Summary
Council estates: Laurie Taylor talks to Insa Lee Koch, Associate Professor in Anthropology at LSE, and author of a new study which explores the history of housing estates and the everyday lives of residents on one such estate in southern England. How did council housing turn from being a marker of social inclusion to a marker of abject failure? Also, the origins and symbolism of the ‘sink estate’, a term invented by journalists and amplified by think tanks and politicians. Tom Slater, Professor of Urban Geography at the University of Edinburgh, traces the usage of this term and the long-term impact of associating council estate residents with effluence and sewage. Revised repeat.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.3 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:36.2 | I'm Laurie Taylor and this is a Radio 4 podcast for Thinking Aloud. |
| 0:40.7 | How and why did public housing degenerate until it became commonplace to |
| 0:46.0 | talk of sink estates? Find out here. |
| 0:49.7 | There's an old piano and playing hot behind the green door. |
| 0:56.0 | Yes, Frankie born of course and why. |
| 0:58.8 | Well, one of the questions I set on a criminology paper at York University in the early 70s was critically |
| 1:04.8 | examined the role played by Mr. Vaughan in the 1968 Easter House crisis. It was really a slightly perverse question because although it was true that the singer had |
| 1:18.8 | publicly offered to end the gang violence then associated with Glasgow's Easter House's state, and although alleged gang members had responded |
| 1:26.8 | positively to his initiative, frankly, we will surrender our swords, bayonets, knives, meat cleavers and iron railings, subsequent |
| 1:35.1 | analysis revealed that the extent of gang violence on the estate had been |
| 1:39.2 | exaggerated and that Frankie's much publicized meeting with the gang leaders in Blackpool |
| 1:44.2 | had been rather undermined by the discovery that no one really knew who the leaders actually were. |
| 1:49.2 | One boy even admitting that he posed as a leader to get a free trip to Blackpool. |
| 1:54.7 | Well horror stories about council housing estates have hardly gone away since that |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.