Hideous

The proposals for the redevelopment of the Deptford Station area in Lewisham are hideous:
http://www.richardrogers.co.uk/render.aspx?siteID=1&navIDs=1,4,25,1848,1851&showImages=detail&imageID=3588

Do the architects (Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners) think Deptford is in Florida?

The arrogance of these people is unbelivable.

Social cleansing at the old Heygate estate

It is important, when considering this Independent article by Charlotte Philby about social cleansing at the old Heygate estate to remember that this is being done by a Labour council and the old residents were moved out in 2010 under a Labour government.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/15bn-revamp-of-sink-estate-reveals-social-cleansing-plan-8482307.html

They did the same at the Woodberry Down estate in Hackney.

Labour has turned against the working class.  They have become a centralised party, recruiting directly and deciding policy at the centre.  They only really represent themselves now (a small self-perpetuating political elite that uses "Labour" as a concept-free brand name).

Tim Bale's article just published on the Progress website is apt - particularly the last paragraph (Tim Bale is professor of politics at Queen Mary College, University of London):  http://www.progressonline.org.uk/2013/02/06/campaign-in-prose/

http://afroml.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/blog-post_28.html
http://afroml.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/elephant-castle.html

Grove Park in south London

Above:  recently I went to Grove Park in south London to do some research interviews.  While I was there I had a look around the "highly aesthetic" suburb created by Lord Northbrook in the 1880s.  A ruined suburb, but still with poignant traces of the rus in urbe rural romantic dream. 

Above:  the railway station is in the characteristic barracks-style of the London Bridge to Sevenoaks line.

Above:  one felt very close to the genesis of London suburbia - one can imagine the first pioneering pooterish families coming here from the inner city and thinking they had arrived in Eden.

Above:  a stretch of former water meadows is at the centre of Grove Park and incorporates a Peace Garden opened by Archbishop Desmond Tutu - as the name implies, the Peace Garden is very peaceful.

Above:  this little cul-de-sac of council houses caught my eye.  It has a quiet sense of integrity.  The trees seem almost surreal in size and shape.

 
















Above:  the wonderful Baring Hall Hotel, now boarded up and about to be demolished.  Built in 1882, it was designed by Sir Ernest Newton whose great work Sketches for Country Residences caused a sensation among architects of the late-Victorian period.  As you can see, the hotel is itself in the style of a small country house and Sir Ernest has created on the difficult sloping site a picturesque building that conferred on the petit bourgeoisie (travelling salesmen, clerks, coal merchants etc) all the reassuring status and comfort of the landed gentry.  It is a scandal that this hotel is to be destroyed.  Can nothing be done, even at this late stage?  Or is the Philistine to triumph even in Grove Park?

Possibly the Baring Hall Hotel may be saved - the demolition notice has been revoked for the time being.

Newington Estate near Elephant & Castle

A quick look round the Newington Estate near Elephant & Castle.

Plain 1970s architecture, the stark geometric shapes denuded of all surface interest.  Cheap yellow bricks.  It looks as if the architect had been determined to design a completely souless environment without joy or personality.

Social housing for the deserving poor perhaps, but the deserving poor must never forget they are beholden to the state for their subsistence, and on no account must they be indulged with fripperies such as architectural embellishments.

A generally safe and well-maintained place to live.  Anti-social issues are mainly due to the boredom consequent to youth unemployment.  For many unemployed people with low educational achievement the past is a blank and the future merely a continuation of the present.

Coopers Lane Estate

Constructed in the 1970s, the Coopers Lane Estate in Somers Town (Camden) is a reasonably competent exercise in social housing.

There is a barracks-like appearance to the flats, softened by the courtyard design and the use of trees.

The first priority of social housing designers should be to create an environment where residents feel safe.  The fortress style of Coopers Lane Estate, combined with gates and barriers at the entrances, seem to be attempting this.  There was no-one about, so I couldn't ask what people felt about living on the estate.

The area has been blighted recently by noise from nearby construction work.

Archway to Highgate 4 - the Whittington Estate

Above:  after leaving the Girdleston Estate you come to the Whittington Estate.  Put up in the late 1970s to a design by Paul Tabori and K Adie (Camden Architects' Department).  The estate was refurbished 2005-08 but residents subsequently complained of leaks, flooded drains and peeling paintwork.

Above:  along Raydon Street you see a linear concrete terrace broken by stylised "buttresses".  Perhaps in Salazar's Portugal this sort of collective housing for the workers might be tolerable - bathed in brilliant sunshine and with myrtles and oleanders splashing the white facades with colour.  In the grey light of a damp London afternoon it seemed a bit grim.

