Lambeth MIPIM display board
March 17th, 2015
Click image for full size pdf
Source: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/display_panel_at_mipim_property
Cressingham Gardens: Housing debate live blog
December 11th, 2014
UPDATE: Audio now available Housing Debate audio Right click and Save As to download file. I won’t be transcribing this debate.
If you see this and want to join us then head to Holy Trinity & St Matthias Church Tulse Hill (Herne Hill or Tulse Hill overground or Brixton tube then walk / bus) for 7.15pm
The panel for this evening’s debate is made up of the following. For their details click the photos.
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| Jon’ B | Michael E | Matt’ B | Dave H | Chris B | Marcia C | Paul W |
| Candidate | Academic | Councillor | Journalist | Developer | Councillor | Academic |
| Green | UCL | Labour | Guardian | Igloo | Labour | Birkbeck |
The Twitter hashtag is #HousingQT. To contact me this evening email debate@singleaspect.org.uk or Tweet @housingonfilm
Cressingham Gardens: Lambeth’s jewel in the crown
October 18th, 2014
Cressingham Gardens need to be repaired, restored and retained in my opinion for the following reasons.
It was designed and built at a time when housing ideals were at their highest and at a period still influenced by the aftermath of the Second World War when housing need was as great if not greater than now, when some of the best minds of a generation had come together in one place – at County Hall in London under the LCC then GLC and later, the boroughs – to work in the architects departments.
Anti-gentrification Handbook for Council Estates in London
June 2nd, 2014
Event link here -> Anti-gentrification handbook launch
Cressingham Gardens – a village within a city
May 5th, 2014
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The spire of Holy Trinity Church seen from Cressingham Gardens. Split level houses on Hardel Walk. Wild flowers growing adjacent to Brockwell Park on the site of The Big Dig, a London wide project for enthusiastic urban gardeners.
Architectural Murder – 1986 – BBC World Service
January 25th, 2014
UPDATE: Following the release of the BBC archive series Post War Architecture I am now able to point out that the first audio clip quoted in the programme below is taken from the opening seconds of Architecture at the crossroads : Doubt and Reassessment
“If one had to choose one symbol of the very worst kind of modern architectural crime it would surely be the crumbling housing estate. Its walls covered in graffiti, its windows smashed, its windy courtyards covered in litter, and its residents living in perpetual fear of muggers and thieves.” Meridian – Architectural Murder – 1986 – BBC World Service – listen here at 28 mins long Architectural Murder
The end of council housing? – Guardian comments
September 26th, 2013
“Thatcher used a carrot to encourage the better off tenants to buy their council homes and Cameron is using a stick, his Bedroom Tax, to destroy the remaining tenancies.”
It’s difficult to read the observations of the Guardian commentator I quote below without concluding that nothing has changed. Now it’s worse because then they were planning it but now appear to be implementing it.
UN Report on UK Housing – Raquel Rolnik
September 12th, 2013
UPDATE: The report has now been released or download it directly here
“The right to housing is not about a roof anywhere, at any cost, without any social ties. It is not about reshuffling people according to a snapshot of the number of bedrooms at a given night. It is about enabling environments for people to maintain their family and community bonds, their local schools, work places and health services allowing them to exercise all other rights, like education, work, food or health.”
This ought to be burned into the front door of the Government department responsible for housing, with a blowtorch, in order to remind them every day as they come to work of their responsibility to all the residents of the United Kingdom.
Maiden Lane update – PRP scheme passed 22-3-13
May 2nd, 2013
The lack of maintenance I identified here in a walk around Maiden Lane nearly three years ago is at last being addressed.
Despite my fears about it not being listed something of a C21st compromise has been achieved short of complete demolition and sale to a developer, but rather partial redevelopment on the Eastern side to generate the funds required to maintain the remainder.
Creating mixed communities – or just displacing the poor?
March 5th, 2013
I compiled this list of quotes from Nicky Gavron and others eighteen months ago but with Heygate in flux I think it bears repetition just to remind ourselves that mixed communities are often nothing of the sort and simply an excuse for removing those on the lowest incomes from areas of valuable land.