This is what lockdown is like for Leeds’ high rise residents

For some, lockdown has been fairly painless - even pleasant. Those with gardens and large houses, for instance, have benefited from abundant space and unlimited time outdoors while stuck at home.

Not everybody is so lucky, however. It’s estimated that up to a third of properties in major UK cities lack outdoor garden space, and on top of this, those in high-rise flats often have to cope with proximity to troublesome neighbours and a lack of space.

In normal circumstances, when the population has the freedom to spend unlimited time away from home, some of these factors are manageable.

Yet since lockdown was called, residents in tower blocks across Leeds - and indeed the country - have been confined to their homes for weeks, with many reporting that their living situation has made lockdown tough.

Here, more than a month after a special report from the YEP, looking at views across Leeds from high-rises as lockdown had just been imposed, we see how residents are coping with the measures in one city tower block.

Noisy neighbours

For Maggie Harwood, who lives in a local tower block, it’s the behaviour of neighbours that’s made prolonged time at home a stressful experience.

Usually a full-time worker at Sainsburys, Maggie falls into the vulnerable category, and has been confined to her fifth-floor flat since late March. Prior to this, she’d had problems with neighbours blasting loud music - but the problem has worsened since lockdown.

“There’s a couple on the seventh floor that constantly play music,” she told the YEP.

“All night long until after I went to work, I've been told by a few of the neighbours...I wasn’t sleeping at all, then going to work and coming back to listen to it again and again”.

The neighbours, she says, have continued to blast music through “thin walls” throughout the lockdown period, and while they’ve received official warnings in the past, Maggie says that she now can’t get in touch with anyone to pursue further action:

“You can’t get in touch with anybody now...I’ve been ringing the actual housing office itself and it’s just an answering machine”.

To make matters worse, the neighbours have now begun to renovate their flat under lockdown too:

“For the last two weeks, all I can hear is drilling and banging...even on the weekend, Saturday and Sunday”.

Sheila Horne, who is retired and lives in an 11th floor flat at Whincover Grange, says that the proximity of flats to one another can cause tension between neighbours.

As the point of contact for Whincover Grange, residents come to her first with any problems they might be experiencing - including noise complaints:

“A lady reported noise from a neighbour...but she was actually wrong and I help the lady who was accused to prove that it wasn’t her...you can’t always tell in these flats because you’ve got people above you, below you and to the side of you”.

Largely, however, Sheila reports that her neighbours have behaved courteously during lockdown, making the lives of all residents in the block much easier.

A lack of hygiene

Sharing a building with lots of other people can add to the risk of viral transmission if a good level of hygiene isn’t maintained by all residents - another problem Maggie has contended with for the last few weeks:

“A few days ago there was someone above me spitting off the balcony, so I shouted up, ‘what do you think you’re doing’... they totally ignored me...then they were sick all over...it came down to my balcony”.

The same resident was later sick in the lift, Maggie was told, and thanks to a reduced cleaning schedule during lockdown, the residents themselves were “throwing buckets of bleach on it” until it could be properly disinfected.

Maggie herself hasn’t ventured out of the flat as she’s shielding, but says that she wouldn’t want to even if she could, for fear of contamination within the flat block:

“We’ve got a lot of drug takers and alcoholics in this block, I don’t think they really care [about contamination]”.

Her children have been to drop round groceries at a safe distance, and Maggie says they’ve been concerned about the level of cleanliness in the building:

“They say to me, the lifts are disgusting, don’t come out mum”.

Social contact

Both Maggie and Sheila have managed to stay in touch with their families via video chats and text, but, like millions of others around the country, are missing face-to-face social contact.

Maggie lives alone, and says that “at first it [being in lockdown alone] didn’t bother me. Now, it's getting to a stage where I want to be out”.

In spite of this, she’s not in a rush to head out, believing that restrictions shouldn’t be lifted “until it [coronavirus] has completely gone”.

Though retired, Sheila is very active in her local community and says going without socialising outside her home has been difficult at times.

“I am a people's person…I go to a lot of meetings with Leeds City Council...a lot of panels...so I do miss them”.

Outdoor space

Aside from socialising outside the home, many high rise residents have struggled with a lack of access to outdoor space, with just an hour of exercise per day permitted prior to PM Boris Johnson’s address on May 10.

Sheila says she’s “very lucky” in that her block has access to a communal garden space which is accessible by the residents only, who she says have been very compliant about social distancing:

“It hasn’t been overcrowded and they’ve [the residents] been very good. They haven’t mingled”.

Maggie, however, doesn’t have the same access to garden space, and has had to make do with her balcony - and exercising with a skipping rope.

Though she says she “wouldn’t usually” use her balcony for gardening, while stuck in lockdown, she - like many others - has decided to dedicate time to cultivating veg on it:

“I’m doing broccoli and some cabbage…there’s nothing showing up yet, it’ll be a few weeks before they even start sprouting up, but fingers crossed!”

Though Sheila says that she’s doing fine considering the circumstances, she’s excited to reunite with her family once restrictions allow.

Her only concern, she says, is that lockdown is “wasting my last days”, though she adds that she does have a solution:

“I’ve decided I’m going to live to be 100!”