The issue of estate regeneration has not gone away, it continues apace and it has been my privilege over the last few years to meet people actively involved in the struggle to keep council tenants in place against the rapacious demands of unscrupulous politicians and boroughs so desperate for cash they sell public land from under the homes of council tenants for the benefit of wealthier incomers.
In recent weeks I have had the pleasure of meeting the residents of and walking around a small estate in South London which is itself now under threat but not withstanding this there is a determined and well informed body of people ready and willing to protect their interests.
It has been a pleasure to devote time and energy to researching and writing up the story of Cressingham Gardens – a village within a city and I sincerely hope you enjoy reading what is my 300th article in four years.
Golden rules – scratchpad thoughts
April 30th, 2014
A considered look at artistic composition.
a) a winding path, brook, river or canal which leads the eye into the distance.
Stonebridge Park estate
A.W. Cleeve Barr – 5/10/10 – 30/5/00
March 19th, 2014
This is not intended to be an article, just as a series of links about an interesting architect.
“The production of high-rise council flats was at its height in the 1960s when AW Cleeve Barr, who has died at the age of 89, rose to be the most powerful housing architect in British government service.
As such he fought, but failed, to control the proliferation of contractor-led housing systems, and his reputation was tarnished by public reaction after the collapse in 1968 of Ronan Point. A technocrat with an instinct for social justice and a streak of obstinacy, he had enthusiasms that belied his puritan convictions.”
World Service Radio Archive prototype
October 13th, 2013
UPDATE 14/3/17: It was an experiment. They put the archive up for three years then disconnected it. https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/worldservice-archive-proto therefore what follows below no longer applies.
Today while searching for details of a programme recorded on cassette over twenty years ago I came across the World Service Radio Archive prototype. It is necessary to sign in but having done so you will be treated to a small archive to search, which is available to hear, and some of which is possible to download with a little manipulation.
On reaching the page of interest you can listen to the programme by clicking the arrow provided, and in addition if you right click the page to View Source and then search for mp3 you can right click the link and Save As thus downloading the programme to your computer.
The student room
September 6th, 2013
In response to:- Do student housing standards need an overhaul? from Building Design online.
A well lit student room – Fitzwilliam Cambridge
In case you haven’t read or are not able to read the article it is an exchange between Michael Chessum President of University of London Union and Dav Bansal Director at Glenn Howells Architects in response to the question in the link above.
Forty years of UK housing in one graph
March 7th, 2013
The Guardian published a selection of results from the General Household Survey and the graph below caught my eye showing as it does the fall in council housing occupancy over 40 years.
Anna Minton – Four Thought – Radio Four
November 1st, 2012
“It became clear to me that high security was especially a feature of very poor and very wealthy areas, a visual marker and reflection in the landscape of our sharply widening inequality.”
Still available here -> FourThought.mp3 <- Right click and Save As.
Of here if the BBC drop it -> FourThought.mp3 <- Right click and Save As.
Here’s Anna Minton writing in the Guardian on the day before her Radio 4 talk:-
https://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/30/cctv-increases-peoples-sense-anxiety
Will Hutton put forward a similar point of view in an article about fairness for the Observer in September 2010.
“Ever more sophisticated CCTV policing the fortresses of the rich and the desolate housing estates of the disadvantaged has become the iconic social intervention of the age.”
https://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/26/them-and-us-will-hutton
#UCLStratford – Saving Carpenters Estate – 31st Oct 2012
November 1st, 2012
UPDATE: Keep an eye on future events UCLUSAVECARPENTERS
Last night I had the pleasure of attending a talk organised by the UCL Student Union about the future of the Carpenters Estate in Stratford, East London. By the start time of 1800 the lecture theatre was more or less full. Present were a majority of students, a few lecturers and three members of UCL management on the front row (including Andrew Grainger, Director, UCL Estates) both to see what they were up against (of which more later) and to answer the inevitable questions.
A write up by Michael Edwards is available here:-
https://michaeledwards.org.uk/?p=1135
and my own notes from the evening are available below.
Beds in sheds go legal
October 25th, 2012
UPDATE: Landlords solution to housing shortage live in a garage
Click photo for article (subscription required)
“Temporary structures that add low-cost housing to existing east London estates judged top in Building Trust International competition. Levitt Bernstein has defeated an 85-strong short list in the international contest to design low-cost, single-occupancy housing for urban areas. The studio’s winning proposal uses temporary structures to occupy redundant garages on housing estates in east London.”
Blue London
May 5th, 2012
This is a sad day for London. The election of Boris Johnson as Mayor for the second time, made worse by it being only a narrow victory, when seen in the light of his support for the Conservative administration of H&F and his planning decisions in support of the social cleansing policies of that borough, is not to be welcomed by anyone who cares about the plight of council tenants across London.
This blog was created as a direct result of an article in the Evening Standard on Thursday 9th July 2009 highlighting the intention of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham to rid the borough of council estates and their residents. In the nearly three years since they have gone some way towards this and certainly done little to reassure the worried that their intentions are otherwise.