Happy at Home: Living in the Midlands

Famous Midlander Samuel Johnson wrote in 1750: ""To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution." Housing in the Midlands in the 1980s was in a state of flux. The tower blocks of the 1960s and 1970s were in disrepair and would start to come down by the end of the decade. The Housing Act 1980 gave council tenants the 'Right to Buy' their houses from local authorities. By 1990, 1.5 million council houses had been sold, and more people than ever owned their own homes - aspiration was in the air. This collection invites you into the living rooms of the 1980s home, to be a guest in a series of distinctive spaces, from simple prefab to luxury villa. The people you'll meet have one thing in common: their homes are places where they can be at ease and be themselves - be happy.