'One Big Playground for Kids': A Contextual Appraisal of Some 1970s Photographs of Children Hanging Out on a Post-Second-World-War British Council Estate. (3rd July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Waites, Ian
• Is Part Of: Childhood in the past. Volume 11:Number 2(2018)
• Page Start: 114
• Page End: 128
• Publication Date: 2018-07-03
• Subjects: Childhood -- memory -- photography -- council estates -- Radburn -- planning -- post-war Britain; Children -- History -- Periodicals; 305.2305
• DOI: 10.1080/17585716.2018.1495095
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1758-5716

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article gives a broad assessment of a selection of photographs taken in the early 1970s of children on a post-Second-World-War British council estate in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. As one of the cornerstones of postwar social reconstruction in Britain, the provision and design of new public housing often had the well-being of the future citizen – the child – in mind, and the photography of these estates at the time often included children as a way to promote a sense of well-being and community. This article offers a reading of these photographs as a representation of the child's day-to-day life in this particular environment, and to present an understanding of how the planning and layout of the estate was intended to function as a crucial influence on the development of the children who lived there.