Above:  there was something about the design of the estate that reminded me of a multi-story car park.  Note the tiny Union Jack, presumably put up to mark the Diamond Jubilee.  In a society where identity through possession of consumer goods is the norm ("we are what we buy") socio-economic groups excluded from conspicuous consumption tend to get their identity from communal social "assets" such as the Royal Family - which is why the working classes are among the most pro-royalist sections of society.

Above:  at the back of the terrace was this long elevated walkway.  No defensive space here at all and returning to the estate at night you would be at the mercy of anyone waiting here (especially as the walkway cannot be seen from the road).  This vista had echoes of the Prora resort by Erich Putlitz (I hope that is not too unfair).



Above: the staircases from the road up to the walkway are claustrophobic, steep and intimidating. Why do architects do this sort of thing? Perhaps they should be made to live in their own designs.



Above: one last point to mention is that the estate backs onto Highgate cemetery. Obviously this provides a view of green space and close proximity to nature (although you would not want your children to go playing in that jungle). But did Camden Architects Department not stop to consider the psychological impact of living above a giant graveyard?

Archway and Highgate 2

Above:  on my walk from Archway into Highgate I went into Highgate cemetery.  There are in fact two cemeteries - the West one, which I went into; and the East one which I will have to return to see.  Actually I will have to return to see the West cemetery more thoroughly as all I had time for was a walk around the circuit path.

Highgate was one of the great Victorian cemeteries of London and contains a huge number of graves - ordinary Victorians, famous Victorians, Victorians who used to be famous but are now forgotten ("long in Kensal Green and Highgate silent under soot and stone" if you will forgive a Govean lapse into poetry learned by heart).  And not just Victorians.  The West cemetery is still in use, although you get the impression that people are being squeezed into gaps and soon the elysian field will be complete.

Above:  the circuit path is about a mile in circumference (I am guessing) and is well kept.  Away from the path the graves are jumbled and overgrown.  Some of the monuments are fabulous, although not to be compared with those in the East cemetery.

I have always had a tendency to melancholia, and walking alone around the circuit path made me feel very philosophical about my life, how little I have achieved, how brief our lives are compared to the eternity of the grave.

Above:  as a dog-lover I was cheered by this monument to "Emperor".  Fidelity even unto death.  Often I wonder if dogs have souls and whether I will see my long-gone dogs again.

Above:  Anna Mahler's grave.  Who would have thought that London would have a connection to the great composer?  His daughter fled to England in 1939.

Above:  on a corner you suddenly come across Karl Marx.  Obviously I knew he was in Highgate, but I was expecting more of a setting than just a roadside grave.  There was something about this squat monument that seemed to suggest all the dead historical weight of communism.

One thing that surprised me was how many "lefties" have been buried around Karl Marx in a sort of marxist valhalla.  Presumably these people are all atheists, so why would they be concerned about the final location of their remains rather than having them tipped into a utilitarian socialist compost heap?  Do they expect to follow their philosopher into some kind of utopian communist after-life?

I continued walking and was approached by four young men in jeans and t-shirts, dark Mediterranean appearance (or were they South Americans?).  They asked me where Karl Marx was, and after I had given them directions I asked on impulse whether they were communists.  "No, we are humans" one of them replied.

Above:  one of the last mausoleums before I left the West cemetery, pink granite and classical.  Eventually we will all have to pass through our own equivalent of those verdigris bronze doors.  Who knows what will await us ("We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come").

Archway and Highgate 1

Inspired by the Secret History of Our Streets I have decided to resume my wanderings around the less fashionable suburbs of London.  This is the first of three posts about my Friday afternoon walk from Archway tube across parts of Highgate.  I had a vague idea of walking as far as Kentish Town, but that was too ambitious.

Above:  the area round Archway tube station seems at first glance to be a nothing sort of place.  Archway is dominated by the Archway Tower, a nondescript structure in the modernist style, notable only for the glowering way it intimidates and dominates the surrounding buildings.  There is currently a debate on whether to demolish or refurbish the tower.

Archway Library is in a grim sort of undercroft area, right underneath the Archway Tower - as if it is being crushed by the concrete slab overhead.  The library is not open on Friday afternoons, so I was not able to call in there to research the area (I am assuming it has a local history section).  Too much traffic gives the immediate surroundings a hectic atmosphere.

Above:  opposite the Archway Tower is the Archway Tavern pub.  I don't have a Pevsner for this area of London, and the public library was closed, but I would guess this is an 1870s building.  Fine mansard tower.

An album cover for The Kinks was photographed in the main bar of the Archway Tavern.

Above:  less architecturally distinguished than the Archway Tavern is the nearby Whittington Stone pub.  The legend of Dick Whittington and his cat is probably just a picturesque story, but it may overlay a more ancient tradition.  Stones at crossroads, especially in elevated situations, often marked ancient meeting places where leaders were chosen (witenagemots - perhaps the origin of the "whitting stone").

