Love London council housing

The Dorset Estate, Tower Hamlets

2012-01-22T13:51:00.002Z

I feel guilty. The Dorset Estate has been staring me in the face for the last six months. And I've ignored it. My excuse is I was waiting for the perfect crisp, clear January morning to take some photos.

Designed by Skinner, Bailey & Lubetkin and finished in 1957, the main buildings are two 11-storey Y-shaped blocks called George Loveless House and James Hammett House.

Approaching from Columbia Road you arrive at the south-side of the Y, bathed in morning sunshine.

But you can also approach from Diss Street, just off Hackney Road.

Or from Ravenscroft Park.

Aligned with the geometry of the main buildings are six lower blocks - James Brine House - which is actually four separate four-storey blocks and then two more - Robert Owen and Arthur Wade houses.

Altogether there are 266 homes on the estate.

James Brine House

A small community centre, the Dorset Social Club, was also built on the site and still looks in use today.

On the east of the estate on Ravenscroft Road is the Ravenscroft pub, seen here with Sivill House in the background.

At the top of each of the buildings is a decorative oval, featuring human silhouettes.

So make some time to see this nice piece of street art, incorporating a ground level decorative piece of concrete.

Stockton House, Bethnal Green

2011-12-13T13:21:00.004Z

This is Stockton House in Bethnal Green, right in front of Kedleston Walk.

It's a high-rise block facing on to a small dog park and surrounded by low-rise maisonette housing.

There's Kedleston Walk in the background.

And on one corner is a new-build.

A Manhattan project

2011-12-13T13:06:00.000Z

This tower block in Manhattan, just as you come across the Williamsburg bridge, is pretty incredible.

A trip down Motown lane

2011-11-02T22:36:00.000Z

This really is stretching the title of this blog to the limit. I know.

But in the interest of appreciating council housing everywhere, here are some pictures of the Brewster-Douglass housing projects in Detroit. An early home to none other than Diana Ross (apparently all the Supremes met here) - she moved to this part of town in 1958 on her 14th birthday.

Like a lot of the buildings in the city the blocks are now vacant.

The housing, designed by local architects Harley, Ellington & Day, was built by the city of Detroit and finished in 1955 - a mix of low and high-rise buildings.

To give you an idea of how central this is to downtown Detroit, this is the view south towards the Renaissance Centre.

At first the commission stipulated stringent rules for tenants. They had to be working, earning a certain level of income.

By the 1970s these regulations no longer existed, and in a bid to keep down crime the city turned the blocks into housing for elderly people.

This strategy didn't work, and the buildings are now empty...even of squatters, who in Detroit can find much grander homes to bunk down in....

Leaving London: Park Hill, Sheffield

2011-09-25T21:46:00.001+01:00

I spent this last weekend in Sheffield, and it really wouldn't have been complete without a visit to Park Hill.

The estate, designed by Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith, was built between 1957 and 1961. Since then it has loomed over the city - a giant hunk of concrete and brick.

English Heritage gave it grade II* listing in 1998, making it the largest listed building in Europe.

Approaching from the ring road, the first buildings you see are the the tallest North Block and its slightly smaller neighbour, both of which have been refurbished by developer Urban Splash working with architects Hawkins Brown and Studio Egret West.

A newly landscaped path leads up to the building...

Glass lifts and shiny metal staircases will bring the new occupiers to their flats.

Where the renovated part ends is perhaps one of the world's most famous pieces of crap graffiti: "Clare Middleton I love you will u marry me", which has been partly immortalised in neon.

Claire Middleton didn't end up marrying the man in question and unfortunately died at a young age from cancer. (The story behind the graffiti was the subject of a Radio 4 documentary earlier this year).

It's sad to see the state of decay of the original buildings.

Walking around the back of the estate, stairs lead to the streets in the sky...

The corridors with no tenants left are completely boarded up.

The local boozer, integrated into the building, also abandoned.

Communal areas.

These photos really don't do justice to how marvellous it is to visit Park Hill. We walked around for hours and hours, seeing it from all over the city.

Estate from the train

2011-08-14T10:27:00.001+01:00

I visited my friend yesterday in Eastbourne, and on the way back on the train into Victoria station I took this photograph.

I love how these buildings look like they're made of toy blocks. The lift towers on the right and left have pastel coloured stripes on top. And the bridge corridors connecting the right hand lift tower to the building have light blue roofs.

The whole thing looks like it's been conceived by a ten year old with a love for order. And for candy.

The 1900 Boundary Estate

2011-06-16T16:46:00.000+01:00

Anyone that has spent any time strolling around Brick Lane and Shoreditch on a sunny Sunday will undoubtedly have come across the Boundary Estate.

Lying just east of Shoreditch High Street and to the north of Bethnal Green Road, what now looks like a series of mansion blocks is actually the country's first proper council estate.

In 1890 London County Council embarked on a slum clearance programme of the Old Nichol, which included the Friars Mount slum.

Having served as an inspiration to a number of authors - including Arthur Morrison who wrote A Child of the Jago (which I admit I haven't read, but I know is the name of a nearby shop selling all sorts of glorious things) - the council decided to knock down the existing housing and build a series of social dwellings for the residents.

In the middle of the estate is Arnold's Circus - a bandstand built from the rubble of the existing slum. A refurbishment of this was completed by Tower Hamlets council last year and numerous events are now held there.

More information can be found at The Friends of Arnold Circus website here.

Going back to 1900, when the estate was finished - the re-homing didn't work out quite how LCC imagined. Those suffering the worst poverty were forced to move further east and north to Bethnal Green and Dalston, with the properties occupied by the poorer, but nevertheless more middle class people, who could afford to live there.

Today the council has brought much of estate (which is Grade II listed, along with the bandstand) up to decent homes standard.

Though in some instances you can still imagine what it might have been like 100 years ago.

The Brixton Barrier

2011-05-19T15:23:00.000+01:00

Since I've started this blog I've had countless suggestions for council estates to visit. When my brother moved to Brixton around Christmas one of the first things he said was: "You've got to see this building. It's mental."

Months later and my brother is living in Singapore, but luckily some other friends have moved to the area.

Southwyck House is part of the wider Somerleyton Estate. The building presents a long, impenetrable wall to the outside world.

Planning permission for the building was granted in 1970. Its design is based around other plans mooted at the time - namely to build an inner London motorway network, which would run adjacent to the block in all its six-lane glory.

Suddenly the small windows and lack of outside space on this make more sense.

