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Up in the Air: A History of High Rise Britain
How the Rise Rise Tower Block came to symbolise the welfare state, and what went wrong - fron an award-winning debut historian.
Up in the Air tells the story of Britain’s multi-storey council housing its beginnings to the present day. Throughout its history, high rise has been a symbol of the welfare state for better or worse. Here, Holly Smith tells a new story from the perspective of those who lived there, exploring how residents grappled with this brave new world above the old skyline.
Through a series of historical moments based upon prize-winning research, we confront the human story of high-rise Britain. Interrogating the complex inheritance of mid-century urban reconstruction, Smith shows how these buildings became a crucible for the welfare state’s reimagination over the decades.
She traces the scattering of a local community during the construction of Park Hill in Sheffield in the 1950s. The resistance of residents after the Ronan Point collapse of 1968. The formation of a pioneering tenants’ cooperative to revive a crumbling estate during the closure of the Docklands. The rage of a National Tower Blocks Network advocating for high-rise safety in the 1980s and 1990s. The excitement of early digital culture in a Liverpudlian pensioners’ high-rise internet television show in the 2000s. And the fierce battle to defend estates from demolition in the 2010s.
Up in the Air is a rich history of political struggle within Britain’s most misunderstood buildings, offering essential lessons for a reformed social housing compact.
Up in the Air tells the story of Britain’s multi-storey council housing its beginnings to the present day. Throughout its history, high rise has been a symbol of the welfare state for better or worse. Here, Holly Smith tells a new story from the perspective of those who lived there, exploring how residents grappled with this brave new world above the old skyline.
Through a series of historical moments based upon prize-winning research, we confront the human story of high-rise Britain. Interrogating the complex inheritance of mid-century urban reconstruction, Smith shows how these buildings became a crucible for the welfare state’s reimagination over the decades.
She traces the scattering of a local community during the construction of Park Hill in Sheffield in the 1950s. The resistance of residents after the Ronan Point collapse of 1968. The formation of a pioneering tenants’ cooperative to revive a crumbling estate during the closure of the Docklands. The rage of a National Tower Blocks Network advocating for high-rise safety in the 1980s and 1990s. The excitement of early digital culture in a Liverpudlian pensioners’ high-rise internet television show in the 2000s. And the fierce battle to defend estates from demolition in the 2010s.
Up in the Air is a rich history of political struggle within Britain’s most misunderstood buildings, offering essential lessons for a reformed social housing compact.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published October 28, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 25, 2026
Strong social history of high-rise living in Britain, not merely high-rise buildings, that goes well beyond weighing in or against the architectural design of British high-rise estates. Often, discourse particularly around brutalist buildings become less a discussion of housing solutions per se as much as expressions of a preferred urban aesthetic to be nostalgic about.
Smith instead focuses much more heavily on the relations that tenants and labourers have with the high-rise flats which would be simultaneously mocking, disappointed but also incredibly affective. Therefore outright condemnation of high-rise living would miss and obfuscate the valiant efforts of those who fought to prevent the neoliberal assault on them whilst acquiescing to dangerous narratives of 'no go zones' and 'shitholes'. However simply praising this form of housing is a form of nostalgia that decides an aesthetic preference before justifying it retrospectively which misses the very real limitations of parliamentary sovereign ruled housing policy.
Instead we are best off listening to the social movements themselves and argue against narratives of inherent design flaws. High-Rise buildings weren't all entirely dangerous would-be demolition sites nor were they particularly liberating. They afforded a great leap in living standards however prescribed a normative mode of family or citizenry that would often be very exclusionary. Such is the complication depicted here by Holly Smith.
Avoiding this conundrum, as argued, therefore necessitates giving real agency to and learning from groups such as the Stephen and Matilda Tenants Cooperative which provided both homes and power to its members. Providing funding without the colossal state overreach is an approach that pushes beyond the paternalistic question of 'catering for' a population to instead ascribe a welfare state that supports modern modes of living rather than seeking to dominate.
Smith instead focuses much more heavily on the relations that tenants and labourers have with the high-rise flats which would be simultaneously mocking, disappointed but also incredibly affective. Therefore outright condemnation of high-rise living would miss and obfuscate the valiant efforts of those who fought to prevent the neoliberal assault on them whilst acquiescing to dangerous narratives of 'no go zones' and 'shitholes'. However simply praising this form of housing is a form of nostalgia that decides an aesthetic preference before justifying it retrospectively which misses the very real limitations of parliamentary sovereign ruled housing policy.
Instead we are best off listening to the social movements themselves and argue against narratives of inherent design flaws. High-Rise buildings weren't all entirely dangerous would-be demolition sites nor were they particularly liberating. They afforded a great leap in living standards however prescribed a normative mode of family or citizenry that would often be very exclusionary. Such is the complication depicted here by Holly Smith.
Avoiding this conundrum, as argued, therefore necessitates giving real agency to and learning from groups such as the Stephen and Matilda Tenants Cooperative which provided both homes and power to its members. Providing funding without the colossal state overreach is an approach that pushes beyond the paternalistic question of 'catering for' a population to instead ascribe a welfare state that supports modern modes of living rather than seeking to dominate.
November 12, 2025
Interesting. I know some of these estates.
January 26, 2026
Powerful, comprehensive, exciting scholarship. Can see why it's been so buzzy.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews