Tower block life
Samantha Pennells has fond memories of growing up in the Sixties in one of the new high-rise tower blocks
he events of the past year got T me reminiscing about more carefree times, not just my childhood, but for other kids like me – offspring of the ‘boom babies’ born after the war.
I was born in December 1965. There was no maternity leave, so Mum took her fortnight’s holiday for my birth. She admits it was the days ‘just before the pill’ – so I’m lucky to be here. There were no more after me!
My first memory is being in the back of a removal van, aged two. We were leaving the town where I was born for the bright lights of Birmingham…
We moved into a flat-share above a shop. Mum got a job as a secretary and I started at a council-run day nursery. All the mums came straight from work to collect us and woe betide any mum who was late. Even I knew how strict Matron was!
In 1968, the Castle Vale housing estate was being built and we dreamed of living there. Mum put her name down on the housing list, though some said ‘you won’t get offered anything – you’re just a mother and a child, not a proper family’. But Mum was pushy, and we did. We belonged to the first generation who lived in these new-style tower blocks.
‘The balconies on the block were like streets in the sky – teeming with life...’
We moved into our council flat on the ninth floor of Topcliffe House in 1969. The block had a play area outside – climbing frames and a sandpit. Heaven! The four-year-old above us went to the same nursery as me and my other best friend lived below.
As my school, Topcliffe Infants, was attached to our block, Mum left me in the playground as she tore across the grass to get the 67 bus to work. School was just a hop over the fence for us council flat kids – we were always on time for the register! Mum found a minder to pick me up after school but soon I didn’t need it. There were after-school clubs every day – chess, badminton, first aid, gymnastics and on Fridays, film club. Aged ten, I won ‘Sports Girl of the Year’ and Mum took time off work to see me presented with my award. She shed a few tears – she was so proud!
The balconies were like ‘streets in the sky’ – teeming with life. We’d throw stuff up, down or across to each other. As the Sixties gave way to the Seventies, I recall music, hot summers and mums sunbathing topless together on the roof where the tenants hung their washing.
We kids enjoyed endless hours of play on the estate without our mums worrying where we were – so long as we were ‘out’. We just knocked for a friend.
In reality, there was a downside. Lifts were often broken, and sometimes smelt like a toilet. Many of us kids belonged to ‘single parents’ – and were frowned upon, but I was too young to understand about that.
Council nursery, council housing, state schooling and degrees we didn’t need loans for gave me a brilliant education and language skills that have taken me all over the world.
High-rise living is often viewed as a social experiment that went wrong, but for me, it couldn’t have been more right.