Fortunately for Brixton, and for the rest of London, the motorway idea never took off. But by then it was too late and Southwyck House was standing. The first tenants moved into their new homes in 1982.

The main entrance is a pretty bizarre thing.

Nevertheless, once inside the barrier you can see it is quite well designed - housing 183 two and three bedroom maisonettes.

The southern entrance pretty much mirrors the northern side - and it looks like this....

It's well worth visiting this area of town. Just around the corner is Zaha Hadid's Evelyn Grace Academy - winner of a 2011 RIBA Award.

Nail in the Coffin: Demolition starts on Heygate

2011-04-16T15:50:00.000+01:00

Thank you to Michael Donnelly (@housingregenMD if you are Twitter inclined) of Planning magazine for these pictures of the first phase of demolition of the Heygate Estate, which started on Friday 15 April.

For the full set see flickr here.

The Great Estate: The Rise and Fall of the Council House

2011-04-16T15:26:00.000+01:00

Journalist Michael Collins (left) presented a programme in BBC4 this week about the history of council housing in the UK as part of a wider series about housing.

The hour-long programme provides a good introduction to the history of council housing - from the very first estate in Shoreditch, East London - the Boundary Estate, to the sprawling Thamesmeade and Heygate Estates built later on.

Starting very optimistically, "This was the modern world and it was ours for the taking", Collins shows how the first phase of post-war housing was embraced by the "aspiring" working classes. The government was subsidising the construction and councils were imposing stringent rules and regulations for tenants.

Windows must be cleaned once a week, you can hang your washing in the garden but no other personal goods must be displayed. And more bizarrely - lay linoleum flooring within only one foot of every wall. One resident says: "I took pride in where I lived, don't think that happens so much today."

Councils in larger cities went on to build increasingly denser developments of flats and maisonettes, clearing slums to make way for the Smithson-inspired Streets in the Sky concept.

Collins fails to get to the bottom of what caused the vilification of council housing as we knew it in the 1900's through to today. He reasons that councils are partly to blame for widening the criteria of those eligible for council housing and of course the well-rehearsed argument of the Margaret Thatcher-inspired Right-to-Buy scheme.

The programme ends on a more sombre note that it started. Collins warns that the coalition government's plans to make tenants re-apply for their homes every two years, with people eventually being asked to move out if they are earning enough money, could lead to the further decline of estates.

It is definitely worth watching, if not only for its inspired use of Kraftwerk .

Watch the programme on BBC iPlayer here.

Time Lapse #1: Morland Estate

2011-02-10T17:33:00.000Z

This is the first in a series of photographs I'll be posting showing how estates in London's East End have changed over time.

The pictures have all been taken by local photographer Chris Dorley-Brown, who has documented everything in the area from Hackney Wick and the Olympic Park to the German Hospital and countless estates.

This first set takes us back to the Morland Estate, which sits on the north-western corner of London Fields. Both were taken 16 years apart - the first 1987, the second in 2003.

Photo by Chris Dorley-Brown

Not much has changed, trees have grown and someone (probably on acid) decided to paint panels on the balconies bright blue. And the little sheds in the bottom picture have been left to fend for themselves, becoming derelict.

Wilton Estate, Dalston

2011-02-05T17:24:00.000Z

The Wilton Estate was built in 1961 by the London City Council and sits just off Graham Road, linking Hackney and Dalston in East London.

It's a very good example of what the council was trying to achieve with housing at the time - low rise, set around a central yard where neighbours could meet up, grow things and let their children play.

I particularly like the bike sheds.

From the short time I spent here, it looks like that spirit is continuing today, with a small community tending to their allotment-like spaces and ensuring the area remains well kept.

Despite the clear gentrification of this area (the average flat sells for £231,000), last year a teenager was found at the estate with a gun shot wound to his leg following a shooting on a weekday evening.

As the police were racing to get to the 17 year-old they hit a cyclist, former Guardian journalist Donald MacLeod, who sustained serious head injuries as a result. Just a few weeks ago his sister spoke about his progress, read more here.

Morland Estate, Hackney

2011-01-25T22:29:00.000Z

I came across the Morland Estate in Hackney somewhat by accident, when I was trawling the area just before Christmas.

I approached from Richmond Road, the view you can see above (block D in the picture below), and it looks like a pretty ordinary estate.

I love this old Hackney Borough Council public notice board. What would you put up?

Anyway, walking down the side of the building the estate got somewhat more interesting because in the middle of all the blocks the council has put an enclosed area within a GIANT FENCE.

Why? Do people here have dinosaurs instead of dogs?

And opposite the fence are some benches that also look like they've been made for large beings.

I think it's such a shame because the buildings had a very nice feel about them. They are well looked after and it's clear the residents take pride in their surroundings.

Looking back on the fenced in area it's easy to imagine the potential of this space.

At the eastern side of the estate I was glad to find the large tower block that you see when swimming in London Fields Lido.

Holly Street Estate: Past and present

2010-11-30T17:18:00.000Z


Photo by Chris Dorley-Brown

The Holly Estate lies on the eastern edge of Hackney, among rows of Victorian terraced streets and squares. It was built on the site of buildings bombed during the war and others that had just been left in a state of disrepair. Everything was razed to the ground to make way for the new development.

The picture above gives a historic view of the area (it was taken in 1988) - when the four towers of the estate were still standing. Built between 1966 and 1971, it lies to the north of Hackney Road between Queensbridge Road and Kingsland Road.

Because of the footprint of the buildings the estate earned the nickname 'The Snake.

Its buildings were all named after trees Silverbirch, Pine, Rosewood among others, with the four towers called Rowan, Cedar, Lomas and Grange.

Like so many estates of the time the construction wasn't that great. Even worse was the layout of the buildings. "At the foot of the towers are 16 five-storey deck-access blocks; at the fourth-floor level these are connected by one continuous, quarter-mile-long 'street in the sky'. This has been a dream rat- run for the estates' many muggers and a nightmare for most residents. Those living on the fifth floor have been robbed by burglars who have punched their way through flat roofs," said a report in the Independent.

One resident said: "I remember walking around corrdiors and not even seeing daylight for at least 20 minutes."

Despite these problems it was initially seen as a desirable place to be. "Holly Street was not a bad place to live in those days but slowly it declined and never recovered. The parks which were always full of young children became empty, the flats became shakey and some of the newer residents brought mayhem," said another resident.

There were widespread reports of prostitution and drug deal and all the menace that comes with it. The estate even had its own gang The Holly Street Boys, who still hang around the area to this day finding ways to harrass the neighbouring London Field Boys.

