A couple of weeks ago I carried out some interviews in north east London and afterwards went for a walk from Haggerston to Hoxton via Haggerston School.
Above: looking back along Hilborough Court. This dispiriting housing is little better than barracks. Apart from the grey weather this could have been in an upmarket part of Soweto.
Above: Shrubland Road shows slightly more originality, but you can see from the erosion of the bricks that these have been cheaply built and meanly maintained.
Above: tin mission church - late Victorian I would guess.
Above: eventually I arrived at George Finch's Suffolk Estate. Not technically "brutalist" but certainly a brutal touch to the design. All individuality, all softness, all humanity has been entirely suppressed. Note how the flats are organised into bands, and how all the windows overlook each other - this is housing designed for a highly organised surveillance society.
Above: in true Orwellian style cameras watch the comings and goings in Orwell Court (and indeed must have watched me).
Above: look how mean they are with the gardens.
Above: not sure if George Finch designed this tower, seen from the Suffolk Estate lock-up garages - it looks hideous enough to be by him.
Above: Haggerston School, designed by Erno Goldfinger and a place of pilgrimage for modern movement enthusiasts, although to me it is just another of the horrors that stud the north Hackney townscape. The only time I felt at risk was near this school when I wandered into a court under a tower block and was stared at (one could almost say confronted) by a BME man in his twenties, with voices calling down from the tower block (no idea what they were saying). An elderly West Indian man carrying a plastic bag of shopping appeared out of nowhere, took my arm and hurriedly led me out of the court walking so fast it was almost as if he wanted us to run.
Above: looking back along Hilborough Court. This dispiriting housing is little better than barracks. Apart from the grey weather this could have been in an upmarket part of Soweto.
Above: Shrubland Road shows slightly more originality, but you can see from the erosion of the bricks that these have been cheaply built and meanly maintained.
Above: tin mission church - late Victorian I would guess.
Above: eventually I arrived at George Finch's Suffolk Estate. Not technically "brutalist" but certainly a brutal touch to the design. All individuality, all softness, all humanity has been entirely suppressed. Note how the flats are organised into bands, and how all the windows overlook each other - this is housing designed for a highly organised surveillance society.
Above: in true Orwellian style cameras watch the comings and goings in Orwell Court (and indeed must have watched me).
Above: look how mean they are with the gardens.
Above: not sure if George Finch designed this tower, seen from the Suffolk Estate lock-up garages - it looks hideous enough to be by him.
Above: Haggerston School, designed by Erno Goldfinger and a place of pilgrimage for modern movement enthusiasts, although to me it is just another of the horrors that stud the north Hackney townscape. The only time I felt at risk was near this school when I wandered into a court under a tower block and was stared at (one could almost say confronted) by a BME man in his twenties, with voices calling down from the tower block (no idea what they were saying). An elderly West Indian man carrying a plastic bag of shopping appeared out of nowhere, took my arm and hurriedly led me out of the court walking so fast it was almost as if he wanted us to run.
Above: the Kingsland Estate looks abandoned, although it could be still partially inhabited beneath the grime and dereliction. In a Twitter conversation earlier today Douglas Murphy (architecture correspondent at Icon magazine) told Owen Jones (Independent) that "Some of the very best council flats at all were built 60s and 70s". Presumably Douglas Murphy has never been to Haggerston (although it is equally possible that he has been to the borough and approves of all this stuff).
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