Municipal Dreams
@municipaldreams.bsky.social
8.6K followers 1.7K following 1.6K posts
Social historian of housing. Author of 'A History of Council Housing in 100 Estates' (RIBA Books) and 'Municipal Dreams: the Rise and Fall of Council Housing' (Verso). I blog at https://municipaldreams.wordpress.com/.
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municipaldreams.bsky.social
Genuine question: do they make themselves believe this stuff or do they say it simply for the clicks and attention or to further a political agenda? Anyway, to Americans and others, it's complete and utter bollocks.
American in video saying 'The crime and immigration is out of control (in London), nobody feels safe.'
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
pastandotherplaces.bsky.social
Jean Payton Reid, architect and town planner (1917-97). Liberton Kirkyard, Edinburgh. Thought to have been Scotland's first female town planner. Family monument - pink granite obelisk.
#31DaysOfGraves day 12 notable women. #herstory
thepastandotherplaces.wordpress.com/2023/01/14/a...
Greek-style tall pointed obelisk in polished pink granite standing in a kirkyard. Most of the other gravestones are smaller and grey.  The tower of the Kirk is prominent in the background.  There are green shrubs and several bare-branched trees in the background.
municipaldreams.bsky.social
By the way, we visited Rotterdam a couple of years ago and took a proper look at the 20th century architecture and planning.
municipaldreams.bsky.social
The one on the left is Delft. The second is from the house we're staying in in the Hague. We're probably doing all the touristy things but very much enjoying our visit.
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
municipaldreams.bsky.social
1/ Contrasting posts on interwar housing this week. The first looked at the attempt to promote modernist designs to the middle class in the 1934 Modern Homes Exhibition in Gidea Park.
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/g...
64 Heath Drive Tecton-designed house 62 Heath Drive 60 Heath Drive
municipaldreams.bsky.social
2/ The second looked at the more traditional 'neo-Georgian' style favoured in Lancaster's council housing of the era:
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/interwar-c...
1919 Housing Act semi-detached houses 1924 Housing Act semi-detached houses 1930 Housing Act terraced housing
municipaldreams.bsky.social
1/ Contrasting posts on interwar housing this week. The first looked at the attempt to promote modernist designs to the middle class in the 1934 Modern Homes Exhibition in Gidea Park.
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/g...
64 Heath Drive Tecton-designed house 62 Heath Drive 60 Heath Drive
municipaldreams.bsky.social
1/ Den Haag/the Hague: the Old City Hall built in Dutch Renaissance style in 1565 and the New City Hall, designed by Richard Meier and completed in 1995.
Front facade of Old City Hall Exterior view of New City Hall
municipaldreams.bsky.social
2/ ... and they're deciding who to vote for in a general election on 29 October where the omens are not so good.
Election posters
municipaldreams.bsky.social
1/ Greetings from den Haag/the Hague where they seem to do medium rise, high density pretty successfully.
Back of houses and distant view of point block
municipaldreams.bsky.social
🚨 New on Substack, my post on Interwar Council Housing in Lancaster: ‘Wait till I show my husband this house, it’s lovely’
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/interwar-c...
Addison Act semi-detached council housing Wheatley Act terraced housing
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
municipaldreams.bsky.social
🚨 New post: The Modern Homes Exhibition, Gidea Park, 1934 - a (failed?) attempt to 'combine the most modern British homes, as exemplified here, with the ideas of the public' ...
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/g...
Contemporary photograph of flat-roofed, white-walled house built for exhibition. Another contemporary photograph of flat-roofed, white-walled house built for exhibition. Contemporary photograph of flat-roofed, white-walled house built for exhibition. Contemporary photograph of flat-roofed, white-walled house built for exhibition.
municipaldreams.bsky.social
This is a really important point from @robfordmancs.bsky.social. Local government should be a source of and focus for local pride. It should be doing bold, visible stuff that enhances and reflects community. Instead, currently, it is almost literally reduced to ambulance work.
It is deeply unhealthy to have local governments who don't provide many visible/valuable services for most residents (because they lack the resources). Encourages distrust and populism - 'what am I paying my council tax for? The council does nothing for me.'
municipaldreams.bsky.social
🚨 New post: The Modern Homes Exhibition, Gidea Park, 1934 - a (failed?) attempt to 'combine the most modern British homes, as exemplified here, with the ideas of the public' ...
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/g...
Contemporary photograph of flat-roofed, white-walled house built for exhibition. Another contemporary photograph of flat-roofed, white-walled house built for exhibition. Contemporary photograph of flat-roofed, white-walled house built for exhibition. Contemporary photograph of flat-roofed, white-walled house built for exhibition.
municipaldreams.bsky.social
It's striking how many young German men were working in the British commercial and industrial sectors before 1WW.
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
sianbroadhurst.bsky.social
In 1909 the German Garden City Association visited the UK, including the garden village of New Earswick
A formal horse and carriage drives through a decorative archway that welcomes visitors in German. In the background is the village of New Earswick
municipaldreams.bsky.social
Thank you - what a wonderful photograph. These are images from the 1911 book that might even have been taken at that time.
Rear view of terraced house and garden View through prohc of gardens and housing
municipaldreams.bsky.social
Last holiday snap from Spain, the wonderful Art Nouveau/Modernist Casa Lis in Salamanca, completed in 1906. Designed by Joaquín de Vargas y Aguirre for the industrialist and arts patron Miguel de Lis and now a fine museum of Art Nouveau and Art Deco.
Exterior view
municipaldreams.bsky.social
2/ The Garden City movement was influential in pre-First World War Germany as this 1911 publication also shows:
Title page of German book on English Garden City movement Image of Bournville Plan of Bournville
municipaldreams.bsky.social
1/ Ebenezer Howard's Garden Cities of To-morrow was published in Germany, as Gartenstädte von Morgen, in the same year as its British publication, 1902 ...
Three magnest diagram - Town, Country and Town-Country Diagram of Garden City plan Garden City plan