Luckily for the estate it was on Tony Blair's hit-list of places to improve (no doubt fuelled by the fact that he used to live in a house on nearby Mapledene Road) and the prime minister himself came there to express his concerns.

"I got used to the society of fear in the Eighties canvassing on the Holly Street estate in Hackney, now thankfully greatly improved, when people were too scared to open the door and the letterboxes had burn marks around them where lighted rags had been shoved through them," he said.

By that point 80% of the residents themselves said they no longer wanted to live in the estate, so armed with money the council began demolition of all but one of the towers.

The Holly Street Estate post demolition

And here is the masterplan, as designed by Levitt Bernstein Associates to mimic traditional London streets. You can see the one remaining tower to the right which was fully renovated for housing for the elderly.

Levitt Bernstein Associates

The new estate opened in 2003.

It wasn't an immediate success. Residents reported continuing anti-social behaviour of various kinds, brought to a head in 2006 by the murder of Stevens Nyembo-Ya-Muteba.

The father of two girls, aged five and eight at the time, was stabbed through the heart and lungs by 19 year-old Joseph Ekaette in Evergreen Square - an open space in the middle of the new estate.

Ekaette, who was with a group of other youths who filmed the attack on a mobile phone, has been jailed for life.


Evergreen Square

Work is now ongoing to finish the final phase of the regeneration of the estate, Queensbridge Quarter.

It's style is unique for Hackney and a welcome relief from the blandness of the rest of the regenerated estate.

Robin Hood Gardens (part II) - a new vision

2010-11-20T13:25:00.000Z

Last Friday I went down to see the designs proposed by the two teams in the running to demolish and rebuild Robin Hood Gardens and its surrounding area - known collectively as Blackwall Reach. (See article here in Building Design).

The area outlined in red above is the regeneration area. You can see the existing Robin Hood Gardens in the middle, with the large green area separating the two buildings designed by Alison and Peter Smithson.

The site is pretty much an urban island, to the south is the Docklands Light Railway, to the west is Cotton Street - a pretty grim major road that is currently cut off from the estate by a huge concrete wall - and to the east is the Blackwall Tunnell Northern Approach Road. I think the name just about says it all, it's not a friendly place.

When I arrived at the pubic exhibition, organised by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets together with the Homes & Communities Agenc, it wasn't too busy. Though I believe they had quite a bit of interest over the four hours (!!) it was open.

Between them the clients have condemned the Smithson's buildings to be demolished. Robin Hood Gardens was granted with immunity from listing after successfull campaigning from the council.

The first plans I looked at were Swan Housing and Countryside Properties, who worked with masterplanners Aedas. Architecture firms Jestico & Whiles and Glenn Howells will be drawing up detailed design of individual buildings.

They are proposing to build 1,621 new dwellings.

This is a view from the northern end of the site. The tall tower at the far end will stand at 42 storeys.

This is the view looking along the tunnel approach road.

And this is the area where the current buildings stand.

I think this last image just about says it all.

Is this really better than what's there now? Will this stand the test of time?

Anyway, here is the second set of proposals from housing association London & Quadrant and Telford Homes. They are working with HTA and Squire & Partners.

The massing is similar to the Swan scheme. In this view from the northern end of the site you can see the lower buildings in the foreground (where there will also be a new mosque), leading to the towers at the southern end of the site. The tallest tower here would be 41 storeys tall.

Again, the green area is in roughly the same place as it is now.

The council is expected to make a decision on which plans to go ahead with as early as next week.

The proposals really are not too dissimilar. And having spoken to residents down there, neither option seems particularly appealing to the locals - all of whom will be "decanted" to new housing in the next ten years.

Given Tower Hamlet's past record in such circumstances, it is unlikely that once the community is broken up that it will ever come back together again.

Sad times indeed.

Trellick Tower: A self-guided tour

2010-10-25T23:07:00.000+01:00

The Trellick Tower is arguably the most famous piece of council house architecture in London, if not the country.

As well as being a symbol for the by-gone era of high-rise brutalist buildings, Trellick became synonymous with social problems, ranging from racial tension to troubled youths, in its notorious heyday.

The Guardian says: "One Christmas, vandals on the 12th floor opened the fire hydrant and unleashed thousands of gallons of water into the lifts, blowing fuses and leaving the block without electricity, heat, water or toilet facilities. Grind up another three floors and you would be where a 27-year-old woman was dragged from the lift and raped. Down the same corridor a depressed young mother jumped to her death. On the 21st floor, an 11-year-old girl was dragged from a lift into the chute room and attacked."

(Read the rest of The Guardian's article here - it's fantastic)

The tower of tightly packed flats, with the separate lift tower bringing people every third floor, was designed by Erno Goldfinger (who based his design on the Trellick's little sister - the Balfron Tower in east London) in 1966 for the Greater London Council. Construction was completed in 1972.

Its 31 storeys contain 217 flats, some of which now sell for almost £500,000. One is for sale now, on the 30th floor.

The thin service tower houses the lifts, as well as a rubbish chute and emergency stairs.

Approaching the tower from Westbourne Park station, Trellick can be seen from afar, and embarking on my unguided tour I first pass through the Edenham estate to get to the base of the tower.

The Trellick's surrounding houses are surprisingly low and terrace like, donning interesting garage door designs that perhaps give an idea of the area's historic context.

Walking through the estate, I came upon the first of a series of concrete walkways linking the buildings here.

They don't make for friendly walking.

This photo shows the second, lower slab of the complex - which sits just to the south of the tower.

From this walkway I also see, for the first time, the recreational area at the base of the tower, from which the above flats seem to grow.

It is completely cut off from any kind of street with passing traffic, and no people could ever really know what was going on down here. There is no doubt that it is spaces like this that contributed to the general malaise of the building.

Eventually I emerge onto the main road.

This leads to the main entrance of the building, where residents installed a door entry intercom system and a 24-hour concierge in the mid-1980's - a step that led to a much friendler atmosphere tower, eventually stamping out the social problems associated with Trellick.

Walking around to the north side of the tower, it is easier to get right up to the building and even walk underneath it - though this doesn't look like an enticing prospect.

The passage leads back to the back of the building and from there down to the recreational area/basketball court, via a flight of steps.

The bars on the left of the picture here protect what looks like an abandoned area under the building.

Ending my tour here seems appropriate, as it is from this angle that the true scale of the tower can really be appreciated.

