h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Tourists may know London for it's palaces and museums, for its shops and theatres, for its river and its bridges, but like any large city, it has less affluent areas housing the ordinary folks - the workers who keep it running and who spark life into it.

Yesterday's fire at a London tower block has upset a lot of folks in the capital. It's brought back (on a smaller scale, admittedly) the horrors of 9-11, to watch those helpless folks trapped. I've been avoiding TV news - reading about it on the BBC website is bad enough.

I'm in an office a few miles across the city, but the atmosphere is subdued. We don't know what caused the fire, but we know that any cause has to be scandalous. We don't know how many people perished, but we know that there will be dozens.

As I travel in on the train I see the ‘Brutalist’ high-rise concrete blocks for miles in all directions. They were built to house a population displaced after the Second World War, as well as those affected by slum clearances. Sometimes a single block stands proud; sometimes they’re in a community cluster of four or five.

I don’t think I could live that high up. I don’t enjoy heights at all, even if the views are amazing. I’d miss the nature and the greenery outside my window. For those that do, I applaud the way they’ve adapted to (what is to me) a very strange way of life, and all its risks. I remember the odd fire occurring from time to time at a tower block - usually confined to a few flats - but nothing like this.

We saw the news from over here yesterday. That's terrifying.

Being in a fire is bad enough - but losing everything you own is a more long-term problem. I suspect a lot of those folks didn't have good insurance, either. When my apartment caught fire (okay, when my cooking set it on fire), renters' insurance took care of repairs, replacements, cleaning, etc. I hope somebody's collecting pots and pans and blankets and baby stuff.

The US used to have a lot of these low-income high rises. I think they're gradually being replaced, because to be safe, a high-rise building needs the kind of constant maintenance you're unlikely to get unless the tenants have clout.

The high-rise ones they build today are for the wealthy. There are many going up in Battersea, particularly. Most aren't as tall as these 1960s monoliths, but they would still be at risk of fire. It doesn't matter how plush your lift or lobby is, then.

Amen.

I was going to mention the T**** Tower.

In the fifties, Hong Kong built a lot of highrise housing for refugees from the Communist takeover of the mainland.

I mentioned the affluent high-rise development going up in Battersea. Here's a link:

(Pink Floyd fans look away now)

http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2015/09/16/bouygues-tipped-for-600m-battersea-station-phase-3/

(Pink Floyd fans look here instead to see some pics of the Battersea area from 1985. )

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For me, Battersea always conjures up images of enormous pancakes being made....