Born49 – A Family growing up in Islington London

I have been considering my own position and how communities have become fragmented since I was a child. I grew up in Islington – a largely working class area in my day. I lived with my brother and parents in 4 rooms in a shared Victorian town house. We had the top 4 rooms (including 2 attic rooms) and another family had the lower 4 rooms. There was one shared toilet and no bathroom. We used a tin bath placed in front of the coal fire in the living room to bathe in when we were young and the public baths when we were older. The rooms were rented from a Housing Trust and there was a local rent office nearby. I remember my mother sometimes asking me to go pay the rent, which if I remember correctly was due weekly and there was a rent book to note payment. The rent book had the words – Harrow Housing Trust or Harrow Estates printed on it – but I’m not sure about that.

Although money was tight (even though both my parents worked long hours), this seemed to be the case for most of the families living around us. Yet there was a sense of community. The children played in the streets (yes there were less cars then) and the parents all seemed to know one another and there were lots of extended family who we regularly visited and who helped with child care. My maternal grandmother lived two doors away and my mother was her main carer when she grew old.

I have quite fond memories of this time but things changed in the late 60’s. The area was designated for redevelopment and the local authority took over. We were given notice to quit and offered council accommodation. We moved to a maisonette about two miles away and near my paternal grandmother. At first all was well and we got to know our neighbours. Initially there was a security man at the entrance and a pro-active caretaker, but when these were withdrawn there were major problems with vandalism and anti-social behaviour. The better families started to move out and problem families moved in. It became a sink estate but my parents became too old to want to move and wanted to stay close to what friends and family they still had. I, however, wanted something better and initially enquired with the council about access to social housing (I was ‘going steady’ with Mary at this time). Unfortunately I fell foul of the recently introduced ‘points system’. I didn’t have sufficient ‘points’ to even qualify to be put on the list I was told. This system favoured families, many of whom had moved to the area in search of work, and were living with friends or family and (apparently) deemed to be therefore living in overcrowded conditions and hence a priority for social housing. I mention this because with the housing trust, rooms were allocated by recommendation – parents would request rooms on behalf of their elder children at the local rent office when they were about to get married. This was a face to face meeting between people who knew one another and usually they were accommodated if they’d been good tenants. This allowed the next generation to stay in the area.

Some of my friends had moved into bedsits which were the only affordable alternative but many were living in squalid conditions having to share facilities and this option didn’t appeal to me. I wanted to buy my own home but London house prices then, as now, were beyond my means and I eventually bought a 3 bedroom semi near Marsh Farm, in Luton in 1974 (the house was only 4 years old and all was calm before the storm then). Even though houses in Luton were more affordable, it took all my savings and a big chunk of my monthly earnings to pay the mortgage and things were very tight for a couple of years. On top of this I had the problems and costs associated with commuting to London (in fact after a couple of years I quit my London job and got one locally). Not only that, but as my social life in Luton began to expand, through mine and Mary’s contacts, then visits to my friends and family in London became less frequent and the bonds started to loosen (something, although inevitable, I now regret).

So in summing up, I’m talking about social mobility, which although considered a good thing has its downside for society in general and people’s ability to maintain community ties. There’s also issues about access to social housing/local housing for the children of working class families, such that they can remain living where they were born. There’s also the so called ‘Nuclear Family’, which is also a recent phenomenon and is sometimes lauded and I believed linked to the previous two issues, but surely the ever increasing breakdown in family life and it’s consequent fall-out is a sign that society is heading in the wrong direction. In fact, I’m alarmed at the increasing numbers of violent family breakdowns we hear about in the news whereby family members are killing each other and their children and surely austerity and money worries have something to do with this. However, politicians never accept responsibility for their policies and the effects they have and choose to blame the poor and the disadvantages for the problems they face.

This probably has little relevance to your blog and I’ve likely missed the point of it entirely but it’s made me think about things nevertheless, which is something I suppose.