Join the march on Saturday 16th August to try and save Walthamstow's world-famous dog track from housing developers. Meet outside the track at 12 noon for a march to Walthamstow town square.
For more on the campaign visit https://saveourstow.wordpress.com/
To sign the petition visit http://www.petitiononline.com/savestow/
Friday, 15 August 2008
March to Save Our Stow
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Council turns giant telly on
The "screen on the green" – the Olympic "Live Site" giant telly plonked on Walthamstow town square gardens, with the childrens' play area directly behind it, flickered into life today, after a last-minute planning hearing by the Waltham Forest Planning Committee. The committee agreed to 16 hours a day operation, seven days a week, 7am to 11pm, until at least the end of 2012.
Despite the Director of CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) calling the screens "intrusive" and suggesting our town square could become "an outdoors Currys", as well as fierce arguing from the Cleveland Park Residents' Association representative, a local dad and a Civic Society member, councillors rejected limiting the hours to "when something good is on" and also rejected a formal six-month review. Mainly due to "computer says no" counsel from two of Waltham Forest's Planning Officers.
Councillors did ask the Olympic arm of the council (the applicant in this case) for a (non-binding) six month review of how the screen was doing. And asked also that the review included local community representatives and ward councillors.
More news on the six-month review and how intrusive the screen is in action soon…
Monday, 21 July 2008
Giant telly: object now!
ACT NOW if you object to the giant telly in Walthamstow Town Square broadcasting (with sound) 16 hours a day, every day of the year, for the next four years.
Please send a quick email to Rachel.Jagger@walthamforest.gov.uk with your objections. She must receive them by the morning of Tuesday 5th August for them to be considered by the planning committee that night.
The screen already has planning permission. That battle is lost. But the applicant (the council) was told to return to the planning committee with revised operating hours. Instead it has (rather arrogantly, in our opinion) sent a letter attempting to justify the original operating hours proposed. These are 7am-11pm - the screen would be broadcasting both video and sound for all those hours. And it wants to start on Friday 8th August!
The truth is, the contract with the BBC (as yet unsigned) insists on those hours. But there is no real justification for them. And plenty of reasons for concern.
Our proposal is that the hours are approved... but only for six months. That way the screen can prove itself through the Beijing Olympics and beyond. Or else our concerns will be proven to be valid. It's called giving them enough rope...
OBJECT NOW!
Below are two documents to download: a detailed objection that has been sent in by the Cleveland Park Residents' Association. Plus a template to make it easy for you to write your own objection letter/email. It basically says that you support the main points in the CPRA objection and then gives room for you to add your own comments/points (which is important - the council will take your letter far more seriously if you personalise it).
Deadline: morning of Tuesday 5th August at the very latest.
CPRA objection letter
Objection letter to personalise
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Giant telly - the fight continues
If the sight of the huge Olympics-funded telly in Walthamstow Town Square being built is hardening your resolve to fight the height... then good! We're going to need everyone to get involved when it comes to opposing the tower block plans.
Meanwhile, there is still something worth fighting regarding the screen. The screen got planning permission on two conditions. One that it was only until 2012. The other was that the insanely long proposed operating hours, of 7am-11pm every single day of the year, were rejected - the applicant (the council) had to return with revised hours.
And guess what? They have now applied for approval... with the exactly the same operating hours!
So... watch this space. We'll be posting details of how to object ASAP. Meanwhile the application number is 2008/1087/RSM if you want to check it out at the town hall for yourself.
St Modwen posts £20m losses
If you heard a high-pitched sound on Tuesday, it was probably the world's smallest violin playing for Arcade developer St Modwen. Thanks to the property market collapse, it posted £20m losses for the first half of the year (last year it posted £65.1m profit in the same period). It has written £54.6m off its portfolio in what it describes as the worst period for the industry in almost 20 years.
Quoted in this Telegraph article, St Modwen says: "For residential land, there is currently no genuine market, as the major housebuilders are unwilling to invest in land until they can see the way ahead more clearly."
Meanwhile this BBC News story says that St Modwen is delaying its housebuilding plans in Longbridge. This comes just days after it announced it's delaying a development in Hatfield (see story below).
Again this suggests we will face delays (or maybe even get a reprieve - after all, St Modwen doesn't own the land yet) for the Arcade...
Sunday, 13 July 2008
St Modwen delays elsewhere, demands money from council
We'd already heard that St Modwen (the company behind the Arcade site plans) was delaying developments elsewhere. But the incredible news is that according to a local newspaper story St Modwen say their Hatfield town centre plans will be delayed by two or three years... unless they council makes "a substantial investment" to help make up for the flailing property market.
Is this the shape of things to come in E17? We've already seen written proof that Waltham Forest council is going to receive barely more in the St Modwen deal than the £4m they have already spent on the Arcade site. If they spend any more, they will have made a loss... in order to bring an unwanted tower blobk to our High Street.
