HOUSING ESTATES AND COMMUNITY LIFE
By A. H. WHIPPLE*
Before, they had around them all the life, bustle, and movement of the town and its streets ; they could talk and, if necessary, quarrel with their neighbours without leaving their own front doors. Their places of amusement were close at hand. The transfer practically compelled them to shed their town ideas and habits and adopt those of the country-dweller, without any preliminary training to make the change congenial. Life is not so obvious on the housing estate. The streets contain merely enough traffic to make them dangerous as playgrounds for children and not enough to provide the excitement of those of the town. The -changing kaleidoscope of the city life is far off. The tenants are parted from their old friends and acquaintances, and have to make new connexions under none too easy conditions, or to travel great distances to meet again those they knew before. Human beings are confessedly conservative in practice, whatever they may be in politics, and they do not change their habits too easily or too willingly. It is almost a miracle that so many have made successes of their lives under the new conditions. It is a question, however, whether such a miracle should be expected or counted on. In Greek plays, when the difficulties were too great to be overcome
• Mr. Whipple is Director of Education for the City of Nottingham.
otherwise, the god from the machine was produced. Apparently the god from the machine has been expected to work overtime on housing estates, for very little has been provided for the leisure time of the housing estate dwellers. They have gardens, certainly, and during part of the year these can give spare-time occupation to the men, though at first even gardening may seem a not too attractive form of enjoyment to those who in the past have not even grown a bulb in a pot. In the dark, danip nights of winter the garden cannot do much to fill the idle hours. There is the Public Library, but it is generally far off, and, unfortunately, not every dweller on a housing estate is a reader. Recreation grounds and swimming baths arc no doubt popular with the workers in summer, but much less so in winter.
Something more is required to inspire a community spirit on a housing estate and to make the dwellers good neighbours. They must have some common meeting- place. A local authority may well object that, even grant- ing that community meeting-places are advisable on housing estates, it is not their duty to supply them, and in any case, they have not the money for the purpose. They have to supply houses and gardens, recreation-grounds, libraries, swimming-baths, health services, transport and schools. Anything else is for the tenants to find for themselves. This unfortunately is an impossible task for the tenants, even if there were suitable sites near by. In any case, the tenants could not be expected to supply a community meeting-place before a community spirit had been developed among them.
Large employers' have found from experience that something more than good dwellings, good conditions of labour, good wages and recreation grounds arc required if good employees are to be retained. They have developed, with this end in view, social and recreative sides in connexion with their works, and have profited thereby. It is equally important for municipal authorities to have good citizens on their housing estates. Good citizens develop from good neighbours, and pride in the city or town may well develop from pride in the estate. Obviously, the cost of- providing ad he c community- mectinglilaces which would supply the needs of the tenants on large housing estates would be heavy, too heavy for the pockets of the tenants, whose incomes are small, and too heavy to be defrayed by private charity, even if private charity would be acceptable. The beneficent donor has played his part on some estates, but the buildings he has erected are far too small for the requirements of the residents. It is not the small minority that must he catered for if a true community spirit is to be developed. There is, however, on every housing estate one set of buildings t hat could be made suitable for this purpose at practically no extra expense, namely, the schools, which must be erected by Local Education Authorities for the education of children resident on the estates.
They are generally equipped with large halls, gymnasia and spacious playgrounds. Many possess canteens for meals and school clinics. Little foresight in the original planning would make them suitable for community centres for the residents. This dual use would not interfere in any way with their primary purpose, which is the educa- tion of children between the ages of three and fifteen years. There is no reason why they should be used merely in the daytime. Many are used in the evenings for the formal instruction of adolescents and adults, but they could well serve a wider purpose. In any case, there is little doubt that they will be conscripted for the physical education of the unemployed and of young people who have left school in accordance with the latest programme of the Board of- Education -for the improvement of the physique of the nation. -It would show an absurd lack of regard for economy if additional gymnasia were erected for this purpose while the halls, gymnasia and playgrounds of the schools were left unoccupied and unused in the evenings and in school holidays.
In the City of Nottingham during the past 12 years all the new schools have been planned and have been successfully used for the dual purpose. Each school is situated in or near to the centre of the estate it servesi The school which is at once the largest and the most often used in the evenings and holidays is the William Crane School, built on open-air lines on a 121-acre circular site around a central playing field in the centre of the Aspley Housing Estate. This school provides in six departments accommodation for 3,000 children. It contains two large Halls, each with seating accommo- dation for 1,000 people—one Hall has a fully equipped stage and the other a movable boxing ring—two gymnasia, one marked for badminton, a large school canteen, two school clinics, and, in addition to its 53 classrooms, rooms for practical instruction in wood and metal work, domestic science and arts and crafts, equipped with wireless, cinema and epidiascopes. Adjoining the buildings are large playgrounds, marked out for lawn- tennis, netball, &c., playing fields, orchards, greenhouses, flower and vegetable gardens, pottery kilns, lily ponds, beehives and all that is necessary for a good all-round education. The classrooms are furnished not with desks, but with tables and chairs. The schools arc used in the evenings and on Saturdays and Sundays by many organisations, including a large self-governing social centre, evening institutions for men and boys and for girls and women, University tutorial- classes, W.E.A., Co-operative Guilds, Old Boys' and Old Girls' Associations, Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, political associations and religious bodies. They arc the centre of the estate life.
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