In the days either side of the iron curtain coming down, there was much commentary about Soviet style housing projects, derelict industries, urban decay and the like.

British Telecom satelite dishes, with high-rise housing in the background.

At the time, a few European friends I had used to tease me that the UK was the last iron curtain country – this was before Brit-pop and cool Britannia. When I recently dug out these old negatives, I began to see what they meant.