Metro Central Heights - Heygate Estate - Unite Building
GENTRIFICATION
SNIPPETS*(see also
JAM TOMORROW!)
What's Going On In Our Neighbourhood?
The
view from the Infoshop
Over
the last few years, a load of new residential housing has been put up in the
newly attractive London Borough of Southwark. It started with luxury lofts and
apartments being built in the new supposed 'cultural quarter' of Bankside where
the Tate Modern and Globe Theatre had arrived in the 1990's. The next area to
be 'up and coming' was The Borough, where the trendy foodie Borough Market brought
in pioneer homebuyers and developers. After the luxury flats market set the
trend for our previously unfashionable and always snubbed part of London, the
voulme housing developers (like Wimpey or Countryside) came in on the act to
throw up acres of cheaply built but expensive housing. Now, after, five years
of rapid development, Walworth, one of the poorest areas in England has seen
the first arrival of a yuppie housing market. Not only has this impacted on
the local area, with vacant spaces being built on for new oddly-coloured buildings,
but the sale and market in ex-council houses has gone through the roof: nearly
£200,000 for a flat on The Pullens Estate where the Infoshop is located.
The high prices are maintained by the forthcoming myth/reality of the massive
'regeneration' of the Elephant and Castle area. This slow moving plans seeks
to knock down the shopping centre and the Heygate Estate and replace it with
a mega complex of hotels, retail developments and hundreds of new private houses
and blocks. Along the way, a required percentage of social housing will be factored
in. Essentially, what is planned is to change the local demographic from one
of poor people and the type of shops and services these people need to a landscape
and culture of more well-off people and the mega shops and service industries
they require. Without this change, no-one will invest their money in big shops,
hotels and private leisure facilites in The Elephant.
Metro
Central Heights - Heygate Estate - Unite Building
•
The first yuppie development was the rejigging of the old DHSS building that
looms above the Northern roundabout at the Elephant. Designed by Erno Goldfinger,
this brutal concrete bohemoth is listed to preserve it for the Nation! At the
end of the 90's it was developed as Metro
Central Heights, a gated community of first time buyers and more affluent
types, the first wave of urban pioneers that came to live in 'edgy, sexy, vibrant'
Elephant. Freshly painted at the time, now it looks tatty and run down fitting
in well with local social housing.
The famous Heygate
Estate is another massive concrete warren and reaches from Walworth Rd to
New Kent Rd, containing 1100 homes. Standing on prime development land, the
Heygate has been previously victorious in slowing down the gentrification of
the area by insisiting on a good deal when the Estate is knocked down as one
of the first moves necessary to get the development ball rolling (swinging?).
A few years ago. the three-way negotiation between the council, developers and
local tenants resulted in the council and developers scrapping the deal as they
couldn't agree on who would get what share of the profits. Result? Three million
pounds lost by the developers and shedloads of money wasted by the council.
At that time, a ballot of Heygate tenants overwhelmingly said they wished to
keep the Council as their landlord. Realising that the tenants wielded the ultimate
voice on whether the 'regeneration' would begin, the new Liberal Democrat council
decided to blackmail the tenants into either accepting new Housing Association
buildings in the Heygate area or being moved outside of Walworth if they wanted
to stay with the Council.
The Unite development was built opposite the Heygate Estate a couple of years ago. Sold on the basis of it being a development for 'key workers', it ended up primarily as a student dorm for local colleges. It's a good example of the goldrush mentality developing round here where any piece of land, ruined building or landmark is being speculated on in the run-up to fabled massive 'regeneration'.
• Crampton St in Walworth, where 56a is located, is now undergoing yuppiefication. Oakmayne Properties are building 2 large developments in the area, the dumbly named South Central East and West. To aid good cheer to local residents, they cut down trees, removed the local phone boxes and now the Post Box has been taken away! Here you can see the yuppie fortress of South Central East rising beyond the train tracks near our shop. Get out ya wallets - South Central East, London SE17 Only £415,000, 2 bedroom apartment (Sept 2006)
• The Newington Industrial Estate, the scene of the as yet to be built South Central West. The developers have now knocked down the light industrial units and boarded it off. Grafitti appeared a few days after the theft of local amenities: 'What happened to our phone boxes? Dem they got taken! Greedy Developer Bastards'.
