What it's like, living in a high-rise tower block during the lockdown

“I usually look outside my window and it’s packed – with buses, kids, people, town. Now there’s nothing.”

Annette Strain lives on the 11th floor of a tower block in Miles Platting.

The changing view from her high-rise flat as the lockdown takes hold of the city has been one of the more disconcerting aspects of this strange time, she says. 

Before the social distancing measures were introduced, Annette, aged 56, was always out and about, often volunteering in a local food bank.

Now, like everyone else, she’s been cooped up indoors for the past seven weeks.

Lockdown has proven challenging for everyone, but tower block residents say they’ve found the period particularly hard. 

Many residents live alone with limited access to communal spaces and say that the prolonged time indoors has exacerbated feelings of isolation.

“I’ve not seen my neighbours since lockdown started,” Annette said.

“My next door neighbour went to stay with her grand-daughter.

“You’re passing people in the block but you’re not socialising with them because you’ve got to keep your distance.

“In one flat, you can’t do what you want. There’s nowt to do. People are bored.

"You need other people to occupy your mind,” she says.

Tower block residents have already had a difficult few years.

The tragedy of Grenfell Tower in 2017 saw many high-rise tenants fear for their safety in their homes.

Across the country, many had to fight to get combustible cladding removed from their buildings.

The lockdown only brings with it more stresses and strains for residents, many of whom are vulnerable and require additional support.

One woman in her 60s, who wanted to remain anonymous, said of her Manchester block: “It’s difficult. There’s nowhere to go.

"We don’t have gardens but the communal benches don’t get cleaned.”

She said that there are many vulnerable people living in her block, but that the building’s management hadn’t reached out – a common concern among residents the Local Democracy Reporting Service spoke to.

“If you need food parcels – ‘please contact us’ – we’ve not a bit of that. I’ve had to organise it all myself for a friend.

"I can’t get help off anybody – it’s like talking to a brick wall.

“My family don’t live near me so I can’t rely on them. It has made my panic a lot worse.

"It will take me a long time to get out and about again,” she said.

Many residents say that the architecture of their buildings only serves to heighten their sense of isolation.

Alongside two other local residents, Chris and Ann, Tina has been working on a ‘Top of the World’ project that encourages tower block inhabitants to get onto their balconies and socialise.

Balcony bingos, social distanced discos and singalongs are just some of the activities that the trio have come up with to keep residents in contact with one another.

She said the face-to-face contact – albeit from a safe distance – has been hugely important for residents, many of whom are on the shielded list and haven’t left their homes in nearly two months.

“The response was overwhelming to be honest. People were just so made up. They were so lonely,” she said.

“People don’t realise the impact it’s had on the elderly. In the early days of the virus people were saying ‘if you’re older, you know…. it feels like you’re a problem’”

“I spoke to one woman on the phone, her voice had gone because she’d not spoken to anyone for so long.”

There’s also a financial dimension to the inequality of the lockdown, says Annette, who says she feels particularly sorry for anyone who is stuck indoors with their kids.

“If you’ve got the kids, what can they do?" said Annette.

"Half the parents haven’t got the money to fork out for games and trampolines for them.

"They’re more isolated than us because they don’t understand what’s going on.”

And she believes that if the government had acted quicker with the lockdown, the measures might have been able to be eased sooner.

Although she said she’s been keeping herself busy in her one-bedroom flat, the lack of face-to-face contact has been hard.

“It’s all on the phone, not eye-to-eye.

"You don’t know how long it’s going to go on for and, it’s just… it’s all a bit strange, isn’t it?”

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