Divis Flats had been built as replacement for old Victorian streets which had been classified as slum housing and which were in need of being cleared and rebuilt in the 1960s. While residents were unhappy to lose the sense of community in those streets, there was little doubt that the new high rising accommodation was a step upwards – initially.
Across the whole of the United Kingdom it soon became apparent that high rise developments of the 1960s brought their own problems – both societal and structural, in terms of the quality of building employed. By 1980 there were already plans to redevelop Divis and this edition of Counterpoint seeks out the opinions of the stakeholders, including the residents themselves.