Finally, leading on from my earlier posts referencing music videos the Trellick Tower deserves a mention. It featured in Blur's 'For Tomorrow', The Gorrilaz' 'Tomorrow Comes Today' and The Good, The Bad and The Queen's 'Kingdom of Doom' - all spearheaded by Damon Albarn, who today lives nearby in fancy Notting Hill.

But the video I'm posting here is Depeche Mode's 'Little 15'. Just because I love Depeche Mode (and the first two minutes all centre around the building).

Robin Hood Gardens, go see it now

2010-10-17T19:17:00.000+01:00

I have so much to say about Robin Hood Gardens, I'm not sure where to start.

The estate was designed in the 1960s by Alison and Peter Smithson and building work completed in 1972. It's a design very much of the era - incorporating the then much lauded 'streets in the sky' concept, with wide landings where people living on higher floors could socialise as if on their doorsteps on the ground.

These 'streets' are located on every third floor...

Picture courtesy of Tower Hamlets local history library
The estate sits just to the south of the Balfron Tower on the eastern end of Poplar near the Blackwall DLR station.

There are two main blocks, both with a long, linear shape, built from pre-cast concrete and home to 213 flats. The lower block is seven storeys high, the taller ten.

Picture courtesy of Tower Hamlets local history library
The entrances are imposing, almost dwarfing the people entering.

Between the two buildings is a landscaped grassy area, built using the rubble of of the construction spoil. At the moment the area seems sadly underused - one of many problems that could be fixed by some slight intervention from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

But that won't be a problem for much longer, because following many years of campaigning from residents at the estate and the architectural community the demolition of these two buildings and the reshaping of the land here is certain to go ahead.

For some reason the council thinks that these buildings - known for well-proprtioned rooms and a lot of happy residents - are not worth investing maintenance money in, and has long been pushing for the demolition and remodelling of the area as part of the wider Blackwall Reach regeneration project.

In 2008 the architecture newspaper Building Design launched a campaign to have the buildings listed - gaining support from industry heavyweights such as Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Dan Cruickshank and Lord Rogers, as well as the philosopher Alain de Botton and the New York Times.

English Heritage, a government quango, opposed the listing of the building despite a recommendation from its own advisers that it should be listed. Eventually the then architecture minister Margaret Hodge (famously, not a fan of brutalist architecture) ruled that Robin Hood Gardens wouldn't be listed.

Following an appeal the government upheld its decision and even granted it immunity from listing.

A sad day.

(see an excellent timeline of events, as published in Building Design, here)

I spoke to one of the residents here at length. He has been living on the estate for more than 15 years and said the councils' claims that the majority of residents want the buildings torn down are based on a survey of a very small section of the community.

He has carried out his own survey, of every resident, and has found above 80% support for its remodelling.

Nonetheless, the council is pushing ahead with its plans. Two teams have now been shortlisted to redevelop the estate. Neither proposal includes a reworking of the existing buildings.

Unlike Park Hill in Sheffield, another example of a typical 1960s brutalist estate (that had the luck to be listed), where the developer Urban Splash has worked hard to make a revamp work.

Images courtesy of Urban Splash

At Robin Hood Gardens demolition will start next year.

I urge you to go see the estate before it disappears.

Lansbury Estate, Poplar - brought to you by the 1951 Festival of Britain

2010-10-06T16:10:00.001+01:00

The Lansbury Estate in Poplar, east London probably isn't that familiar to people by name, but in terms of social housing history it is one of the most important in the city.

Named after the Labour MP George Lansbury, the estate was built on one of London's most badly bombed sites, where thousands of terraced homes fell to ruin leaving a huge housing shortage for east-enders.

Planned by the London County Council, who wanted to reduce the size of the population in the area, it was decided that the first phase of works should form a 'live' architecture exhibition for the 1951 Festival of Britain (probably a first for social housing in the country). The aim of the showcase was to provide a tract of housing that the public could walk through and experience on a real scale. It was intended that the majority of the buildings were finished, with some partly constructed to show off methodology.

Architects Bridgwater & Shepheard designed all of the dwellings on Development Site III, or the Central Housing Site.

The first lot of six- and three-storey blocks of flats were built adjacent to East India Dock Road, providing 158 homes.

The first family to move in here were Mr and Mrs Albert Snoddy with their two children and pet tortoise, which you can just about see by her knee in this picture. (I am told the lady on the right is her mother-in-law).

Nearby, a portion of a row of terrace houses, standing on Pekin Close, remain with their original London stock brick facade, while others (like the first one in the second picture) have been modified by their owners.

Each terrace house originally had three bedrooms, a kitchen facing the street side and a living room.

Across from the close, on Pekin Street, Bridgewater & Shepheard designed a series of semi-detached, or linked, houses that are seen as pretty unusual for this part of London.

These were a mix of three- and four-bedroom homes together with a living room and kitchen in the main house, with links containing a way through to the garden and a bathroom on top.

Chrisp Street Market, which I've already mentioned in my blog about the Balfron Tower, was also part of the live architecture exhibition of the festival. Here are some more pictures of how it looks today.

Following the festival, construction on the remainder of the estate continued until 1982 when construction completed on the blocks on Pigott Street, and it remains one of the largest in the area.

I'd like to say thank you to the good folk at 14th Estate, who told me all about the history of the area as part of a walking tour, and must give them credit for the architectural plans and archive photographs shown here (which came from the Tower Hamlets local history library).

How do you define love?

2010-10-04T21:38:00.000+01:00

I realise this might be a slightly odd title for a blog about council housing.

I've called this blog 'Love London council housing' because as I walk around this city I very often admire the design and thought that has gone into its social housing. I enjoy looking at these buildings, I enjoy visiting them, and I lived in one for some time during university and enjoyed that too.

I think a lot of architects working on these projects, on very limited budgets and to the demands of the councils (who post WWII wanted high volumes built cheaply and quickly) put a lot of thought into their designs and making them work for the necessary cost and benefit of communities.

But I feel like I've come to hear the other side of the argument.

Tonight I went to a talk, organised by Local History Library & Archives and Bow Arts Trust, as part of their 14th Floor project (a fantastic venture - see their blog here).

There was a panel of three speakers - Marcel Baettig, founder of the Bow Arts Trust (an artists' collective - some of whom inhabit the top floors of the Balfron Tower and who kindly opened up one of their flats for Open House), a representative from Tower Hamlets Community Housing and Lynsey Hanley, author of the very interesting book Estates (which you can buy here - or borrow from your local library like I did).

