ABSTRACT
It is apparent from its visibility in the marketplace that a differential still exists, and that it affects even the most attractive of the estates. This reflects a familiar set of attitudes – so familiar to most British people that they are not analysed that frequently.
There can be few British people unable to recognize what is or is not a council estate. What they are reacting to, subliminally as much as consciously, helps to account for patterns of estate history and in particular the fatal divergence between architectural intention and lived experience.
(Ravetz, 2001) The aim here is to unpick some of these attitudes and reactions, to see why the patterns are so long-term, and perhaps to consider if there are any ways of overcoming them.