Friday, 27 June 2008
Boris advisor: Towers will not be allowed in inappropriate locations
Good news: We had feared that Boris Johnson was about to backtrack on his pre-election pledges to oppose tower blocks in low-rise suburban London. But yesterday his senior planning advisor Sir Simon Milton said tower blocks must fit into the "local context" and will not be allowed in inappropriate locations, even if they have "wow-factor architecture". He said Boris will favour "high-density development" but not necessarily "high rise".
Read the full story in the Evening Standard.
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
ITV coverage of our demo
At last... here's the ITV coverage of our first demo (on 1st June). Sorry, it took ages for someone to find the time to do all the technical stuff to put it online! But if you haven't seen it already, it is worth the wait.
If the video is jerky then we recommend hitting play, then hitting pause for a moment, and then play again.
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Planning Magazine story
Planning Magazine recently ran a little diary piece on our June 1st demo, which you can read here. You need to subscribe to read the whole thing - or just click on "Read more..." below where we have pasted a copy of the story.
Diary - Planning, 13 June 2008
Developers got a fruity local response over retail plans for Walthamstow town centre last week.
More than 200 residents, using tomatoes supplied by local traders, pelted effigies of the developers behind plans for a major scheme in north-east London.
Residents and market traders are up in arms over St Modwen's proposals for an 18-storey tower, a Primark store and a Vue multiplex cinema. The site is directly next to Europe's longest daily open market.
"The development will cast a shadow over Walthamstow, devastate the market and kill off any hope of bringing back our cinema," says Caramel Quin, co-founder of the Fight the Height campaign. It is calling on the developers and the London Borough of Waltham Forest, which owns the site, to reconsider the proposals.
"This is being done to 'regenerate' the area, according to the council and St Modwen. If they won't reconsider, we'll be asking mayor Boris Johnson to call them in," Quin adds. Could this see the first test of Johnson's election pledge to veto tall buildings?
Sunday, 8 June 2008
Please help our sister campaign!
Friends of Queens Market are also fighting St Modwen, the developers behind the Walthamstow Arcade tower block plans. And they are fighting to save their own historic East End market (Queens Market in Upton Park) from being blighted as a result! In short, we have lots in common and we must help each other...
St Modwen has recently submitted a planning application for Queens Market. And it will see tower blocks of up to 30 storeys, while the market is halved in size. Increased rents for stallholders will mean collosal changes to this ethnically diverse market that helps huge numbers of families on low incomes eat healthy food. (Sound familiar? it'll be Walthamstow market that's threatened by St Modwen's next planning application!)
Anyway, FoQM have checked with Newham council, and it turns out that residents from other boroughs can send in objections to the plans. Please download the two files below, which make it very quick and easy to object, and SEND YOUR OBJECTION TODAY!
And when it's our turn to fight a planning application from St Modwen - which could be very soon indeed - we hope that the good people of Upton Park will return the favour.
Downloads:
FoQM objection info
Objection letter template
Giant town square telly approved :-(
The bad news is that this week the council planning committee ignored public opinion (39 letters of objection and a number of public speakers) and approved plans for the Olympic-funded giant telly in Walthamstow Town Square, backing on to the children's play area.
The only tiny bits of good news are that...
1) Rather than being there forever, the screen only has planning permission from this summer till summer 2012, after the London Olympics. So if it's unpopular, too loud, vandalised or otherwise a failure then we can hope the council won't grant planning permission for it to stay.
2) The insanely long operating hours of 7am till 11pm every day of the year were not approved. Instead the applicant will have to come up with revised operating hours and return to the planning committee with them for approval. So we will have the opportunity to lobby for shorter hours (i.e. only switch it on when there's something genuinely worth watching!) and for the sound to only be switched on when appropriate. This would also result in energy savings - by our estimates, the screen would have the same carbon footprints as 59 households if switched on for the proposed 18 hours a day.
Oh, and finally, one councillor made a big thing of the fact that there weren't many people in the public gallery - suggesting that this meant no-one cared! We don't really see why people should have to spend their evening watching a council meeting, at which they're not allowed to speak, in order to prove that they care. But if this is the way that the councillors see it (i.e. they might have even voted differently if they had a bigger audience) then it's essential that a huge number of us turn up when it comes to the planning applications for tower blocks in Blackhorse Road, the Arcade site, etc.
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Please join BAG... now!
It takes 2 seconds to fill in an online form to join Blackhorse Action Group and to give them your comments on the insane overdevelopment planned for the area. The plans include 10 tower blocks, the tallest of which will be 23 storeys (230 feet).
So please visit the Blackhorse Action Group website and sign up now!
And also check out the BAG Flickr page where they have posted yet more fab pics from Sunday's demo. Are we the world's most photographed (and photogenic) protestors or what?!
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
Indymedia demo coverage and Evening Standard article
Do read this Indymedia story, including yet more fab pics of Sunday's demo. Many thanks to Peter Marshall for coming along (and for letting us use this pic).
Also forgot to post a link to this Evening Standard feature from last week that singles the Arcade out as one of the tower block proposals that Boris Johnson may veto.
