The Fascinating Homes of Creative Council Tenants (Eccentric Homes Documentary) | Real Stories

[Music] five million of us live in council houses with a reputation for being uniform drab and unappealing they often don't get a good rep but some people are refusing to be defined by their state-owned homes because it's a council flower what you're going to do i'm going to live here with six bull terriers and like watch jeremy carl all die what they don't want to see is man living in council house paints the renaissance it's like trailer trash meets the renaissance behind closed doors they're going to extraordinary lengths to break the mold and make a mark on the place they live in the ceiling i've got some latex rubber and i made some plastic casts out of it she said you can paint any color you like what i said like pink brilliant pink some british council tenants are transforming high-rise flats and concrete blocks into fantasy worlds private retreats and public displays please tell me if you like my garden where else in the entire planet you have a beautiful collection of big bean memorabilia welcome to britain's weirdest council houses even if you don't like what you're looking at you couldn't say it's not interesting forty years ago more than a third of us lived in council houses now it's less than ten percent [Music] in the 1980s the government gave tenants the right to buy their homes and two and a half million were sold off nearly all the houses in this brighton estate are now privately owned bobby let's go robert burns lives in one of the few still owned by the council his three-bedroom house costs him 107 pounds a week but he's not let the fact that he's a council tenant dampened his creative spirit [Music] these are all my renaissance paintings and they they're dotted throughout the house i painted them because i truly love them the originals are beautiful whether i get close to them or not i don't really know that's for others to say but i'm pleased with the result i think he's very talented don't you sometimes he's surprised just how he manages to get the picture right and it looks as good as the original robert first started his grand council house project 12 years ago it was never done to impress anybody else it was painted probably for my own vanity i don't know what always has pleased me is when certainly workmen come in they're absolutely astonished by this house i think linda and i could probably retire if we just opened it two or three days a week poppy doodle don't you get your hooters here robert's never been to italy nor seen the original 15th century art he loves to copy [Music] i discovered the italian renaissance by buying a book at a car boot sale in lewes just down the road here i was actually blown away by it was the genius of them the beauty of them it's just astonishing i was looking for renaissance pictures relating obviously to water there's very few of them but these ones seem to suffice that latin word there means arthouse for 20 years robert worked as a painter decorator but back then it was mostly just plain old magnolia painting and decorating per se is quite boring really i hadn't painted anything of an artistic nature at all you know my last art class would probably have been primary school when you just sloshed paint all over the place i didn't pick up a paintbrush until i was 53 years of age i've discovered say 20 or 30 years earlier i might have had a different career but as i say never look back always look forward [Music] unafraid of the modern in a spare bedroom robert's given the renaissance a contemporary twist so we've got jose mourinho painted in the style of leonardo da vinci the salvador wendy i.e the savior of the world then we've got wayne rooney painted in the style of francesco de zerbaran saint francis of assisi in meditation and of course there's me on the end there painted a few years ago would you like to paint them for real certainly i'd like to paint them for real i'd like them to buy the ones i've already done any phone calls yeah no but we live in constant hope [Music] whenever we sort of want a better word say pop your clogs it will revert to being a council house for somebody else whoever does move in will say oh well we'll have to get this painted out it's not everybody's taste i always jokingly say well they can maybe blue placket and buy it for the nation [Music] a hundred years ago there was no such thing as council houses and the poor were left living in slums it wasn't until after world war ii that the government began knocking down the vast slum estates and replacing them with state-owned homes and ever since then council houses have been providing a roof over the head of societies disadvantaged but not all those who you might expect end up in council houses i lived here um for over a year the rolling stones owned a house they had their office further along the road these are about the most expensive houses in chelsea throughout the 60 years she spent here in chelsea west london molly parkin has lived in some of the borough's most sought after houses i planted all this can't believe it's still there in 2002 at the age of 70 molly went bankrupt i lived here about 14 years and this was the family home i had two husbands different times here it was an expensive house to buy i can't begin to think how much it's