Access to Eden (PB) (2010)

In Access to Eden, John Astley explores the influences that shaped the original public sector housing ideals in Britain. The essay surveys the cultural and legislative strands in story that is at once complex and beguiling, but which ultimateley reveals the impact of the Arts and Crafts movement with architects such as Baillie Scott, urban planners such as Ebenezer Howard, and after the 1914-18 War the "homes fit for heroes" Housing Acts of the 1920s, which empowered local authorities of the day to take action on the housing front. As a case study, the author selects the Merry Oak housing development in Bitterne, Southampton, to examine the practical outcome of the ideals that had been established by the 1924 Housing Act of John Wheatley. John Astley concludes this essay with an epilogue on public sector housing in the present era, and finds a landscape of confusion: a rapacious private sector with both eyes on the bottom line; and a plethora of budget-crazed agencies and quangos operating in the bizarre vacuum left by the retreat of local government in the face of centralization. Is it really too late, though, for local government to regain the moral high ground and deliver value for money? After reading Access to Eden, you will not be able to look at a house, any house, in quite the same way again.