• More pictures of the Newington Industrial Estate as it disappears
• The view above is Crampton St, described by Oakmayne as an 'historic tree-lined boulevard' in their sales pitch for their new development. The bird is unimpressed. Storm clouds brewing over Walworth? The response to the yuppiefication has been so far muted!
• Oakmayne Properties advertising wheeze for the South Central East flats was to put up an advert on the Walworth Rd that read 'If you want to make real money, invest in The Elephant'. Stuck to the poster was 300+ fivers which local people then ripped off in a frenzy. This crass 80's Thatcherite money-madness is probably the last thing local people in The Elephant need. A few crumbs from the table and the continuing myth that the development will aid local people. Here is the architect's plan for South Central West on Crampton St. As you can see it recreates not a 'historic tree lined boulevard' that never was, but a large building that blocks rare and precious daylight from the council's Pullens Estate. The suited gent on the right, is Martin Lent, one of the Oakmayne Directors.
more...
• The new Southwark Council regeneration website features two galleries for 'community' images: One is for photos of local people, the other is for Architects plans. Scarily, there are no photos of local people in the first gallery! But there are the new improved plastic people that populate those kind of architects dreamscapes -
• St Mary Newington park right by the Elephant is one place of desolate semi-tranquility where there is nothing but roses, trees and grass. It's nothing special but is strangely special. The Council reckons it's attracted 'anti-social behaviour'. Last week, dog walkers, picnicing locals, frisbee player and psychogeographers all seemed to be enjoying this pagan land quite so socially. Plans are afoot to create a normal but boring 'park' with the usual shops and kiosks. (Work going on as we speak DECEMBER 2007)
• No1 Churchyard Row, Walworth SE17 aka The Rowton House. This Victorian working mans hostel that sits next to St Mary Newington gardens is due, of course, for demolition to be clear the land for the erection of 'private residential dwellings' aka yuppie flats. Almost beautiful (esp. before the original cupolas were removed in the 1970's), this building adds much to the area for those who have lived here a long time. The new photo adds in a poetic accident for those inclined to such moments...click the pic to enlarge. (Demolition happening now DEC 2007)
•
www.findaproperty.co.uk
- Property for sale in London SE17: Hectic would be a good word for SE17...
'...The strong working class element to the district has prevented gentrification
in an area that geographically would make it a prime candidate. Compensation
for being the planners' guinea pig is the community spirit which puts most of
the rest of London to shame. There are seemingly violent mixes of housing in
SE17. Unexplained survivals from Georgian times meet partial Victorian terraces
and in their lee are low and high rise flats and the full panoply of post war
varieties. The effect is not charming as in Forest Hill to the south and the
small scale tactical plans obviously had no time or money for a strategic appreciation
of how the whole would appear...Between Walworth Road and Old Kent Road we have
the Sixties/Seventies brutalist paradises of the Heygate Estate by the Elephant
and the Aylesbury Estate by Burgess Park. The Aylesbury has been saved from
full scale demolition but much of it will still go. The Heygate was due to be
completely wiped off the face of the earth but the collapse of the Elephant
& Castle regeneration plan in 2002 will have put such ambitious schemes
in jeopardy....New life is flickering here in the conversion of a school, a
pub, some new housing and the rebuild of 68 Victorian terraces with all mod
cons...SE17 is obviously proving the hardest nut to crack for gentrification.
Even the East End is succumbing faster, and if Walworth falls then nowhere can
be immune. The upside to all this is to find perhaps the last sizeable chunk
of inner London that is still fairly cheap, and first-time buyers, on to a good
thing here, will have a whale of a time hunting through this fascinating area'.
•
onionbag
blogger Thursday 29 April, 2004
'The Aylesbury Estate in Walworth is a contradiction of style and sorrow. There
is beauty to be found in the thirty year old blocks, and then with the disappearance
of the sun behind a cloud, the old estate emerges as a much murkier proposition.
Covering the size of a small town, the Aylesbury is symbolic for giving Blair
a bloody nose with local democracy standing up to grandiose Whitehall planning.