worth now like a million wouldn't you say because of where it is 2 million 3 million in fact molly's old house is probably now worth well in excess of 5 million pounds she still lives in chelsea but in a place very different from anything before this is the world's end estate one of the country's highest density high-rise council estates this is my first floor [Music] i never thought i'd end up on a housing estate i was terrified because it had such a bad reputation molly moved to this first floor one-bedroom garden flat 14 years ago when they had offered it to me as somebody who was but totally bankrupt and over 70 i said what colour of the walls and she said white and i said i'm sorry darling i can't live in white walls both husbands ex-husbands insisted on white walls and i can't do it so i'm not coming even to see the flat but she said she was welsh and she said but molly she said you can paint any color you like what i said like pink brilliant pink oh she said that sounds lovely she said [Music] this is the world's end estate in chelsea west london when it was completed in 1977 it was derided by critics as a brutalist monstrosity its high crime rate and dense population have done little for its reputation molly parkin is one of the two and a half thousand people who call the estate home over her 83 years molly has lived in more than 30 different properties this is her first council house i always thought that you had to own and buy your own place and that's what i've done with many homes but you don't have to own the property [Music] she's transformed her council flat into something wholly unique she's even planted her own tropical garden and inside also every available space has had the molly treatment i love my bathroom i love the thought of sitting on the levee as long as it takes whether i'm passing things or not just sitting here because because it's only here when you're sitting that you do look at it all oh there's one see we got the [ __ ] there i think that was a good thing back in the day molly was one of the original it girls television personality erotic novelist painter fashion editor and general party girl there was barely a mover or shaker in bohemian london who molly hadn't got drunk with i don't see it as a life of hedonism i just was in the fast crowd rather than the slow crowd but it couldn't last forever and by 2002 she was a bankrupt alcoholic i then ended up in the homeless department i don't advise that to anybody it was the most appalling experience i've ever had i was offered here on the estate i regard it as the best of all of the places that i've lived in in london or indeed in the world this is my kitchen i use the kitchen as well for my painting when molly was in the depths of her alcoholism she was unable to paint i got rid of this right easy enough to do i mean all of this is equipment here brushes and paints and everything since moving into the flat and becoming teetotal she's found her muse and is once again a prolific artist see all paints my favorites and i put them there and then the board is there and the paper is on there and then i go like that when it comes to prices this one i've been towed not to sell that under 20 000 because it belongs in the tate but this one belongs in the tate as well [Music] each one was painted for a reason and when i look at them the reasons why i painted them come back into my life if the money if i sold them i'd only have the money wouldn't i molly's most cherished paintings are based on previous experiences this is an orgy and i used to pick them up in the different clubs that we used to go to and say you know i'm just organizing this orgy here if you want to join in which immediately people would say yes so that's what it represents he's very drawn to her posterior and she's about to get pleasured and these two have obviously got a friendship going on it's just a jolly evening really i mean i've had hundreds of lovers a cast of thousands really and i have loved that very much but in the end i'm a loner i think that all writers and poets and painters are really loners it's you and and uh your means of self-expression and this is a perfect flat for me perfect home everything is so close and my garden i live for my garden that is my lover you see i'm 83 now and i and i've lost many many people who were the most precious to me and i'd be really stupid if i didn't understand that i'm nearer at the end of my life than closer to the beginning of it and so i think that there was a nesting instinct in me like birds with their nests to choose the right place in which to die all of those homes that we saw this morning did none of them had this none of them had this [Music] 1970s britain was the decade of the high-rise tower block as the population soared local councils saw them as the perfect solution to the housing shortage in the space of just 10 years four and a half thousand high-rise towers like these ones in southampton were erected adrian riemann lives here on the 11th floor i love living here my wife loves the area there's a lovely beach along the front it's a council estate but but as far as council estates go it's very uh very nice living over here 65 year old adrian a former cabinet maker and joyner retired 10 years ago but he's never stopped working on his flat this is the lounge this is where i've done