Around Cathy Come Home

1. Around Cathy Come Home

2. Rappel: utilisation des temps, forme simple ou -ing A tenementisa a substandard multi-family rented accomodation in the urban core, usually derelict and occupied by poor tenants. Image 1 shows rows of derelict tenements. Some openings are blocked and some blocks look uninhabited. In the second scene, young children are playing in a muddy unpaved street. They are playing in a basin using boards as paddles. This photograph testifies to the housing crisis in the 1960s.

3. Dumps People living in dumps have no access to drinking water or electricity / don’t have anyaccess to…. People reduced to living in dumps are deprived of the facilities of modern life. Living in a dump meansthatyoucopewith / make do withdampness, cold and rats.

4. BV+ING or TO+BV Livingnear the factorymaybeharmful as you are exposed to smoke and pollution. Whenyou live in a tenement, to washyou must go in the yard. To savemoney, poorfamilieswould live withtheir relatives in overcrowded flats. Changinghousesregularlycandisruptyoungchildren’sdevelopment. Homelessmothers have to do withstaying in a room for hours. To placatehome-seekers, the governmentpromised new estates. Evicting people is no solution to the housingproblem.

5. Slum clearance The Housing Act of 1930 encouraged councils (conseilsmunicipaux) to clear slums within their boundaries, which had become hotspots for social deprivation. Slum housing largely consisted of Victorian terraced back-to-back properties constructed as a result of mass urbanisation during the Industrial Revolution. The housing had deteriorated structurally, as well as not providing sufficient sanitary facilities. In many cases, whole families would share just one room. By 1933, councils were forced to make slum clearancing their main priority, and to propose plans for demolition and rebuilding of the slums to the government. Councils initially tried to relocate residents in their original localities, but the rebuilding effort mostly consisted of small scale schemes (de projets de petite taille) in these areas and councils then sought to build new, larger estates on the peripheries of their towns and cities. To target this, the Housing Act of 1936 allowed for the designation of redevelopment areas most widely used for the demolition of slums. World War II brought about the near halt of all slum clearance schemes, and following the end of war, the country was in the grips of a major housing shortage (en proie à un manquecriant, une grave pénurie de logements). Not only did much slum housing remain, but a large number of properties had been destroyed by enemy bombing. The elected Labour government following World War II made housing their welfare priority and once again slum clearance became a source for council concentration. 

6. Comment uponthis image

8. Introduction Insert the words in red in the followingparagraph: This photograph, publishedin the Liverpool Daily Post, wasshot in the 1960s’ in the outskirts of Liverpool where St George’schurchisstill standing. It documents slum clearances and the devastation of the city. The building of modern buildings in Everton district alteredways of life and social relations. Dramatichigholdinitially black and white concreteensuingearlypresslastingly

9. The photographis made up of three parts. In the background / in the distance / fartheraway, three multi-storeyed buildings dot the landscape. On the right, in the middle distance, the rubble of previousdwellings are strewnacrosswhat looks like a wasteland. In the foreground / in the lower part of the photograph / in the bottomleft-hand corner, two middle-agedwomen in raincoats are chatting. This composition isstrikingbecausemost of the photographisoccupied by the wastelandwhile the figures are relegated to a position of second importance. The high position of the building isequallyunusual.

10. Towardsanalysis Throughthisstunning composition, the photographeraimsatemphasizingthe disruption of people’slivesbrought about by modernization and slum clearances. The two ladies who are chattingseem to beindifferent to the devastatedlandscapethatcanbeseenbehindthem. A huge distance separatesthemfrom the building and the city center, whichreinforces the impression of isolation and estrangement.

11. The differencebetween the tall buildings, mostprobablycouncil flats, and the churchisheightened by the light with the black blocks standing out. One isunder the impression thatthe new accomodations are unpleasant in spite of the modern facilitiesoffered to the tenants. Whereas the former derelict terracedhouseswere places where social bonds and solidaritydevelopped, the blocks of flats do not seemwelcoming. The presence of rubble in the middle of the pictureconveys an impression of destruction and disruption ratherthan one of progress and modernity.