Britain on Film tonight at 8.30pm on BBC Four offers a fascinating glimpse into life in Bristol in the 1960s, when the city’s skyline was transformed by 50 residential tower blocks.
Using archive Rank Organisation footage from the time, a voiceover talks about the “homes of the future” with “roomy balconies and sunny pleasant aspects”, centrally situated with easy access to lifts, shops, schools and places of entertainment.
Residents paid 10 shillings a week to park their car in a garage, and each flat had a caretaker whose job it was to organise the laundry rota “so the housewives know when it’s their turn”.