Above:  I think this was once a hospital (if the Archway library had been open I could have checked).  Impressive building, looming over the busy road.  Archway tower, the tower on the Archway Tavern, and this tower - there seems to be a theme here.

Above:  Waterlow Park, one of several parks in the Archway and Highgate area.  Pleasant and well kept.  Given to the public by a wealthy Victorian philanthropist as a "garden for the gardenless".

Secret History of Our Streets on BBC2

I watched Secret History of Our Streets on BBC2 last night - part of a documentary series looking at the history of London from a micro level (streets, families, houses).


Last night's programme looked at Deptford.

It was a revelation.

I had always previously accepted the line that after the war bomb damage and “slum” clearance was the catalyst for the rebuilding of inner suburbs and the decanting of populations into “modernist” forms of housing (concrete canyons, tower blocks, “Noddy-land” houses in planned communities etc).

Unfortunate perhaps, but necessary.

The Deptford case study examined last night demonstrated that much of this redevelopment and decanting was not necessary at all, but was effectively an ideologically-inspired attempt at collectivisation of the working class.

The way people were treated was appalling.

Was this arrogant incompetence by essentially well-meaning but stupid people? Or was it a deliberate attempt to destroy local identity, destroy the institution of the family, and “rebuild” the working class according to a socialist ideal? Remember that in the post-war period (until 1979) both major parties were socialist – the Conservatives were “slow socialists”, Labour were “urgent socialists” (the reverse of the current position where Labour are “slow Tories” and the Conservatives are “urgent Tories”).

You should watch the programme while you can.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01jt9bv/The_Secret_History_of_Our_Streets_Deptford_High_Street/

Article in the Observer by Rowan Moore

Above:  Sunday morning I read this article in the Observer by Rowan Moore arguing that modernist social housing did not fail society, society failed modernist social housing.  Looking at the example of the Pruitt-Igoe estate in St Louis (in America) Rowan Moore listed the all the external factors that led to the decline of the Pruitt-Igoe estate.  It was a well-written piece but ultimately unconvincing.

Above:  Sunday afternoon I was in Lambeth and I paused to look at the Westbury Estate (Durrington Tower in the foreground, Amesbury Tower just visible behind).  Someone moving from a substandard property into one of these flats in the early 1960s would initially experience a feeling of relief, but for most people this relief would turn to feelings of alienation.  It's not hard to see why.  The towers are obviously alienated from their surroundings and from the cultural-historical continuum that most people inhabit (either consciously or unconsciously).  Putting people into this disconnected environment made many of them react in a number of negative ways - depression, flight (for those who could afford it), rejection.  At it's most extreme limit rejection took the form of anti-social activity and vandalism.

Above:  a few streets away is the Larkhall estate - social housing constructed in the late 1920s.  This Neo-Georgian estate has all the features that modernists would abhor - reddish-brown brick laid in English bond, stucco surrounds, weatherboarded spandrels, casement dormers, chimneystacks, sash windows, a little Gothick tracery, relief sculpture panels, iron railings etc.  Although modernists deride this construction as worthless pastiche Larkhall gives its residents a sense of dignity, status and identity that is callously denied the residents of the Westbury estate (I use the word callous, as the architects of the Westbury towers have placed their professional egos above the feelings of the people who have to live in their designs).

I would be surprised if the real cost of building the Westbury estate towers was any cheaper than the real cost of building Larkhall.

Above:  debased classical capitals on display in the Victoria & Albert Museum.  In my opinion including classical motifs in social housing projects will reassure the residents of their social worth and social status, and help them move towards self-actualisation within society.  Modernism ultimately failed because it is based on breaking the cultural-historical continuum and placing residents in a "year zero" that few of them are psychologically-equipped to cope with.

The Scovell Estate

Above:  recently I had a look around the Scovell Estate in Southwark.  The council housing is on the site originally occupied by the Kings Bench Prison (a debtors' prison).   Charles Dickens, in David Copperfield, had Mr Micawber incarcerated in Kings Bench Prison for financial insolvency (as George Osborne might say:  "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery").

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVxF4z-R2YM



















Above:  the estate is very attractive, despite being put up in the early 1970s.  The architects have used the sloping site to create a picturesque design.  The yellow stock bricks give a Victorian ambience.

Above:  one of the terrace alleys.  The houses resemble the model artisan's cottages put up in the nineteenth century.  Nice use of defensive space, iron railings, tiny gardens.

Pullens Buildings

Recently I was in Southwark and had a look round Pullens Buildings.  They are interesting because they are relatively untouched examples of Victorian model tenements.  Almost demolished in the 1970s.

