Stockton Test

Portrait of an innovative housing renewal scheme in Stockton-on-Tees - on which rests the future of many an urban slum.

From dirty slum to 'des res': this film is a portrait of an experimental housing renewal scheme in Stockton-on-Tees. Can Britain's stock of Victorian houses be modernised? Will indoor bathrooms and hot water transform these run-down terraces into modern homes? With some 4,000,000 UK houses lacking hot water, Allied Ironfounders set out to test the theory by renovating four properties on Alliance Street.

The results of the 'Stockton test' were keenly anticipated by local authorities and landlords across the country, and the future of many an urban slum rested on this question of renovation or redevelopment.