Urban Maps

[Filuwaúrdjan]

So, I had this very bad idea: why not have a thread for maps (of elections, demographics, whatever... past or present, from anywhere on the planet, potentially) of cities and other urban areas?

So I present unto you, housing types in the Great City of Birmingham:



Figures are from the 2011 census, the geographical units used are purely statistical.*

Across the city, the totals were: Semis 34.7%, Terraced 29.4%, Purpose-Built Flats 20.4%, Detached 10.9%, Converted Flats 3.3% and some smaller categories that I've not mapped.

Dominant Type: the darker colours indicate a majority of housing, the lighter a plurality. The map demonstrates that even after nearly seventy years of redevelopment of one sort or another, housing patterns in Brum remain firmly concentric, even if the buildings that once typified particular rings are long gone.

Semi-Detached: almost all of this is twentieth century housing, and it's mostly privately built as well, though there are important exceptions on some outer council estates. The area with the highest concentration is in the north west of the city (Perry Barr, Oscott et al), specifically the suburb of Perry Beeches which top scores (heh) with 83.8%. Other areas with very high concentrations include Yardley, Hodge Hill proper (which really stands out) and Hall Green. Lowest concentrations are in the city centre because, obviously.

Terraces: mostly these are products of the late 19th century (when Britains first - though extremely limited - housing regulations happily coincided with a desire amongst skilled workers to get the hell out of Birmingham's notorious back-to-back courts), but there's also a substantial amount of twentieth century council housing in this category as well. The area with the highest concentration is Bournbrook in the south of the city (built for workers, now a student ghetto) which is part of a generally high concentration; in the huge belt of by-law housing that stretches from Washwood Heath, through Saltley, Small Heath and Sparkbrook; and a similar belt from Winson Green through Gib Heath, Lozells, and Aston. Shard End and Fox Hollies are notable examples of council estates with very high levels of terraced housing. Lowest levels are in the city centre (duh) and in Sutton Coldfield (double duh). Newer suburbs in Yardley as well, which is slightly more interesting.

Purpose-Built Flats: the majority of these were built in the second half of the twentieth century and as council housing, often high rise (there's much less of the latter than twenty years ago, incidentally). But, as in other Western cities, there are now other types of flats-built-as-flats, and they're often very new: the newer type of student housing (which is often private sector), and flats for young professional types. Note that much of the very high concentrations in the city centre are actually social housing still, even if that's (obviously) where most of the yuppie flats bist. The geographical patterns regarding that are interesting and will be brought to you very soon (perhaps). Lowest concentrations are generally where the highest concentrations of Semis are.

Detached: mostly twentieth century bourgeois suburbia, but also those big 19th century villas that haven't been broken up yet. Highest concentrations are in Sutton Coldfield because of course they are. Houses such as these are where The Man lives and in Brum The Man lives in Sutton Coldfield. Note also the old belt of Victorian Villadom centred on Edgbaston. Lowest concentrations in the city centre, council estates and random bits of Semi-dominated suburbia.

Flats in Converted Houses: not a major factor in most of the city, but there are high concentrations in places. Mostly places where Victorian Villadom has surrendered to (down)market forces. In the case of Moseley (the area with the highest concentration) this included being next door to Balsall Heath, which was the biggest Red Light District in the Midlands for decades.

_{*Mid level Super Output Areas in the unlikely event that you're interested. Birmingham's electoral wards are too large to give anything more than an overview of things.}

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Nice.  How did you draw the blank SOA map?

A very steady hand and dear old MS Paint.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Forgot to mention: presumably old people's homes etc. would also come under the purpose built flats, explaining some of the odd patterns in seemingly middle class suburbs. etc.

(and one or another hint on how certain socio-demographic patterns affect voting will also be appreciated - I might come up with qualified guesses myself, but each country and even each city is ultimately special).

An issue with that kind of thing in Britain is the lack of results by polling division (and worse: for General Elections there aren't even results by ward), which means a certain lack of precision. You can extrapolate to an extent from local election results, and in 2010 there were local elections on the same day as the General Election. But, alas, Birmingham is notorious for divergent electoral patterns.

Very quick map of parliamentary majorities (2010 election) using the standard scale thing:

Maps of city council elections on the same day, which ought to give some indication, but really not that reliable in parts of the city, and there's also the problem of the Tories and LibDems deliberately running dead in wards where the other is strong: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/GALLERY/8_17_05_10_2_31_27.PNG

Maps of low turnout elections:

2011 city council elections: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/GALLERY/8_22_05_11_10_52_37.PNG
2009 euro elections: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/GALLERY/8_13_12_09_2_51_03.PNG
2008 city council elections: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/GALLERY/8_19_09_08_2_54_47.PNG

[Filuwaúrdjan]

2010 General Election results (percentage majorities) in London.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Housing types in Sheffield:



The same level of statistical geography has been used as for Brum. Figures across the city: Semis 36.4, Terraced 27.3, Purpose-Built Flats 18.9, Detached 14.3, Converted Flats 2.1, and then others.