Mr Tony chose the Aylesbury as a platform to launch his Social Exclusion speech
shortly after the '97 election. Seven years later and the estate is still standing,
even looking liking to outlast Tony, Tony, Tony...Back in '99 the proposal was
to completely demolish the 2,700 homes on the estate and build new private sector
managed accommodation, 1,300 of which would be sold off for profit. That's a
bit like the landlord in your local pushing past you and causing you to smash
your pint glass on the floor, and then he has the cheek to charge you for a
new one. The residents were given the choice of allowing the private sector
to rip up their protected local authority contracts (and allow big business
to provide half the service at twice the cost), or carry on building their own
community without fat cat interference. The 70% NO vote back in 2002 proudly
told the private sector to piss off back to the City - a euphoric rejection
of New Labour's flagship 'Third Way' regeneration programme.
Housing 10,000 people on a site that is only half a mile from the pinstripes
of the City of London, the Aylesbury remains the largest estate in Europe. Bolted
together by a series of bridges and walkways, the landscape around Walworth
is forever changing and provides you with a new perspective with every turn...Despite
the recent upsurge in celebrating the local community, Walworth is ripe for
gentrification. With the bulldozers now not moving in, it is only a matter of
time before the Bright Young Things from the City enclave around SE17. Old school
buildings are already being converted into loft space. Google Aylesbury and
a page of poxy Estate Agents are thrown up. Transport may stave off the takeover
though; without a tube connection from some shitty Soho lifestyle bar, the upwardly
mobile remain ironically stranded. You may be able to read a tube map Tallulah,
but I bet you?d be lost trying to get your pretty little airhead around the
fine art of planning a South London bus journey across town'.
•
More
local developments:
Large site development site Southwark Bridge Rd. Here you can see a pretty plan
of what I call 'their dream, my nightmare'. The plan features zero cars and
very few people but lots of pastel shades and classy glass construction. The
other development is called 'The Wireworks' and is on Great Suffolk St, next
door to the first pictured site. It's another development by our friends Oakmayne
Properties. The penthouses on the top cost half a million. Not bad for a grungy
street in backwaters Elephant. The famous sign in the middle has obvioulsy stopped
working.
And now this classic. A penthouse on Walworth Rd above Factory Stock Clothing Warehouse. Or the cheaper one bedroom flat £225 per week. Nice
•
ELEFEST 2006, a festival that celebrates cultural diversity in The Elephant,
now in it's third or fourth year and sponsored (in part) by Oakmayne Properties
(see above). Surely some mistake?!!
• ELEFEST 2007, a festival that celebrates cultural diversity in The Elephant,
now in it's fourth or fifth year and sponsored (in part) by Oakmayne Properties
(see above). Surely a continuing mistake?!!
• GONE! Pizzeria Castello! Demolished to make way for 44 storey eco-tower.
• COULD THERE BE SOME CONNECTION between the ever expanding GOLFRATE PROPERTY management of a dozen or more of the shops on Walworth Rd and the recent closure of many local shops? Golfrate is 'one of the fastest growing private property companies in the UK' looking 'to double its Greater London property portfolio to £2bn over the next five years'. It started out in the 1980's with two shops in Deptford. Over the past two years, long-standing local businesses have closed due to higher rents being imposed upon them by their agents. It's also likely that places like Subway, Holland & Barrett, Paddy Power who are willing and able to pay higher rents for their stores, will add to the spiral of rent increases, closure and more chains arriving.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Photographic Exhibition at 56a INFOSHOP held from September 2005 to March 2006
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International
Dis/Appearance The process of erasure and closure is at work in both Santiago, Chile and Walworth in London (and everywhere else too it seems?) Decay, psychic anchors, historical ruins and the sense of community life in local space is demolished overnight. What buildings, grafitti, secrets, shops, dark alleys keep life in your neighbourhood bearable? |
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What
happens when these happy references are removed form the landscape? As
if by magic, without reference to you, to what is or what has been, towers
of 'luxury' flats spring up overnight. The only reference is money. When
money arrives, you depart. This dual photographic
exhibition (pictures from Santiago and Walworth) documents
a personal take on scrubbing the city clean, against the myths and hypes
of regeneration and gentrification.
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having
fun today dear?
not
really no!
UPDATED: July 9th 2008