I read Lynsey's intimate and thoughtful book before attending the talk. I found her story inspiring - she grew up on the edge of 'the Wood', an estate on the periphery of Birmingham - and think she really gets to grips with redefining what it means to both live in an estate and how they are perceived by outsiders. Listening to her speak, it is clear that she cares deeply about social housing, how it is used, its effects on residents and a sense of equality that everyone should have a 'decent standard' home to live in. Most of all, she wants councils to learn from mistakes made in the past, ensuring future housing stock is sustainable and, ultimately, desirable.

What I found interesting, and what caused me to ask think about my reasons for taking an interest in London's council housing, is that she believes vehemently that buildings like the Balfron Tower never fell into this category.

Following a comment from the audience Lynsey said she disagreed that the Balfron Tower is 'visually arresting' but rather that it's somewhere where 'people were experimented on'. She went on to say 'professional people don't live in buildings that look like this'.

I believe that the Balfron Tower, like the Trellick Tower and Keeling House among others, are landmarks and should be preserved for the originality that they bring to the city's housing stock. And I know of plenty of people, architects and myself included, who would love to live in buildings like this.

That made me think about my definition of 'loving' this kind of social housing....I love it because deep down I do tend to believe in some of the ideals that the building's designers alluded to. And I love the diversity it brings to the cityscape. There is nothing more depressing than rows and low-lying blocks of 'modern' housing.

But maybe I am too idealistic and perhaps we need more people like Lynsey, who have lived the reality and seen the architects' dreams shatter.

Erno Goldfinger's Balfron Tower

2010-09-21T22:04:00.000+01:00

The brutalist Brownfield Estate in Poplar, East London is home to Erno Goldfinger's Balfron Tower - one of my favourite buildings in London.

The 27-storey residential tower is the older, but smaller, sister to the famous (and much more gentrified) Trellick Tower in west London.

It is part of the Brownfield Estate....a bruatlist architecture lover's dream....where all three buildings were designed by Goldfinger (the namesake of Ian Fleming's worst James Bond villain) for London County Council.

The Balfron Tower and its neighbour Carradale House were commissioned and designed together in 1963 for the London County Council and completed in 1967 and 1970 respectively.

Carradale House sits lower than the tower, with just 11 floors, housing 88 flats which have their windows on a north/south axis.

Goldfinger's signature lift tower sits between two separate blocks here, giving a different silhouette.

Both buildings have their foundations below ground level. So when you're approaching the estate it looks like these concrete giants have risen out of the ground with the A12 Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach and its constant stream of cars as a living backdrop.

Entry to the Balfron Tower is over a concrete bridge, which still leads to the original door.

Inside a big sign points you to which floor all the flats are on. This is definitely necessary here, as the generally accepted nomenclature of flats starting with 1 being on the first floor, 2 on the second, etc. is redundant here because of the odd design.

The walkways linking the service tower to the building actually sit on every third floor, so for example flats on floors 11, 12 and 13 are all accessible from the 12th floor, a peculiarity that's repeated at Carradale House and in the Trellick Tower.

The service tower also gives access to the drying rooms, which are now mostly redundant as people have washing machines and dryers in their own rooms. But it does still have a working rubbish chute!

The lifts take you to a small foyer room in the service tower, where you can peek out of the distinctive long rectangular windows at the view, with doors leading out to the main structure and corridor.

The top floor corridor, where this photo was taken, is home to flat 130 on the 25th floor where Goldfinger lived with his wife for two months in 1968. Here he famously threw a series of lavish parties to show just how splendid it was to live in this building, and he tried to engage with local residents to find out how they felt about his design.

Seeing as the Trellick Tower wasn't much changed to this building, it can be safe to say he was pretty pleased with it all.

The corridors have doubled glazed windows overlooking the A12, and out onto the A11 taking you on its wave-shaped asphalt away from London.

From the other side you can see out over East London's Ocean Estate, with the Gherkin and other City buildings in the distance.

And you can also see Goldfinger's third building on the estate, the 14-storey Glenkerry House.

Glenkerry House, like its neighbours also named after a Scottish city, was built later than the other two in 1979.

All three buildings are now Grade II listed - so no demolition here.

They really do sit far out in East London and though the London Borough of Tower Hamlets is working to spruce up this area, it really is bleak. There are DLR and some bus links, but that's about it except for Frederick Gibberd's nearby Chrisp Street Market, which was originally designed for the 1951 Festival of Britain but was looking pretty empty too on the day we visited.

That's it from the Brownfield Estate, but first I need to say a huge thank you to the lovely people at Open House , who added the Balfron Tower to their weekend for the first time.

And finally in honour of my earlier post about Suede's Animal Nitrate video which featured the Lisson Green Estate, the Balfron Tower gets the prize for being the second best use of a council estate in a video, this time for the opening sequence of Oasis' (What's the story) Morning Glory - where the east London gem often gets mistaken for its west London rival.

But the eagle eyed will see Canary Wharf in the distance....

Bright lights of Heygate continue to shine

2010-09-15T17:40:00.000+01:00

Southwark Council has come under criticism for paying £22,000 a year to keep streetlights shining at the doomed Heygate Estate.

Only a handful of people - 40 at the last count - remain in the sprawling estate, which is now home to 1,200 empty flats.

The Evening Standard said: "The cost includes bulbs that remain lit on dozens of walkways and stairwells where no one can go because they have been completely sealed off with steel doors to thwart squatters. Workmen failed to disconnect the lights first and the council says it is now cheaper to leave them on rather than unseal each landing."

But I agree with councillor Ian Wingfield, who said the lights are there for resident's safety - and surely for anyone else who might find themselves there.

Can you imagine if the council turned off all the lights and it became a haven for youths/prostiutes/general undesirables? A mugging or even a murder in a derelict estate that the council NEGLECTED TO KEEP SAFE?

Europe's largest estate - the notorious Aylesbury

2010-09-09T21:15:00.000+01:00

The Aylesbury in south London is infamous and famous in equal measure.

Designed by architect Derek Winch, construction on the 28.5 hectare housing estate started in 1963 and was intended to house some of London's poorest families in a mixture of high- and low-rise apartment towers connected by walkways. Building the Aylesbury took more than a decade, and the final block wasn't finished until 1977.

In typical 1960s style it shows little in the way of socially friendly design.

Since then the Aylesbury has become so symbolic of urban England that Tony Blair chose to make his first speech as prime minister outside parliament. It was here he outlined his vision for regenerating inner cities and ridding Britain of 'no hope areas' - a brave move, some might say, in hindsight.