A lot of patterns very similar to Birmingham, but note that area in the south east of the city with very high figures for detached homes is a predominantly working class area.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

That's the Mosborough Townships.  They're essentially a bit like a New Town, but built contiguously with older areas of the city and with the city boundaries extended to include the area.  Much of the development was in the 1980s.

The area was basically pit villages until then IIRC: N.E. Derbyshire CLP were less than happy about losing the area.

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Yes, and the highest in the terraced category is also majority student (though not super majority).

Elsewhere, as you know, the flats are mostly council built. And as in Birmingham the map would have looked very different a few decades back.

Probably this is the point to mention Park Hill.

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One interesting difference between housing patterns in the two cities is the higher proportion of Semis on council estates in Sheffield.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Is the pattern similar now?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

From the late 50s or early 60s.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Housing types in Manchester:



Note that the City of Manchester includes a much smaller part of the wider city than the cities of Brum or Sheffield do. Due to an accident of history it doesn't even include the entire inner city (part is in Salford).

But, anyway, certain similar concentric patterns can be observed again: flats in the city centre (a mixture of new flats for young professionals and council built stuff), by-law terraces, and suburban semis (with - again - a significant proportion of suburban council houses being terraced).

One unusual feature, though, is the complete collapse of villadom: basicall all those big nineteenth century houses in Manchester have been converted into flats (or whatever) as the sort of people who once lived in them have completely abandoned the city proper. The highest percentages of detached houses - and these are still rather low - are in the Wythenshawe estate, south of the Mersey. Which is telling.

It's also worth mentioning that one of Manchester's inner city districts, Hulme, has one of the most complicated housing histories in Britain. There's a decent introduction to that here.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Sure: I can do a whole set of tenure maps if you want.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I was thinking of Bristol fairly soon, yes. A different sort of large city.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Bristol:



Bristol is a different sort of big city to those done previously: it's older - as a major urban area at least - and is considerably more prosperous. Sort of like the London of the West Country or something. Large parts of the built up area are outside city limits. Hilarious local accent, incidentally.

Anyway, most of the patterns are probably familiar by this point - though it's worth noting that some of the highest rates of Semis in Bristol are council estates - but the number of converted flats is far higher. And notably the extremely high concentrations are not quite in student territory (though there's an overlap) but genuinely upscale districts.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Wait, the Fingal boundaries are from the 1990s?! What's the excuse for them then?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Special new tenure key:



Outright, Mortgaged, Social, Private

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Tenure in Manchester. Comparisons with housing type patterns might be fun.

Anyway, across the city: Social Renting 31.6%, Private Renting 26.9%, Mortgaged 22.6%, Owned Outright 15.2%.*

_{*And lots of smaller categories (shared ownership, rent free, private renting not involving a landlord or letting agency, etc) as well.}

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I have no idea, but the highest concentrations nationally are on military bases, I think.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Households

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Housing in London. By ward. I am sane.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Do you mean the building as a building, the building as a social project, or what's been done with it recently?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Why not comment on all three aspects?

As a building I love it, must admit. As a social project I take the view that it ultimately failed but because the political, social and economic grounds on which it was built fell away rather than because it was seriously misconceived: Park Hill only became a sh!thole after the economy of Sheffield collapsed at the same time as the residualisation of council housing (i.e. the early 1980s). Many of the problems with 50s/60s high rise housing were consciously averted by those that planned Park Hill, which is why what eventually happened counts as a tragedy. I'm highly ambivalent about recent developments.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Of course the early 80s thing is a feature even of big council housing developments that were not so well planned. I think it was Richard Titmuss who said that a service for the poor will always be a poor service (if not it's the kind of thing he would have said), and that's the issue right there. The idea that council housing ought to be for 'the poor' was not policy until then. I take a slightly unorthodox view that this policy shift of the Thatcher government was more damaging that Right To Buy.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Some maps of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which has been in the news recently.

White ethnic groups*



Asian ethnic groups**



Black ethnic groups



<sub>*Also included the Jewish figure from the religion census. So not only is that map not exclusive of the others, but there's a comparative undercount.

**Actually Arabs are technically listed under 'other', but whateversky.</sub>

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Pretty. Are these the sort of patterns that you would expect? I mean, in terms of details (obviously they are in general terms).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Housing types - by ward this time because this is a wider geographical area - for the whole of the West Midlands metropolitan 'county'.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

And the same for Greater Manchester.