most of my work [Music] the ceiling i've got some latex rubber and i made some plastic us out of it i used a lot of brass all these bits along there are out of plugs you know the three-point plugs these are red cups here this clock i made there's a little drawer in the front a little brass drawer all these things these uh radiator keys i thought that would look quite nice you know he's managed to completely restyle his flat for less than 2000 pounds a lot of the stuff i haven't paid for at all i've sort of rescued out skips or being given that you know [Music] adrian and his wife have lived together in the flat for 30 years a lot of people say well do you own your flat and i said well no but i've got nobody to leave it to own any children or anything why have you spent so much time and money on it i said well i live in it you know i want to live in a nice flat i couldn't live in a place that i couldn't improve when you sit there and you look around and you think i used to set anything i could make that look really nice i just wanted to do it to please myself i suppose you know the bathroom took me the longest out of all the rooms about three months probably on and off you know i wanted to use a lot of mirrors because it's such a small room and it opens it up it's nice to have a bath in here and see the back of your head with all these mirrors council tower blocks like these have never had a good rep according to a recent poll less than one percent of us would choose to live in a tower before a house adrian riemann is the exception to the rule he pays just 90 pounds a week for his 11th floor council flat but he's turned it into one of britain's most extraordinary properties i've been doing it for about 25 years in between jobs so that's why it's taken so long i've usually been employed adrian's uniquely styled flat was designed and built entirely by his own hand and his inspiration comes from his former life as a sailor i was 20 years at sea first trip i did to see was on this six-month tanker the next trip i got after that was the queen mary and i'd loved it on there it was a wonderful ship everything was done in art deco i love art deco and yeah i just loved it on the ship adrian hasn't been to sea for 30 years but the cruise ship golden age has left its mark i do think the queen area has influenced me i've got a really good memory i could see a design in 20 years ago and still remember the way the design looked i've been on 70 different ships most people will stay on the same ship all their lives but i had to keep moving all the time you know it's not because i've been incapable of doing the work is that i just don't fit in i've never fitted in anywhere you know i've been to doctors for years and i didn't know what was wrong with me i knew there was someone else and then i found out that i've got asperger's syndrome and i thought no wonder it didn't fit in i always thought i was a terrible person but when i found out i had that i thought there was a reason for why i couldn't do all these things you know [Music] i love bangkok van gogh was mentally ill i've read books where they've said van gogh did have asperger's syndrome which is a sort of social illness you know these people are fine when they're left on their own they can be very clever they've got the eye for it whereas you take them to a party they'll sit in the corner and not talk to anybody is that like you a bit like me yeah the flat second bedroom has become adrian's workshop and sanctuary i reckon i've spent more time in this room than any other room in the house i couldn't do it if i wasn't the way i was i can spend hours and hours doing something detailed and silly i didn't intend it to be so intricate but once i started i couldn't stop it's the happiest i've ever been living here i mean i think we'll live here until they pull the blocks down which they threaten to do years ago and i have moved somewhere else and probably do the same to that in the 60s and 70s more than 2 million new council houses were required but not all were new builds some local councils had a program of buying existing properties in low cost and undesirable areas like this flat in a victorian terraced house in central london look at the cushions one asleep there you all squashing them sit off sit off david hodge lives here with his photographer husband mark i've got 19 questions on this page and he has a very precise notion of how his council house should look it kind of really irritates me when people squash them kind of thanks nice and cozy people assume that because it's a council flat what what you're gonna do you're gonna live here with six bull terriers and like watch jeremy carl all die not everyone's like that david moved into the flat 19 years ago while working as a care worker on a low income do you tell people that you live in a council family yes yeah i tell people that this is cancer that's nothing to be ashamed about living in a council flat usually they're jealous the first thing people ask because this is such a fantastic location is well how much is that then zone one beautiful really nice area up and coming with every amenity within 50 feet of our door we currently pay 140 pounds a week between us on the private market renting a two-bedroom flat similar to this would cost around 600 pounds a week my mom had come from a