Highbury 2 - the Quadrant Estate

The sun was setting and the light beginning to fade by the time I reached the Quadrant Estate, but there was just time to look around before it became dark. The time was about four-thirty in the afternoon and the estate was absolutely quiet. I hardly saw anyone the entire time I was there.



Above: opened in 1954, the estate comprises a mixture of about forty low-rise blocks plus some terraced housing. About six hundred households in all. The area pioneered low-rise post-war blocks of flats.

The design was by the architectural department of the old London County Council.



Above: at the centre of the park-like estate is the Birchmore community hall (hardly any thought seems to have gone into the external appearance of this building which is a utilitarian brick shed). The hall was the venue for the first screening of local history film Views From A Pear Tree in which residents talk about the history of the estate and why it is a pleasant place to live. About a hundred of the original 1954 residents still live on the Quadrant Estate.

You can see part of the film: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/video/2010/jan/04/highbury-quadrant-london



Above: the film Views From A Pear Tree puts forward several thories as to why the Quadrant Estate has been so successful, including a tendentious claim of "progressiveness". Far more convincing must be the landscaping policies (there are a thousand trees on the estate, giving the area a soft and beautiful aspect even on a cold gloomy December afternoon). Also significant is the statement that a hundred of the original residents still live there fifty years after moving in. Do people stay because it is a pleasant place to live, or is it a pleasant place to live because people stay? If you look at most problem communities, one of the common underlying themes is lack of a stable population. Modern society is obsessed with "mobility" but an endlessly transient population is not the way to build happy satisfied communities.



Above: obviously life on the estate is not perfect. Drug-related anti-social behaviour is a concern, and the police are monitoring several "crack houses" in the flats. The police also use informers, which is not a good sign of a happy community.



Above: 1959 statue entitled Neighbours by the Second World War refugee artist Siegfried Charoux. The work seems to be a socialist-realist monument to the white working class. Recently restored and Grade II listed.