War Housing in Hackney: ‘Far removed from the pre-war conception of “council flats”'
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/post-war-h...

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 1:39 PM

A bit of quintessential England - council housing and countryside. Princes Risborough viewed from Whiteleaf Hill along the Ridgeway.

Council estate seen in middle distance between ploughed fields and green wooded backdrop.

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 9:58 AM

A fascinating film from the early 1950s (?) created by Hayes and Harlington Urban District Council showing the older parts of the district as well as its more recent council estates, shopping parades and schools.

@partizandulwich.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 9:23 AMReposted by @municipaldreams.bsky.social

Townfield - Central Avenue - Estate
Hayes UDC
Cllr Gunton housing pioneer

Hillingdon

@municipaldreams.bsky.social

@municipaldreams.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 9:26 AM

Thanks. Great photo too - presumably colourised.