Our Friends in the North – a personal view
January 21st, 2017
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Mary explains Alan Roe’s plan – Elaine looks like thunder
“Let those who want to buy, buy. Let those who want to rent, rent, but what will they rent if I’ve sold all the council houses?” asks Mary of her replacement, Elaine.
“Well, why not use the proceeds to build more council houses?” replies Elaine.
“Because a) I have to sell them dirt cheap, and b) I’m only allowed to use half the proceeds to build replacement houses.” – replies Mary. “The other half has to finance a reduction in the rates.”
This exchange is one of the reasons OFITN might fairly be described as a Northern housing drama. The above exchange is one of many examples illustrating the effect the housing situation had on its residents, from the shoddy system built flats of the 1960s through to the Thatcherite push for home ownership via right to buy and its concomitant effect on the declining estates and their residents signified here by the desperate situation of Sean Collins at Valley View.
The scene near the end in the bar, between Geordie, Sean Collins, a young lad of 10 or 11 and his dad Christopher – is one of the most moving and powerful in the entire film, and the empathy shown by Geordie towards Sean, says a lot for his strength of character, his own life having suffered hours dreadful and things strange to say the least.
Zeilenbau orientation
December 8th, 2016
Churchill Gardens Pimlico – Powell and Moya
On reading Lewisham, the Notopian future of London by Owen Hatherley the other day, I was struck by this sentence.
“This particular part of the development is darkened by the canyon-like effect of tall blocks looming over a narrow service road, something avoided by postwar council estates, what with their green space and carefully arranged orientation to the sun.”
[…]
“Third, the new vernacular, so long as it coexists with a developer-driven urbanism which sees spaciousness as so much wasted, unrentable space, means little more than politesse curtain-walled over plutocracy.” [Owen !!!]
Moving on, the estate that comes most quickly to mind and probably to any member of the C20th Society or DocomomoUK is Churchill Gardens by Powell and Moya.
Paul Watt at the RA – September 26th 2016
November 24th, 2016
He was one of four speakers and a chair, and his talk was such a good summary of what has happened to council housing under New Labour and since that I have transcribed it, with the help of YouTube (upload, wait, download captions), below:-
Okay I’m going to start somewhat differently I’m not really going to talk about the architecture I’m not going to talk about the estates, in a way the concept of a council estate is epiphenomenal to really the fundamental key aspect of what we’re dealing with. The key aspect for council housing for me is that it’s a part of the welfare state.
Southwark – Peter John – the full ABC interview
November 17th, 2016
UPDATE: Read Heygate profits north of a hundred million by 35%.org
HT @adjournist retweet
This interview has triggered thoughts I’d tried to bury about the entitlement of leaseholders to be treated as fairly as secure tenants on a council estate, complicated by the fact I detest right to buy but count two leaseholders (second generation) among my friends. I will attempt to unravel the interwoven threads of the conflict with reference to the comments of Peter John in the interview linked above.
Forgotten Estates: at last, the video
November 15th, 2016
Like many other London events I don’t get to, I had a ticket for this, it looked interesting, and now the Royal Academy have posted the video. So if, like me, you couldn’t get there the recording is here to watch:-
From left to right
Kate Macintosh – Architect, formerly of the London Boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth, and East Sussex and Hampshire County Councils; designer of Dawson’s Heights, East Dulwich (1964–72)
Dawson’s Heights – my walk with C20th Society
Mark Crinson – Professor of Architectural History, Birkbeck, University of London
who spent twenty minutes being rude about the Smithsons. He made no attempt to hide the fact that he doesn’t like RHG or the people who designed it. Watch the debate and decide for yourself.
The Smithsons on housing – watch the film and see what you think
Owen Hopkins – Architecture Programme Curator, Royal Academy (chair)
Jessie Brennan – Artist; author of Regeneration! Conversations, Drawings, Archives & Photographs from Robin Hood Gardens (2015)
Dr Paul Watt – Reader in Urban Studies, Birkbeck, University of London
An excellent history of council estates from right to buy to the present day
Save Cressingham Gardens Judicial Review
November 14th, 2016
Judicial review report here:-
In reply to The Five Estates, Peckham, Part III: Back to the Future
November 4th, 2016
Firstly I was struck by a hypothetical question:-
“Would the regeneration have been necessary had the Thatcher cuts in maintenance been avoided and the inflation proofed money still been available?”
I suspect yes, owing to the change in residential makeup of the estates owing to the effects of right to buy (in subsequent decades companies and individuals bought onto council estates and let the flats to unemployed people on the then DSS thus further weakening the estate demographic) and the 1977 Housing Act – priority needs based lettings.
In my personal opinion the estates and council housing in general were damaged by those two pieces of legislation, the second of which was enacted under a Labour Government albeit with unintended consequences.
269 Leigham Court Road – sheltered housing under threat
May 25th, 2016
Once again I find myself reading an important piece about social housing under threat, this time in Streatham, which needs wider publicity but instead is tucked away on a private discussion group. So I’m giving it a wider view at risk of copyright violation. I’d like to make it clear that what follows was not written by me but I agree with it as written and trust the judgement of the author.
This is 269 Leigham Court Road in Streatham, currently sheltered housing, with 45 flats that are home to 50 residents, all over the age of 60, all on secure tenancies. Despite being designed by architect Kate Macintosh specifically to house elderly people, a duty it has performed since 1975, in January 2013 Lambeth Council suddenly declared the estate ‘unfit for purpose’, told residents that it was too expensive to do the repairs and maintenance they had neglected for years, and declared the site was to be ‘sold as cleared land.’
Why Open Garden Estates? – extracts
May 23rd, 2016
Why Open Garden Estates?
The aim [is] to help banish the myth of council estates as concrete jungles that are home to anti-social behaviour and crime, and show them to be what they are – some of the last instances of community living left in London, and perhaps the only remaining places where the mixed communities we hear so much about in the speeches of politicians have a chance to survive the encroachment of gated ghettos of predominantly white, middle-class wealth.
ASH presentation to Lambeth Council – Central Hill
May 19th, 2016
I think it needs to be known how Lambeth Council behave when confronted with alternative proposals to their demolition plans to the estates in the borough over which they presently have political control.
If you don’t follow ASH on Twitter or are not a member of the Facebook group or read their blog you will probably not be aware of the hostility they are up against on a day to day basis in putting forward an alternative method of dealing with the housing situation in Lambeth.
Once again therefore, rightly or wrongly, I feel it necessary to publish what happened the night ASH tried to present their alternative proposals for Central Hill to Lambeth Council.
You can read about the presentation itself on their blog here:-
ASH Presentation to Central Hill Estate Residents Engagement Panel
What you’re less likely to read is what follows, as published on the Facebook page. Once again I don’t know if I ought to be doing this but I think you are entitled to know, if you have any interest in the housing situation in London.