The Tower Blocks- Our Blocks project is running a free research morning at Historic Environment Scotland on Monday 24th October 2016. There will be a series of workshops to provide an introduction to the collections in the archive, and guidance on how to research the history of buildings in Scotland with a focus on local history and housing. Participants will then come out to Wester Hailes to take part in a social history walk to look at the area’s history and the story of the tower blocks in Wester Hailes. The day is open to anyone and places can be booked through this link: Housing History Day. The event is free but places are limited so booking is essential.
Tower Blocks- Our Blocks is creating an interactive visual archive of Britain’s multi storey public housing with the aim of recording every tower block built including those that have already been demolished. In Wester Hailes they have been working with the Our Place In Time partnership to access photos from the Sentinel archive which are shared weekly on the From There To Here Facebook page. The project is being run by the Edinburgh College of Art and recently received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help digitise photographs and support local outreach initiatives which encourage high-rise residents to tell their stories, and aid them in telling community histories.
