Res.1.4 Married couple, early to mid twenties, corporation tenants, male interviewer, 16 November 1960
Scope and Contents
INTVEEs live in a ten-storey block of flats. They are married with no children. INTVER describes the common vestibule as "scrappy looking, draughty and bare, the name board has an incongruous air of quality". The flat is described as "pleasantly deocrated in the modern style and well furnished with rugs and sitting suite and table and nice new wireless and 17" television. INTVER explains to the INTVEEs that the project aims to study the changing patterns of suburban life, life and work in the district from the point of view of both residents and the services and organised groups in the area. Their rent is £1. 19. 7d a week which they think is expensive. It is a two apartment flat with bathroom and kitchen. The noise transmission is very bad up and down the stairs, the noise deadening sideways is very good. They think people would move out if given the chance, the house is alright but surroundings are important, people with children spoil it for others. The corporation says children are not allowed to play in the grounds of the flats themselves and should go through to the playing fields but mothers don't send their children there because they were not sure they would come back in one piece. They can't send small children out because of other tough children in the neighbourhood. INTVER suggests their views aren't typical because they have had experience of better areas. They don't think people in the district are poor but think that they don't have the same ideas on controlling children or looking after the district as they do. They think residents are selfish, they don't seem to care about the effect of what they do on other people. INTVEEs have a car but have to constantly check on it. They moved in 10 months after the flats had been built, the lifts were a novelty and kids kept playing in them. They think the flats should have a caretaker and complain about the layout - the flats have four entrances and are too open which encourages kids to use them as pathways. There is however very little damage, some chalking on the walls, and this is down to the vigilance of the few who bother. They have asked for a transfer but have been told they don't have a chance unless they have a doctor's certificate. They think the council policy of grouping rough people all together, for example at Niddrie after Lochinvar Camp was cleared, is very bad. Boys take a short cut through the back gardens of the Swedish houses near the little road bridge that goes from Pilton Gardens to Crewe Road North. The corporation put up chestnut paling to stop them, there used to be chestnut palings in the semi-circle by the shops opposite the flats. The shops here put a halfpenny or penny on all the prices. They refer to a screening process which they had to pass before getting the flat, if they had failed they thought they would be sent to Niddrie, they thought people should be mixed up. The only people who've managed to keep a garden have managed to do it by standing in the garden with a shotgun. Female INTVEE says she always opens her front door wide, but others don't - they are afraid of gossip or that people will peer in and see what's going on inside. There is a lot of gossip, it's easy to see into the kitchen door and through a flat. Their dream is to find a little cottage that needs done up. They moved in in 1958. They had previously lived in a room in Leith. It wasn't very nice, they paid 35/- a week. They found it odd adjusting to not always being in the same room as each other after they moved.
Dates
- Other: 16 November 1960
Conditions Governing Access
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Extent
11 Sheets
Creator
- From the Fonds: University of Edinburgh (Scottish University) (Organization)
Repository Details
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