A team from the University of Kent is carrying out a research project looking at how covid restrictions over the past 16 months have affected the way residents of Dalby Square in Cliftonville use their homes.
The team, headed by architecture lecturer Dr Ambrose Gillick, have launched a survey and would like to hear from residents about how their home lives have been over the last year and a half, and how-or if- they have been affected by the lockdowns.
Dr Gillick said: “The answers we are looking for are honest ones. They don’t have to be any great length or amount of detail, just people’s experiences, expressed as they see fit.
“The aim is to understand the effects of the pandemic and lockdown, particularly on home life and how homes were used and how lives were changed.
“We plan on following this survey later in the summer with a public event in Dalby Square which will hopefully include a small installation and display.”
Dalby Square is in a designated Conservation Area which comprises of groups of very large terraced houses fronting a central garden. All properties were built in the late 1800s. However, the area is also in the fourth most deprived local authority sub-ward in England – Cliftonville West – out of 34,844 such areas, where adult male life expectancy is 18 years lower than the county’s least deprived ward.
The Conservation Area is made up of 85% privately rented properties, mostly owned by absentee landlords and it has a highly transient population: 60% of the residents stay in area for less than a year.
The survey consists of 10 questions on the project website at https://research.kent.ac.uk/dalbysquare/
