Guardian housing articles
November 22nd, 2011
UPDATE: – Jules Birch has written a much better article on this subject.
The Guardian has a couple of good articles on housing today with the usual range of comments from which I’m picking out a few. Rob Williams has been good enough to link to my pages on the Parker Morris tables which has pulled in a few hits.
How would you like to live in a hobbit home, Grant Shapps?
https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/22/grant-shapps-new-build-homes
Is the Maiden Lane Estate Listed?
September 25th, 2011
Somebody typed the heading into Google today and I thought I’d answer the question. Last year some estates in Camden were listed following a recommendation by the C20th Society. Branch Hill and Dunboyne Road but Maiden Lane was left out. I don’t know why, perhaps it’s because it’s the least attractive for want of maintenance, perhaps it’s because it’s the most isolated, perhaps it was considered the least architecturally significant.
The cynic in me thinks that because it’s less than a mile from the Eurostar terminal it would make a good location for a hotel but why on earth would a Tory coalition be supporting property developers? That’s unheard of isn’t it?
There was an article at the time https://www.culture.gov.uk/news/news_stories/7359.aspx
If you want to know more the best place for news is their own estate website maidenlaneestate[dot]org or my own visit to Maiden Lane.
World’s End Chelsea
September 19th, 2011
Great estate, love the burnt umber bricks, so much better to look at than raw concrete. Lovely use of communal garden space within the courtyard level above the car park at 1st floor level. Have some doubts about the – bordering on – single aspect tower block flats,but they have at least been designed so that every flat has a SW facing window even if it’s only one, and they are popular.
Alexandra Road – interior
September 19th, 2011
UPDATE 19th March 2018: How I wish I had taken those photographs from 5’6″ and not 6′. Here’s a tip, if you’re photographing interiors and you’re tall, lower the camera.
The owner kindly opened her original and attractive dual aspect flat to the public for a day. Beautiful and well appointed 1970s flat flooded with light, lots of wood on display, large windows, intelligent use of sliding screens to separate kitchen / diner from living room (architect Neave Brown).
Streets in the sky – Park Hill – The One Show
September 10th, 2011
While attending the Sheffield Heritage Open Day (HOD) I chanced upon Roy Hattersley seated outside the main entrance to Park Hill . . .
Simon Gawthorpe with Roy Hattersley at Park Hill
Hope VI – or go away you’re poor II
September 1st, 2011
UPDATE 22/9/17: Now it’s Choice Neighbourhoods HT @robbins_glyn
Everything that’s happening here now with so called regeneration has been happening in the USA before with the Hope VI programme and all its negative consequences which boil down to a net loss of housing for the poor.
Some have criticized the new developments, because they do not require a “one-for-one” replacement of the old housing unit—the new unit does not have to house the same number of tenants, which results in a net loss of housing for the poor.[11]
Some critics have said that local authorities use the program as a legal means to evict poor residents in favor of more affluent residents in a process of gentrification.[13][15] They have said that less than 12% of those displaced from old housing eventually move into the replacement housing.[9][10][13]
Wikipedia? Ok I’m desperate.
The first article in the series linked below:-
Nicky Gavron on mixed estates
August 31st, 2011
“The mayor wants private, market housing to be built in areas with lots of social housing. But his plan does not seek new social housing in areas with lots of private homes.”
An article from the Guardian today highlights yet again where the Tory London administration is failing when it comes to housing policy. Nicky Gavron has been spot on with her analysis of where the problem lies and has been saying this for some time but nobody seems to be listening.
Needs based allocations – Robin Wales
August 30th, 2011
UPDATE: 16/6/11 Dave Hill has an interesting article today in the Guardian on the same theme, that needs based allocations are a disaster for council housing allocation:-
Newham-mayor-plans-olympic-regeneration
Charities condemn plans to let councils house locals before immigrants
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/home/big-ideas-32075
Old link – Man on a mission
https://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2003/nov/30/housing.uknews
Comprehensive Estate Initiative – research notes
August 25th, 2011
UPDATE: 21/11/16 Buy the book – “The Dynamics of Local Housing Policy” by Keith Jacobs. (At the time of writing available second hand for £22.52 – 21/11/16) HT @municipaldreams
In the early 1990s I would periodically return from a long trip overseas to notice fewer and fewer tower blocks standing on an estate once well known to me as a carpenter with the GLC . . .
Read Hansard on Trowbridge
. . . I would drive past on the Eastway and the Trowbridge Estate would have lost a couple more of its tower blocks. I began to forget how many there were to start with.
Opposite, between Eastway and the factories along the railway and the cut, the G.L.C.’s Trowbridge estate left only the north-south line of Osborne and Prince Edward roads from the centre of the old street pattern. First opened in 1965 and completed in 1969, the estate included 117 bungalow homes but was most striking for its seven 21-storeyed towers, (fn. 68) with mosaic facings and glass balconies.
From Here to Modernity
August 22nd, 2011
Click image to see full Wordle
Kirsty Wark charts the rise and fall of the Modern movement from the 1930s to its fall from popularity, in three half hour programmes made for the Open University.
Here follows a comprehensive list of the buildings featured in the programme, in the form of stills. It is not by any means a review of the programme but rather intended as an introduction by way of showing the content.
Title shot – click above for larger image
The link to the Open University details about the series is here:-