Above:  look at the beauty of that facade!  Although the tenements were populated by some of the poorest in society, the architect has decided to give the block a collective grandeur worthy of a Venetian palace (possibly he had read Ruskin's Stones of Venice).  This application in the Victorian period of noble design to working-class dwellings is a truly democratic and radical idea that needs to be further explored (contrast this with the arrogance of architects working today). 

Note the gates which lead through to courtyards (where small workshops were located); the shops that intersperse each block; the flat roofs which were intended for recreation.

Above: each doorway leads into a communal stairwell. Corinthian capitals (a symbol of luxury!). The buildings were constructed between 1886 and 1901.

Charlie Chaplin once lived in one of the tenements.

 

Above:  the shops are fascinating examples of Victorian retail facades.  Presumably the left hand door led to the shop-owner's living accommodation and the right hand door was the public access to the shop.  I love the drop shadow font.

Above:  there were four courts at the back of the various blocks, with a total of 106 workshops.  The cobbled drives are original.  Part of the attraction of Pullens Buildings is the way in which it incorporated residential, retail and manufacturing units within a total (superb) design.

Ossulston Road Estate

Above:  Saturday two weeks ago I watched the debate on Social Housing in London, repeated on the BBC Parliament Channel (it went on all afternoon, so I did other things as well).  Joan Ruddock MP talked of 16,000 people on the waiting list in Lewisham, an area I know well from visiting my cousins in Catford.  She probably means well but to talk of "affordable new units" is dehumanising language - these should be homes for people not units for producers/consumers. 

Later Angela Bray MP talked about "the need for family houses rather than flats" which sounded much better.

As an aside, Don Strapzy's video for Out of the Blue is set in Lewisham:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJCINU7SXmI

Above:  Tom Brake MP said there was a waiting list of 4,000 people in the borough of Sutton.  He praised Centrepoint Outreach ("they sent a briefing out for today's debate").  Centrepoint Outreach is one of the charities I support.  You can donate here:  http://www.centrepoint.org.uk/  The briefing document is here:  http://www.centrepoint.org.uk/media/11155/wrb_committee_briefing_21st_march_2011.pdf

I am not sure about the proposals to end the right of tenure.  I know several people who would not be able to cope without state housing support.  They do not have organising skills to be able to privately rent or buy their own accommodation - by this I mean they do not have sufficient literacy skills, financial abilities, modest reserves of determination, emotional steadiness, motivation (their lives often seem meaningless to them), problem-solving skills etc and rather than cope with the pressures of private renting or buying they will probably give up and go under.

Clive Efford MP said that lack of supply was at the root cause of homelessness, but this cannot be the whole picture.  The increase in demand should also be addressed.  For instance 100,000 people from southern Ireland are expected to migrate to the United Kingdom because of the economic crisis - has any thought been given to where these people will live (it may be cheaper to pay them benefits to stay in Dublin).

Heidi Alexander MP referred to research by Family Mosaic http://www.familymosaic.co.uk/News/Which-direction-is-social-housing-travelling-in-

Frank Dobson MP referred to the social housing ordered by Neville Chamberlain in the 1920s (when Minister for Health).  This intrigued me since I am used to thinking of Neville Chamberlain as a weak and naive ditherer.  I decided to go and look at this housing, which is called the Ossulston Road Estate.

Above:  inside the Levita House on the Ossulston Road Estate.  Seven story building around a courtyard.  Simon Pepper, Professor of Architecture at the University of Liverpool, in an excellent article for the 20th Century Society said the architect of the estate (Topham Forrest) designed the buildings after being influenced by a visit to Vienna in 1927.  Standing inside the courtyard of Levita House I was immediately reminded of the courtyard castles of Austria (maybe Schloss Kornberg).

Above:  more of the courtyard at Levita House.  The enclosed balconies are a feature of the estate.  The flats were all-electric and had central heating.

Above:  the variegated roofline has been much praised.  Also not the slightly inward-sloping line of the nearest corner which is very pleasing to the eye and gives an organic feel to the building.  At street level there are shops, offices and pubs.

Above:  the entrance to Chamberlain House looking into the courtyard.  Simple but also beautiful.  Nothing brutalist here.

Above:  going into the courtyard of Chamberlain House the trees reminded me of another castle courtyard - Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire.  This looks a genuinely nice place to live.  You could never say that about the Heygate Estate.

Above:  wonderful details such as this ironwork (jugendstil influence?).

Above:  pubs were incorporated into the design, a short walk down from the flats.

Above:  I really liked the look of the Golden Tulip caff and would have stopped for a cup of tea if I hadn't been in a rush.

Above:  multi-use sports area - possibly the lack of sports facilities is a criticism of the estate.

Above:  last building I looked at was Walker House, which was a real surprise - on the outside plain brick facades...

Above:  ...but on the inside this lush and intimate garden - it was like being in Campden Hill Square.

Above:  and on the corner of Walker House, reassuringly close, was a pub.