Deep Seeded Urban Decay
The British council estate, once the symbolism of a classless society, has now become ”shorthand for general lumpenproletarian venality and violence”, (Hanley, 2007 – p9) deep seeded urban decay as Mike Skinner put it. It is difficult to comprehend the extent of the decline of the Modernist’s new society, from a society that would eradicate class struggle to a metaphor for crime and anti-social behaviour. The estate provided the word ‘monstrosity’ with a new prefix, concrete, the now default descriptive generalisation of post-war buildings has become a “potent and irresistible cliché”. (Grindrod, 2013 – p15)
So have we been cheated out of our utopian future? Britain is where more than 900,000 workers living off of zero-hours contracts can be spun to resemble increasing employment rates; vital public service workers cannot afford ‘affordable’ housing within its capital; false promises of a £350million injection to prop up a failing NHS; and the dismantlement of the welfare state “under the dubious banner of ‘austerity’” (Grindrod, 2013 - 435) are all commonplace. It’s safe to say that utopia has never arrived.
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