WITH its homes in the sky, Millbrook Towers has become a familiar landmark on the city skyline it has dominated for half a century.

Rising 240ft into the air, Millbrook Towers, the 25-storey block of flats built by the Southampton Corporation in Windermere Avenue, was celebrated as not just the highest structure in the city, but also one of the tallest blocks in the south of England when it was officially opened by the city’s Mayor, Councillor Mrs Elsie Willcock JP, on May 5, 1965.

Offering residents wonderful, sweeping views across the city, the archetypal 1960s construction was seen as the answer to Southampton’s growing housing headache.

In the post-war era of the 1950s there was a desperate need for new housing and planners saw the Millbrook estate as a breakthrough in modern living, offering homes with all the conveniences of a self-contained community.

Millbrook Towers was central to this scheme described, at the time, as: “Designed to become essentially urban, the estate will have something of the spaciousness and graciousness of a model village.”

Weighing a total of 20,000 tons (without the live weight of residents and their furniture), Millbrook Towers, which cost £342,150 to construct, started to take shape when the first piles were driven in on May 3 1963, with the construction time from raft to roof level taking just nine and a half months.

Daily Echo:

Then-Mayor of Southampton Elsie Willcock opens Millbrook Towers

Building the giant was a mammoth task in itself, as workmen used 17,000 cubic yards of concrete, 300 tons of steel reinforcement, 300,000 bricks and 19,000 breeze blocks – and that was all before the 3,888 rolls of wallpaper were rolled out to cover the 144 flats.

When Mayor Willcock addressed those present at the official opening she said the imposing block bore testimony to the foresight of the housing committee and city council and the professional and technical skill of all concerned.

She hoped that the block, which was aptly named Millbrook Towers as it dominated the 4,000 council houses over the Millbrook estate, would be the catalyst for similar schemes to help the council combat the housing problem as the Corporation continued to create housing to meet the demand for it in the city.

The Mayor said it was appropriate that the ceremony should be performed by a woman because a home meant so much more to a woman than a man.

She mentioned 40 workmen and their wives had been invited to the ceremony and also members of the technical staff and their wives from the Civic Centre.

They must all be feeling proud of the result of their work. The mayor congratulated the builders Mr Miller and his men for erecting such a fine building and the architects for their initial work in the project.

She hoped sincerely that the families who would live in the block would be happy and would live not as separate units in their little flats but as one happy community living together in peace and harmony.