Wholesome Dwellings is an exceptional account of housing provision in a specific urban setting – Oxford. There are many features to commend it. Stunning contemporary maps, colourful estate plans and architectural illustrations in addition to atmospheric contemporary photographs and modern images each provide an attractive visual basis for this deeply researched account of the form and character of modern housing in Oxford. The overarching story of inter-war private and public housebuilding is fairly well understood these days, and Malcolm Graham shows how local tensions, vested interests and political intrigue shaped the distinctive character of housing in Oxford. He builds into his account the transformative impact of a major industrial enterprise – the Morris car plant – and the divisive impact of residential segregation between public and private housing, most notably the infamous case of the ‘Cutteslowe Walls’, where two roads between estates were blocked with high brick walls.

With forty figures and tables, Wholesome Dwellings provides a wealth of new research material for local historians. There is much to digest as a result. In fact, with many local places mentioned – Cowley, Barton, London, Ferry Hinksey, Croft and Campbell Roads, as well as Rose Hill, St Ebbe’s, Stockmore Street, and dozens more – this book will have a strong appeal for local residents. This is particularly because Malcolm Graham explains when Oxford’s neighbourhoods developed and how they relate to each other chronologically and visually.

If the centre of gravity of Wholesome Dwellings is inter-war housing, there is a clear recognition from the outset that housing policy and the inter-war subsidy arrangements were themselves the products of nineteenth-century socio-economic conditions. Graham maintains (p. 9) that, compared with other places, Oxford was slow to recognise housing needs, and his explanations for this include the composition of the city council in the late nineteenth century and the abstention of university members of the council on issues relating to housing need. Undoubtedly, Graham makes the case that intervention in the private housing market was warranted, and that central-government housing subsidies in 1919, 1923 and 1924 particularly aided that process.

Malcolm Graham is deeply immersed in Oxford's history. His footnotes are astonishingly detailed, and the general approach and argument are convincing. Another indication of the high quality of this work is that it provides both ideas and revelations for readers to ponder and follow up.