very poor background so she always had kind of like high ambitions even though she came from absolutely nothing really house proud mom and she likes quite grand things that's what i've inherited from her everything has to be very particular everything nice i would describe this flat as liberace on a budget it's tacky it's over the top it's ostentatious it's slightly vulgar i know i haven't got what most people would define as good taste taste to me is absolutely irrelevant and it's like art you either like it or you don't david's husband mark moved in two years ago i think it's tacky it's not my taste at all but we do have a polar opposite taste in everything really so my flat would look like david's hell which is like a white tube everything in white or gray or black mark would have the flap very minimal everything would be very neat everything would be very tidy and very very boring you see people living like that and they think they've got the most amazing taste i'm so chic look at my beautiful modern apartment doesn't reflect them doesn't reflect them at all doesn't reflect their interests at least this flat has a connection to me in the late 90s david found fame as dusty oh becoming one of london's most successful drag artists and djs i've dj'd at all of the big guy clubs really doing really high profile things like for versace and grace jones pet shop boys elton john tj at the first guy pride festival in johannesburg and like to brazil and everywhere i went to 27 countries in 18 months [Music] two years ago david hung up his dress and retired his alter ego i don't have a rock and roll existence anymore i used to i used to spend a fortune and make a fortune as well but i don't know david now makes a living as an artist selling his paintings on the internet luckily i can make a few quid on the paintings i make enough to live modestly on i've got really nice balance in my life and he's found another use for his flat as a studio for husband mark i often get asked by drag queens and burlesque people if they can use the flap for photo shoots it does lend itself to that kind of photography and that's brilliant because that's what mark is good at so pretend that someone's there sleeping sleeping and you'll be sort of haunting them it's very good at making men look like you ladies do more scary yeah that's good been here 19 years paid my taxes paid my bills never signed on so yeah i do think i've got a right to pay what we pay because we contribute [Music] not all of the uk social housing is run by councils themselves around 50 is managed by housing associations private non-profit making organizations that provide low-cost housing for people in need of a home like jam imani rad it's my friend hello originally from iran jam has lived here in preston hello for the last 14 years preston is full of nice people that's my place that's where i live come in i have to take my shoes off jam's 70 pound a week one bedroom flat isn't big but it's totally functional this part is a disco sometimes i dance in the morning [Music] i always spend a little bit of time every day literally on the house it's important the place you live it has to reflect how you see the world and i like a house with lots of colors i know you may think this is mumbo jumbo what is the love i put in this house you can see every corner of it it reflects how i felt in that time when i created it up until 1982 jam was working in his mother country as a journalist iran was such a nice country but we wanted to have a better country after the mullahs came to power they make people a frightened disaster he soon became an enemy of the new regime for writing some books i got into trouble i did get three times death penalty i did not go to the courts i was on my way to escape from the country jam escaped to europe where he lived for 20 years in 2003 he got a job in the uk and was entitled to apply for social housing [Music] safe from oppression in his council house jam is free to express himself creativity means life creativity is the proof that you are here you're still alive and you can use your talent and creativity that is what i do up until two years ago jam was working as a yoga teacher when i became retired suddenly we got plenty of time and i never did gardening before in my life this was the first time and gardening is very addictive when they start to grow you start finding connection between the things you have created look at my sunflowers they are taller than me aren't they nice from just a little seat look what has look is it not wonderful i think no it's gone to almost 6 000 pounds altogether i spent this is the biggest guitar in preston i have not anymore saving the bag but for jam the money's been well spent planted on a plot of land between his front door and a busy street the garden has become something of a local attraction please tell me if you like my garden i met many new friends interesting people that i don't think without this garden i would have had a chance to meet those people the garden has created a friendship between us hello girls [Music] do you like my garden [Music] they all like it yes thank you so much but not everyone in preston is so enamored with jam's garden the land he's built it on isn't actually his but communal land under the care of his housing association gateway you know it's easy if