Named after the town of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, its various sections are named after other local towns from the shire - Chiltern, Winslow, Wendover, Taplow, Ravenstone, Latimer, Padbury and Missenden.

As well as more than 2,700 homes the estate has a medical centre, nursery and health centre.

More recently the estate has been in the news after a gang of young men terrorised residents of the Aylesbury in 2009, three of whom were tried at the Old Bailey in August 2010.

Led by Deniz Ozdil and Callum Hall, the case showed echoes of the film Harry Brown - filmed at the nearby Heygate, where Michael Caine plays a pensioner turned vigilante that takes on a group of youths wreaking havoc in a council estate where he lives.

At the hearing the court heard how Hall and Anthony Babalola, accompanied by two other young men, broke into a flat, threatening a young woman and her two children with a gun, demanding to know the whereabouts of her brother.

In another incident the gang approached a teenager on the estate and threatened him with a gun and hunting knife, demanding money.

The gang leaders were eventually arrested in late 2009 and are currently awaiting sentencing after their trail.

Meanwhile, the London Borough of Southwark continues to fight hard to regenerate its sink estates, namely the Heygate and Aylesbury.

The Aylesbury Regeneration website says that phase 1a, in the south-west corner of the estate, will be available later this year - providing new homes for some residents (administered by the London and Quadrant Housing Trust).

The ultimate goal is to remodel the estate over 15 years, replacing the existing dwellings with 4,200 new homes, with 1,700 properties to be demolished in the first ten years (including five of the high rise blocks).

This means these blocks will soon become shadows of themselves, before they too are destroyed forever.

The end of the Haggerston & Kingsland Estates

2010-08-21T16:53:00.000+01:00

It's time to say goodbye to another council estate, the Haggerston & Kingsland Estates in Hackney.

A redevelopment here has been long on cards. But first a little history. The estates were constructed in two main phases, Haggerston West was built in the 1930s and after WWII Haggerston East was added, bringing the total number of homes here to 447.

And in 1949 the Kingsland Estate was opened by the Mayor of Shoreditch (as it says on the plaque below)

In September 2007 almost three-quarters of the residents on the estate voted in favour of the demolition and rebuild of the houses, and all of these were offered dwellings once the revamp is complete.

Demolition is ongoing....

It's hard to say whether everyone has moved on, or if squatters have moved in in the meantime.

But before any demolition started the estate became home to one of the most interesting art projects the East End has seen - I Am Here.

Inspired by the orange boards that were fitted over the windows of the estate, a group of local artists replaced these (or at least those facing directly onto the canal) with images of residents.

In the artists' words: 'Onlookers no longer stand unchallenged, as their gaze is met and returned by a multitude of faces consisting of current and former residents on the estate. Thus the project literally humanises a piece of architecture on its final journey.

(Photo credit: Cybermyth13)

Now the London & Quadrant Housing Trust has taken on the job of regenerating this area. In July 2008 London housing specialists PRP Architects won planning permission to build 761 new homes, a multi-storey community centre, a new public square and a number of retail units. More than half of the homes will be affordable housing and 248 will be for social rent.

PRP said: 'The masterplan focuses on improving safety and security. A core principle is to enhance the area increasing its appeal and individuality to the current and prospective communities.'

I imagine the homes for sale here will be snapped up by eager landlords and young people. Broadway Market and London Fields are just around the corner. Head one direction up the canal and you get to Angel and the other way leads to Victoria Park and Hackney Wick. Up the road is Dalston, down the road is Shoreditch. What more could a true east London hipster want?

Finally, a big thank you to Michael Donnelly for most of the photos on this entry!

The future of London’s council housing

2010-08-18T13:47:00.000+01:00

As much as I love looking around London’s old council estates, it isn’t always good to dwell only on the past.

In my own neighbourhood there are some really nice, modern council estates. One good example is the Minerva Estate, which was completely renovated in 2002 by Apollo London – turning an ageing, somewhat depressing place into a very continental looking development.

I think we need more affordable houses like this in London. And I guess the mayor does too because he has just issued the London Housing Design Guide.

This spells out requirements for any homes built on land owned by the London Development Agency (that would be most of Newham – where there will be a lot of development happening over the next 20 years) and any projects backed by the London branch of the government’s Homes and Communities Agency.

The document was prepared by the London Development Agency, together with Mae Architects. Mae Architects is the practice behind the regeneration of the Colville Estate in Hackney. Turning the estate from this

Into this

(image: Mae Architects)
The guide, which will be published next year to align with the new London Plan and Housing Supplementary Planning Guidance and the HCA design standards review.

But for it to really make a difference it needs to become aligned with planning policy - and that's all up in the air at the moment. Hopefully, at some point in the future, we will look back on this guide and see the first steps to ensuring that all new council housing provides decent places to live for everyone.

For more info on this, read this by Kieran Long for the Evening Standard. The Architect's Journal also covered the story.

Kedleston Walk

2010-07-31T12:56:00.000+01:00

So the new camera is here. I'm very excited, but my skills really are somewhat limited to just point and shoot. What I'm imagining is that day by day, week by week the pictures will improve and pretty soon you'd think there's a professional photographer working on this blog.

I didn't venture far this week, just down Pundersons Gardens to Kedleston Walk. I think it's one of the more intriguing of the small-scale council flats I've seen.

This is the view looking down Pundersons Gardens

You can see it's a series of what look like maisonettes - there are 58 in total, with a large number having some outside space. I like the long rows of windows too.

The architect Douglas Stephen (who runs his own practice in Old Street) said he was trying to create a low-rise high-density scheme that wasn't slabs or towers. He is quoted as saying he was going to "try and do a sort of funny section, to spread the building as much as I could over the whole site". And the building does echo the more traditional terraces of the East End, more than another high-rise would have.

There are entrances at either end. Here is one (with my neighbour's cute vintage car parked outside)

And here is the one at the other end

But by far the best thing about Kedleston Walk is the interior walkway that links all the flats together. I am presuming this is what gave it the 'walk' part of the name.

You can see here there are garages underneath on the left - on the right are the buildings facing out onto Pundersons Gardens. And the flats on the left are linked to those on the right by a series of walkways.

Properties come up for sale here regularly, in fact there is one on sale on Ebay at the moment. If you're interested, it's a one-bed for £165,000.

It sounds like a bit of a steal. The most expensive flat sold in the building's history was number 49, at a price of £349,999 in January 2008. More recently neighbouring number 48 was sold for £275,000. Back in 2000 number 12 was snapped up for a mere £93,000. What a bargain that seems now, hail the pre-gentrification days of the East End.

