Municipal Dreams
municipaldreams.bsky.social
Municipal Dreams
@municipaldreams.bsky.social
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/.
I met Neftalem at the weekend and was impressed with him and the importance of his research. Please help if you are able or encourage people you may know to help. (Reposts welcome.)
Have you, a family member or friend moved from council housing to renting privately?

I’m a PhD researcher looking into what drives these moves, how it impacts tenants' lives and their views of the council housing tenure.

Please reach out and share among your contacts! 👇

#socialhousing
#renting
November 24, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
🚨 My latest blog post is on Bergpolderflat, Rotterdam - the 1934 modernist scheme that revolutionised social housing and provided the prototype of the postwar slab block:
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/h...
November 22, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
🚨 NEW on Substack, my post on Liverpool’s interwar multi-storey Housing: Building an "A1 community in a properly planned township of flats"
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/liverpools...
November 22, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Born on this day in 1819, George Eliot. Here's my favourite bit from the greatest English novel - Eliot's concluding paean to Middlemarch's heroine, Dorothea (who, among other things worked to improve the housing of the local agricultural labourers). Here's to all the Dorotheas, past and present.
November 22, 2025 at 8:37 PM
🚨 NEW on Substack, my post on Liverpool’s interwar multi-storey Housing: Building an "A1 community in a properly planned township of flats"
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/liverpools...
November 22, 2025 at 9:01 AM
🚨 My latest blog post is on Bergpolderflat, Rotterdam - the 1934 modernist scheme that revolutionised social housing and provided the prototype of the postwar slab block:
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/h...
November 22, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
It’s been a dreadful week in a rough year…decade…forever, and the only solution for the weekend is to finally treat myself to this wonderful book by @municipaldreams.bsky.social. Bookmark from the mighty @bookhaus.bsky.social. A refuge for a couple of days
November 21, 2025 at 10:17 PM
1/ 🧵 Ashbourne's almshouses, now all managed by The Old Trust. Firstly Owlfield’s Almshouses, eight almshouses built in the 1640s endowed by Ashbourne-born London fishmonger Roger Owlfield in his will of 1630. The upper storey was added in 1848.
November 21, 2025 at 4:01 PM
1/ New blog posts this week explore two forms of interwar multistorey housing. Firstly, Bergpolderflat, Rotterdam, 1934 - the pioneering modernist scheme that became the prototype of the postwar slab block:
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/h...
November 21, 2025 at 8:50 AM
'Is it less possible to raise an A1 community in a properly planned township of flats than in a garden city or suburb?', City Architect Lancelot Keay, 1935. New on Substack, my post on Liverpool's interwar multi-storey tenement housing:
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/liverpools...
November 20, 2025 at 8:38 AM
My second book, A History of Council Housing in 100 Estates, is a full colour hardback so not cheap but it's currently discounted and obviously worth every penny. It would make a wonderful Christmas present for someone special in your life. 😊
www.ribabooks.com/a-history-of...
A History of Council Housing in 100 Estates
Buy A History of Council Housing in 100 Estates by Boughton, John from the RIBA online Bookshop. ISBN 9781914124631
www.ribabooks.com
November 19, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
🚨 New post: How Rotterdam Shaped Social Housing: Part II, Bergpolderflat and the Prototypical Slab Block
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/h...
November 18, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
I'll be talking with @peteapps.bsky.social about his important new book, 'Homesick - How Housing Broke London and How to Fix It' at the Writeidea Festival, Tower Hamlets Town Hall, 1pm, Saturday 22 November. Tickets free but you need to reserve a place.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peter-apps...
Peter Apps: Homesick - How Housing Broke London and How to Fix It
Homesick is the gripping story of how housing defines a city’s past, present and future.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 18, 2025 at 9:01 AM
I'll be talking with @peteapps.bsky.social about his important new book, 'Homesick - How Housing Broke London and How to Fix It' at the Writeidea Festival, Tower Hamlets Town Hall, 1pm, Saturday 22 November. Tickets free but you need to reserve a place.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/peter-apps...
Peter Apps: Homesick - How Housing Broke London and How to Fix It
Homesick is the gripping story of how housing defines a city’s past, present and future.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 18, 2025 at 9:01 AM
🚨 New post: How Rotterdam Shaped Social Housing: Part II, Bergpolderflat and the Prototypical Slab Block
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/h...
November 18, 2025 at 8:12 AM
A bit of visual council housing history for housing geeks. I reckon these two photos (immediately adjacent) of a street in Kent tell you to all you need to know. Any thoughts?
November 17, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Another example of decipherable housing history in Detling, Kent.
November 17, 2025 at 7:56 PM
We've been walking this weekend. The early morning haze and blue sky yesterday flattered to deceive.
November 16, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
📢 NEW BOOK ALERT!

The housing crisis is global, but so is the resistance.

A thread to introduce “Rent Strikes”, edited together with @hannesrolf.bsky.social, and published open access by @uclpress.bsky.social and @iisg-amsterdam.bsky.social

uclpress.co.uk/book/rent-st...

🧵(1/10)
November 13, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Born on this day, 1897, Nye Bevan, Minister of Health and Housing when Labour built 805,000 council homes between 1945-51. He believed high-quality council housing should reflect 'the living tapestry of a mixed community'.
November 15, 2025 at 8:28 AM
St John's Hospital - Bakewell Almshouses. Originally founded in 1602 by John Manners; the current building - originally six homes - dates from 1709. Maintained by the Dukes of Rutland from 1703 to 1920. After falling into dereliction, restored by trustees in 2006.
November 14, 2025 at 3:58 PM
🚨 NEW POST: the scheme that inspired our postwar 'streets in the sky' - the Justus van Effen Estate in Rotterdam, Michiel Brinkman's masterpiece of the early 1920s. (New photos by @matthew-cook.bsky.social added.)

municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/11/11/h...
November 14, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Reposted by Municipal Dreams
Do follow @municipaldreams.bsky.social . It's an excellent account.
🚨 New on Substack: my post on the postwar history of Lewisham's Honor Oak Estate - a story of exclusion, regeneration and changing community; the childhood home of Ian Wright (pictured here with his inspirational teacher Sidney Pigden).
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/the-honor-...
November 13, 2025 at 2:43 PM