you own the house you can do anything you like why should only rich men have gardens the poor man also should have garden jam was never granted permission to plant the garden and there's been an ongoing battle between the two for the last three years i don't know why gateway wants to destroy it it's not doing any harm to anybody the housing association claims the heavy stone statues are a public health risk jam thinks they have a more prudish agenda i'll show you what really upsets them this statue they say this danger to public because the boobs are naked they are not covered and that has pornographic effect now this is the other things they still say it has to move even though we cover it we cover the boobs just let me have a quick look if they are still there yes gateway hasn't formally complained about the lack of clothing but the dispute shows no sign of dying down yesterday jam received a letter this is the letter from gateway threatening letter action required remove the statues and remove the outside wiring there are some cables i have done but there is no electricity in it if legal action is necessary we will also seek an order that you pay our costs do you see that they know how much i'm earning and you're not gonna remove the statues no definitely not how would i feel about myself i would feel like [ __ ] if i if i just say yes sir no sir how about the principle in life you also have some principles some moral for jam the best form of defense is to go shopping oh look at this one oh we cannot have this one because of this for a gateway a disaster the good things about this is it has no boobs the gateway hosting association really upsetting me so i had options i could start disliking them and hating them or i could plant a tree every time they upset me people say after you die you go to heaven and hell and what's a nonsense when you die is over game over is finished so let's celebrate it let's enjoy it this single life you have and garden gave me that joy i was looking for the sandsfield estate in south wales was built in the 50s to house workers from the nearby steel plant [Music] thank you drive see you again right yeah the best tip take care barry kirk has lived here in port talbot for the last 35 years [Music] and although it's his home it's dominated by a unique collection welcome to the big bean museum of excellence [Music] he's turned his two-bedroom flat into the world's only museum of baked beans barry gives tours of his flat dressed as his superhero alter ego captain beanie captain beanie from planet penis everybody up up and away and be the full school behind you barry spent 6 000 pounds creating the museum i got in touch with the wheels tourist board and i said excuse me but i am a tourist attraction because everybody phones me up and said i'd like to see the museum and they said okay then so they contrived this certificate to prove i am a recognized wheels tourist board tourist attraction i love living in a council flat because i made it for my own purpose it's not everybody's cup of tea but to me it's a visual concept i'm very pleased before the flat became a museum barry lived here for 12 years with the rest of his family it was just a normal living room um adorned with household effects you know we had the television over there we had the three-piece suite dining tables and everything at the time it was myself and my mother and my younger brother and basically we were just living here happy and content as larry and um when they moved out and my mother passed away i decided to take over the flat and do it in my own inimitable way in the beginning the council were written reticent to think that i converted a front room into a bigby museum i did have one official year to say you can't have this at the other because they were a bit worried about car loads coming your coaches coming here to see me on drawers but despite their concern neath port talbot council hasn't yet had to lay on extra parking how many visitors have you had all together do you want me to come to my hand perhaps surprisingly barry's flat is not the only council house in the uk that doubles up as a museum the other is in rayleigh essex the dutch cottage is home to art gallery curator faye laflin i'm immensely proud of my council house i have what i call tidy up tuesday i who've put away any personal belongings or things that are of great value and generally make the house look less like it's my hope my personal space and make it look really presentable there's one condition tied to the 95 pounds a week rent the cottage is also a living museum and every wednesday afternoon faye must give personal tours of her 400 square foot cottage to members of the public [Music] hello come in come in oh dear the rain no it's fine are you sure yes it is quite strange that you would be allowing the public into your house into your personal space to the right is the bathroom it's sweet and then on your left is the kitchen i love this i think it works well it does people do want to open cupboard doors um children generally want to open my wardrobe and i have had children bouncing around on my bed the house was built 250 years ago and it was privately owned until 1954 when the owner gifted it to the council on condition the local landmark could become an official tourist attraction back in victorian times