Back on the radar

2010-07-15T11:56:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the hiatus. I have finally ordered a new camera (Nikon D3000), which should arrive any day now and I can't wait to get back into writing on the blog.

In the meantime, Southwark Council has FINALLY signed an agreement with developer Bovis Lend Lease to take on the run-down Elephant & Castle regeneration.

The £1.5 billion deal will start with the demolition of the Heygate - though like this article says, only the partial dismantling of the estate.

http://www.southwarknews.co.uk/00,news,20145,185,00.htm

So it seems, despite the deal being signed, the area is a long way from getting a proper facelift.

And let's remember - Bovis Lend Lease were also the development partner on the Olympic Village. It couldn't keep up with its funding promises there, and the Olympic Delivery Authority was forced to dig deep into its contingency fund to get the project going.

Best use of council estate in a music video - and the Oscar goes to Suede

2010-03-28T16:08:00.000+01:00

I went to see my favourite band of all time, Suede, play at the Royal Albert Hall this week as part of the Teenage Cancer Trust's annual series of gigs.

Hearing them live again after their break up seven years ago was fantastic. It's good to know Brett's still got it, he was swinging the microphone around like he'd never stopped.

But I digress. During the amazing Animal Nitrate I remembered that parts of it were shot on a council estate (presumably in London).

After much asking around on various Brett Anderson and Suede forums it finally

emerged that it was shot on the 1,500 home Lisson Green Estate in Westminster - just off

Lisson Grove, which itself lies just off Euston Road as you come towards Paddington.

Thanks to some information I found on Facebook it turns out that in the video Brett

"comes out of the lift between Linslade and Lavendon with Horword House in front

walks to Dinton and the old block shared a bridge with Fingest and Dinton that went

over the laundrette".

Another girl posted that the flat the band (which then included original member

Bernard Butler - now producer of the likes of Duffy) is 18 Lavendon House - she said

the band paid her mum ten pounds to film in the flat!

The estate was built in the 1970s on Marylebone Station's former goods yard and has been revamped

numerous times since then by Westminster City Council.

Since I'm still camera-less, here are some pictures of the estate as it is today that I've pulled

from the internet.

Sydenham Hill

2010-03-23T19:17:00.000Z

Today we've got a special guest blog from Will Mann - once online editor of Contract Journal magazine, author of a construction blog and now our guide to the history of Sydenham Hill council estate in the South London borough of Lewisham.

A disused railway, and a famous Impressionist painter: the unlikely story behind a South London council estate

See any likeness in the two images below?

On the top is a famous impressionist painting by Camille Pissarro, which now hangs in London's Courthauld Gallery. Below is a recent photograph from a second floor balcony on a South London council estate

Well it's not obvious, but the two images were taken from roughly the same position.

The painting is Lordship Lane Station, and dates from the 1870s, when Pissarro was an exile from the Franco-Prussian war and had moved to South London - then a rural suburb of the capital.

It was painted from a footbridge over the now defunct Nunhead-Crystal Palace railway.

Built in the mid-19^th Century, the line was closed in 1954 due to lack of use. The station featured in Pissarro's painting was demolished, and replaced by the Sydenham Hill council estate.

The photograph shows the route of the line going north, as it appears today, following the line of the path through the trees.

And the photograph below shows the southerly route of the railway, now occupied by one of the blocks on the estate.

However, some of the old railway survives, including the footbridge where Pissarro presumably crossed regularly and was inspired enough by the view to sit with his easel and painted Lordship Lane Station (see photographs below).

This final photograph below shows the old track bed, looking northwards,now heavily overgrown. The Sydenham Hill estate is just visible in the distance, through the trees.

There's more about the remnants of the Nunhead-Crystal Palace line on the excellent Abandoned Stations website.

Keeling House

2010-03-20T13:37:00.000Z

Most days when I take my dog for a walk I pass a rather strange building, a few roads over from where I live in Bethnal Green, that has a very interesting shape that I've always liked the look of.

It has central column - presumably the lift shaft - with four 16-storey wings coming off it, that look like they house maisonettes. On street level it has a very fancy entrance, to get inside you cross an ornamental pond. I've never crossed the pond, but it leads to a stark hall with a porter sitting inside.

Despite its obvious upmarket present, it has a whiff of ex-local authority about it.

Anyway, I'd never given it that much thought until I was reading Ed Glinert's fascinating East End Chronicles. In a section called the Dark Ages he talks about how the East End was brutally rebuilt after the second world war. (It was during this time that the area gained most of its council blocks - spurred on by the authority's view of modern living. Up and up as cheap as possible was the general idea, leaving more room for open spaces were people would socialise. Long-term view is definitely not something that was at the forefront of thinking.)

So when I read about a "Bethnal Green tower so severely executed that the tenants were soon pining for the old slums" I was fascinated it turned out to be Keeling House - the building I pass almost daily!

Keeling House was designed by Denys Lasdun (architect of the National Theatre on the South Bank) and his idea was to "wipe out the old streets and everything that went with them". His idea was that social contact would remain the same, as the maisonettes faced each other due to the unique shape of the building.

But it didn't work for the East End.

Tenants, who previously looked out for each other in the street, couldn't do so from their maisonettes 100 feet in the air.

Bethnal Green Council (which later merged to become Tower Hamlets) didn't want to look after the block, which had become home to a deprived mix of extremely anti-social tenants.

In his book Glinert says: "Keeling House descended into anarchy. Burglary became rife and responsible tenants who moved out were replaced by problem families. By 1990 the flats were covered in fungus, there were cracks in the stairwells, and safety nets had been installed to catch chunks of falling masonry."

The block closed in 1992 and in 1993, surprisingly, English Heritage decided to list the building, saving it from demolition and paving the way for Tower Hamlets to sell the block to a private developer....who gave us the ornamental-pond fronted Keeling House we see today.

Ironically enough there is now a big fence with an electric gate keeping the locals out.

Oh - and the reason there are no pics I took is because I lost my camera in Mexico - will post some when I get a new one!

Bye bye Heygate

2010-03-12T11:12:00.000Z

The £1.5b regeneration of the Elephant and Castle is about to get physical, with the erection of a banner on empty blocks on the Heygate Estate to advise residents that demolition is now underway.

The Rodney Road and Wingrave blocks are now vacant and will form phase one of the demolition and regeneration of the Heygate Estate.

The demolition process has already begun, with the removal and salvage of flat contents, vermin baiting and a hygiene sweep in progress, the utilities will also be disconnected.

