Housing Charity Shelter hired photographer Nick Hedges to document the lives of slum families living in Glasgow, Birmingham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Manchester and other cities of Britain. These photographs revealed the poor life and dreadful housing conditions in Britain’s inner cities.
He found families huddling in a cellar lit by a single bulb, sick mothers, children playing in rags, crumbling walls, children sleeping in a squalid blanket. They were living without basic facilities such as electricity, water, proper sewage, and ventilation system. The images, taken for Homeless charity Shelter, united politicians to address Britain’s slums.
The following photographs show the awful living conditions of slum areas of Manchester. These photographs show the other side of 1970s Manchester.
Every time these photos get posted on Manchester groups on Facebook, there are always comments saying ‘it was a simpler time, wish I could go back’.
STFU Jackie.
More examples of Boomers and Gen X having the easy life – per some on social media
And the myth that everything was hunky dory before Thatcher.
The context here is that there was a lot of slum clearance in the 1960s and 1970s. A lot of it wasn’t done well (e.g. Fort Ardwick and the Hulme Crescents in Manchester), but for many it was a vast improvement on the slums.
When Thatcher took over in 1979, one of the first things she did was introduce Right to Buy, followed by heavily reducing councils’ ability to build new social housing.
Right to buy might have been crap for councils but for many poor working class people it was a huge benefit and led to them being able to leave the house to their kids etc
It benefited *some* people, but made it much more difficult (and expensive) for everyone else to rent.
It personally made no difference to my family, because we were never in a position to buy. But the existence of the council house meant we had a family home and no risk of being turfed out by a dodgy landlord.
“Some” – over 2 million
I dont disagree with your point, but those 2 million get forgotten when this story is told
…and its got to be mentioned that over 40% of those homes are now owned by Landlords – i get that – it was a shitty flawed system but still – a lot of people got to own their own home for the fist time
This must be the glory days reform and restore keep going on about.
Unless you are a lord or lady in the elite aristocracy this countrys always been miserable for working people coupd argue we are in the best of times now despite all the nonsense about immigration being pushed as the cause of all our woes