there was actually 10 people that lived here all at the same time so there was a mom a dad seven children and a lodger can you imagine that boy 10 people all living here together at the same time where did they all sleep i i don't think they slept very well the port talbot bake bean museum's roots don't go back quite so far as you can see i'm well oiled just to make sure that the baked bean sauce doesn't quite stick to me it all started in 1986 when barry kirk attempted a new world record i think we are fighting fit the bean-a-thon was a sponsored um record attempt to get into the guinness book of records for us to have 100 hours in the bath a big cold baked beans mine so everybody took it in turns over to the beans and pour it over my chest there we are no pain no gain it totally changed my life captain beanie was created out of his bath of beans [Applause] i was totally shattered totally shot dead that's my late mother oh it makes me feel so uh so emotional now like she was ever so proud of me as well and uh even to this day people always say like you know your mother would have been proud of you son oh bless in 1990 his mom fell ill with cancer barry took early redundancy so he could care for her she passed away in 1997. i was 40 45 and she was 76. and i still miss her she's the biggest part in my uh my life as mothers and sons are and uh yeah and um i wish she was you know sorry about that alone in the flat barry immersed himself in his baked bean fantasy world somebody said people when they go through a bereavement they offset that bereavement not to face it and i guess i did this big museum to alleviate the bereavement [Music] eventually barry got back on his feet he threw himself at his charity work running marathons recording songs and performing stunts i got involved with charity fundraising because i had so much basically the love for it i literally adapted my wackiness believe it or not for charitable purposes if it wasn't for charity i'd probably end up in a funny farm by now been been in a psychiatric ward do you think you'll always be captain beanie yeah i thought i was going to knock it on the head when it was 40. i was in a knock coupling being here doing i'm 50 and here we are at the age of 60 still going strong i'm thinking further down the line pushed around in a wheelchair an orange one at that you know and they're old folks home and they still be there pushing a wheelchair in my cape and superhero costume don't break that [Music] i have to wear a suit today i have to make myself more beautiful today jam has been summoned to preston county court for the court you have to be presentable the judge will decide how to go forward with the legal proceedings between him and his housing association i have to keep my beard up here they allege that jan planted his garden without permission and the statues he erected are a public health risk [Music] jam has chosen to attend without a solicitor we do have good judges in this country that's what makes this country a wonderful country is nothing like you're going to go to iran sometime i have backflash of what went on in the court in iran they were not very nice experiences but still i have not digested in the late 70s jam was working as a journalist in his mother country of iran when the islamic revolution broke out jam found himself on the front line i was working with itn attending the courts the whole court did not take more than three minutes in three minutes they decided whether the person should be executed or he can leave and usually if they say okay go to the right means he was lucky and go to the left means execution right afterwards unfortunately not many people got to the right and i had to film this executions and so i had to photograph those events sometimes and sometimes i talked to them they allowed me to talk and i knew a few minutes later he is going to be in front of fire squad it was not nice and i was seeing all these people that i was talking to them in the morning and they didn't exist in the afternoon [Music] after two hours in the courtroom a compromise has been reached jam has signed an order promising not to make any more alterations to his garden until the case goes to court again later in the year the judge said if you are not a good boy we will seize your assets you don't have much asset but okay and we put you in prison this is fine let's see what will happen maybe part of me is a troublemaker so maybe i cannot blame all to the gateway so i think it's a blood of rebellion if you like is also inside me are you not a little bit worried that you're going too far now no no it's becoming even more interesting no definitely not so i see you bye [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Real Stories

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Keywords: Real Stories, Real Stories Full Documentary, Real Stories Documentary, Full length Documentaries, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, full documentary, real world, informative, free documentaries, Britains Weirdest Council Houses, molly parkin, Robert Burns, Sistine Chapel, captain beany port talbot, captain beany blind date, Jam Imani Rad, gaudi council home, adrian freeman, amazing people, amazing stories

Id: RtgIvWxZUwM

Length: 45min 33sec (2733 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 28 2022