In the post-war period, the social environment in south-western Edinburgh was completely transformed by council housebuilding. Responding to a growing waiting list and criticism of its former housing policy, under councillor Pat Rogan the Edinburgh Corporation began incorporating high-rise homes much more strongly into its developments. Wester Hailes, once a community of farmsteads and pre-fabs, was transformed into a housing scheme defined by its modernist housing blocks in order to rehome those still living in the crumbling and insanitary Canongate and Southside slumlands. However, this upgrade in living conditions was not met with an upgrade in social position for those families rehoused. Built as public and political opinion was turning against high-rise blocks and subject to a lack of provisions and poor housing construction, the tenants there often felt marginalised and the area quickly attained a poor reputation. This talk will discuss the experiences of the tenants at Wester Hailes, using oral testimony from original residents, and will discuss the ways that they lived and defined themselves in this new environment.

Speaker

Aaron Sheridan

Aaron Colin Sheridan is a final year PhD student at the University of Strathclyde working on a social and oral history of council housing schemes in Edinburgh. His work focuses on the experiences of tenants at home and in the community, identity formation and reputational discourses. He has also worked as a research intern at the Scottish Government and at Places for People Scotland, and is currently working as a research assistant at the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. Originally from Hamilton, Aaron’s interest in council housing comes from family experience, having grown up in the town’s Whitehill scheme and experienced housing insecurity and related poverty throughout his teens and twenties.

Booking information tbc.