In order to carry out the work, the council will arrange for survey work including: electric, gas and water supplies detailed analysis of the asbestos examination of the condition of the estate’s trees noise and air quality before demolition to inform the monitoring of the effects of the demolition throughout the process a bat survey an ecology survey.

Dismantling of the vacant buildings is expected to start later in the year following the safe disposal of any asbestos, and vermin baiting and hygiene sweeps will continue throughout the process.

We're back....and in south London at the Heygate Estate

2009-11-04T13:37:00.000Z

We've decided to leave our East London home this time and headed down to Elephant & Castle.

When you come out of the tube just south of the river and head west, the first estate you'll come across is the Heygate - a fairly large set of council homes built between 1970 and 1974 by London County Council at the tail end of the post World War II social housing boom.

This picture shows the estate under construction in 1973, and below how it looks today.

Even at the time the 1,194 homes were built it was generally recognised that the Heygate was shabilly constructed and in 2003 Southwark Council gave the go ahead for the demolition and re-construction of the homes.

The developer Lend Lease is now in talks with Southwark Council to take on the £1.5 billion project.

Demolition was meant to start earlier this year, but it seems funding has been slow to materialise and it's not even certain if the "before Christmas" deadline will be met.

In the meantime the council have slowly been moving people out, wherever they can rehouse them in the borough.

On the Heygate, as of last Friday there were 117 secure, non secure tenants and leaseholders left - 67 secure tenants, of whom over half have direct offers for alternative accommodation.

Those left behind, like this tenant here in the photo on the left, are living surrounded by vacant properties that have been boarded up to keep out squatters (though why they would come here when they can find plenty of properties to squat in Mayfair is baffling!).

Here's a great blog on what life was like on the Heygate.

And here's a video of life on the Heygate.

And though there's no doubt that the residents that still live here are looking forward to some new (and hopefully more modern) accommodation, it seems a shame that these brutalist buildings - where a strong sense of community still exists - are being demolished.

Councils neglecting tower blocks

2009-09-29T10:14:00.000+01:00

London councils have been neglecting to check tower blocks for fire safety, leaving thousands of residents at risk....

see story on BBC London

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8278657.stm

The news comes just months after a fire at Lakanal House in Southwark in which six people died.

It's shocking that councils can get away with this, especially in our age of health and safety obsessed bureaucracy.

Cranbrook Estate

2009-09-03T14:11:00.000+01:00

The second estate we're looking at is the iconic Cranbrook Estate, sandwiched between the south of Victoria Park and Roman Road in East London.

It's one of the older estates in Tower Hamlets, and you can see its distinctive grey, white and green panelling from as far as Hackney Wick (along the Union Canal) and from all over Victoria Park.

The council originally cleared four acres of land - knocking down terraces, workshops and a factory - here in 1959 to build one of its most ambitious housing projects ever.

Like Columbia Road's Sivill House, the design was done by Skinner, Bailey and Lubetkin....and Wates (London) built the scheme.

The Cranbrook Estate, named after a road originally situated on the land, was opened in 1964. At the time the housing here was considered pretty luxury compared to the cramped terraces nearby!

These aerial photographs, taken in 1965 and 1963 respectively, show Victoria Park to the north, with RomanRoad on the south. You can see the distinctive figure of eight that shapes the estate - Mace Road.

The higher blocks are named after towns from around the world that Bethnal Green is twinned with - Velletri, St Gilles, Offenbach, Alzette, Modling and Puteaux - while the smaller buildings are named after roads that were razed to build the estate.

This picture shows the low-rise Stubbs House in the foreground, with two of the 15-storey blocks in the rear.

As well as residential housing, the estate also has commercial space....they're mainly small local business.

Walking around the estate today, it is quite run down and it all feels a bit....sad. The distinctive design of the buildings looks dated, and the communal areas are desserted. Though there have been attempts from residents to spruce up community spirit with the introduction of a herb garden....

Recently some revamp projects have been proposed for the estate, including the ambitious Cranbrook Lunar Lighthouse - by Paticas Architecture.

They say: "A dynamic lighting proposal for the six towers on the Cranbrook Estate in Bethnal Green, East London. The changing pattern of light projected onto the flying cornices at the top of each tower is linked to the phases of the moon, thus establishing a collective rhythm for the estate and a connection to the celestial sphere. Initial consultations with the residents and the local planning department have been positive. Project is awaiting funding and further consultation."

Sivill House - Columbia Road

2009-08-26T11:04:00.000+01:00

We've decided to start our blog with one of the largest and most intriguing buildings in our neighbourhood- Sivill House on Columbia Road.

The 59 metre high building was designed by Douglas Bailey, Francis Skinner and Berthold Lubetkin, and was finished in 1962.

You can see it from miles away, and if you've ever visited the flower market on a Sunday you've probably marvelled up at it's hugeness. Here is a picture from a nearby park:

It's frontage is made from a series of interlocking concrete and brick structures that form forward and backward C-shapes - we think it looks kind of like how council flats would look if they were made by an accomplished Lego builder.

The block has 76 flats over 19 floors, with amazing views from the top. We managed to wangle our way in via one of the residents to take these pictures from the highest residential floor (there is a 20th level that presumably holds services). In the second you can see Columbia Road to the right.

The house, which is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, has a coloured past. In 2002 it was the scene of a gruesome triple murder where an estranged husband returned to his ex-wife's flat, stabbing, mutilating and killing her and her two children (who had a different father).

News story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2242659.stm

Even earlier, in 1979, a woman plunged to her death from the 18th floor in mysterious circumstances. According to the East London Advertiser Keli Welch was found dead at the base of the building, just hours after she was reporter missing from her Somerset home.

At the time of the tragedy, believed to be around 2.45pm on a Sunday, all residents on the 18th floor were out. Mrs Eileen Hook, who lived on the 18th floor, said: "If only we had been here we might have saved her. The window she went through was cracked but not broken. We would have heard the smashing glass. Someone must have broken it before she fell because it was all over the landing."

An inquest was carried out into her death.

More recently the only thing residents can really complain about is the rise of prices in the building. Two-bedroom flats in the block can be rented for around £315/week and are very rare to come up for sale, especially given its prime location next to the City and Old Street.

A journey into London's council housing

2009-08-17T17:51:00.000+01:00

After several years of living in London we have decided to take a closer look at the city's varied, wonderful world of council housing.

There are blocks on every corner, in every neighbourhood of every borough - and we want to know more! If we want to know more, surely many other Londoners do too.

So join us for our comprehensive round up on London's council housing.....