Fighting the System – BBC3

I’ve still got some clips from this, drop me a line sometime and I’ll put them on Youtube.


Documentary about four extreme protesters who are using direct action, risking their safety, their freedom and their futures, to force their way to change.

carpenters_focuse15


This used to be an article about Carpenters but the BBC have withdrawn the film and it’s not on Youtube so this is just a marker point now that the film was ever made.

I’ve got the film or part of it on a DVD somewhere, it’s a question of digging it out and uploading it.

Lambeth MIPIM display board

March 17th, 2015

mipim_cg

Click image for full size pdf

Source: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/display_panel_at_mipim_property

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.

jb me mb dave_hill cb mc pw
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

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savecressingham181014

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.

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Screenshot-Twitter - LorettaCLees: Launch: 'Staying Put: an ... - Google Chrome-2

Event link here -> Anti-gentrification handbook launch

Holy Trinity Church Hardel Walk
The Big Dig

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.

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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

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“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.

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UPDATE: The report has now been released, download it 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.

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The lack of maintenance I identified here in a walk around Maiden Lane nearly three years ago is at last being addressed.

maiden_lane

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.

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