Monday, 2 June 2008
Pics from Sunday's demo
Thanks to the 200+ of you who turned up on Sunday for the tomato-chucking and the TV cameras! And thank you to the countless residents who emailed with their support - it's great to know that we have even more supporters (and we're going to need you all when it comes to fighting these tower block plans!)
Many thanks to photographers Nick Watts and Tom Glendining for the pics. And of course huge thanks to Alan, Tina and Rowena for being game enough to have tomatoes chucked at them.
Finally, before this turns into an Oscars speech, we mustn't forget to thank the London Borough of Waltham Forest and St Modwen Properties Plc, not to mention their allies Primark and VUE Cinemas. Without their hideous, market-killing proposed tower block development, none of this would have been possible...
We have uploaded a few more pics from the protest - click on "Read More..." below to see them. (Oh and if you're from the media and need print quality pics, email us!)
And here are the rest of our favourite pics...
BBC coverage of Sunday's demo
Will post the ITV news story too, as soon as we have time! Or if anyone else has recorded it and has time to stick it on YouTube and send us the link, that'd save us a job...
Oh and as ever with YouTube, if the video is jerky then we recommend hitting play, then hitting pause for a moment, and then play again.
Friday, 30 May 2008
Fight The Height needs you! Demo at noon on Sunday 1st June
The demo against the Arcade tower block - and tower blocks in Walthamstow generally - will be at noon this Sunday, 1st June in Walthamstow town square.
Please save the date, please come along and please tell all your local friends and family. Everyone involved in tower block decisions - from local councillors on the planning committee to Mayor Boris who has the power to veto tower block plans - cares about public opinion. So put simply, the more of us that turn up the more notice they will take!
The demo promises to be short and fun for all the family. Hope to see you there...
About us - why Fight The Height?
Fight The Height was originally founded by Cleveland Park Residents' Association but now has members from all over Walthamstow. What brings us together is our opposition to the tower block planned for the "Arcade" site (on the corner of High Street and Hoe Street) and to the many other tower blocks planned for Walthamstow, such as the ones currently being fought by Blackhorse Action Group.
The general problem with tower blocks in Walthamstow is that they're out of place in an area that's typically low-rise, two- and three-storey Victorian houses. Plus no-one wants to live in them - according to a recent survey by the Architecture Commission, less than one per cent of people would live by choice in a tower block. What's more, the main argument in favour of tower blocks is that we need high density housing, but there are better alternatives - as explained in this interview with the experts from The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment.
There are a couple of other reasons why the Arcade tower block in particular - which developer St Modwen and LBWF council plan to be around 18 storeys - would be disastrous for central Walthamstow. For starters, it will contain a massive Primark, which would put many small shops and traders on Walthamstow Market out of business. And it is also due to include a VUE multiplex cinema... and while Walthamstow certainly needs a cinema, the right place for it is undoubtedly the highly listed EMD/Granada two doors away. A multiplex in the Arcade development would be the final nail in the coffin for plans to get the beautiful EMD reopened.
What do we propose instead? Put simply, we think the council - which owns the land - needs to go back to the drawing board. And this time it needs to: a) genuinely involve the community in the design process; b) come up with a low-rise design that includes facilities that the community wants and needs; and c) balance the need to recoup money from the site with the need for a quality development that residents want - right now the council is simply planning to sell to the highest bidder!
[Many thanks to the Walthamstow Guardian for the use of the photo. It was taken by David Edwards and is copyright Newsquest]
St Modwen flags are coming down
Haha! As suspected, the arrogant St Modwen flags on the Arcade site are indeed illegal because they don't have advertisement consent.
Responding to our complaint, a council officer said: "The matter has been raised with St Modwen who have undertaken to remove the flags at this time. They have however indicated that they will be making an application for advertisement consent to put them back, and we will consult on this in the usual way." He adds that the flags should be down by early next week.
Hmm, small victories. But this isn't just about the illegal flags themselves... although they are pretty obnoxious. It's about the fact that St Modwen have pitched up in Walthamstow and think they can act like they own the place. They've put up hoardings that boast they will be on site in Spring 2009 but they haven't even applied for planning permission yet, let alone got it. They make it sound like it's a done deal. Trust us, it isn't!
Thursday, 22 May 2008
Could St Modwen's plans be delayed?
Arcade site preferred developer St Modwen has delayed plans for revamping Hatfield town centre, blaming "the unstable state of the finance, retail and property markets", according to this Herts 24 news story.
Could this happen to their tower block plans for Walthamstow? We very much hope so... but a delay isn't enough. We're hoping that the impending housing crash will make the council and St Modwen do a complete u-turn on their plans.
What Walthamstow really needs is for the council to go back to the drawing board - this time with genuine involvement of local residents and market traders - and to come up with a scheme that will actually be good for Walthamstow. Time and again councillors and officers have come up with plans that won't work, and that never materialise anyway. Locals seem to have a much better idea of what Walthamstow needs - so why don't they just ask?!
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
St Modwen's Arcade site flags illegal!
It turns out that St Modwen isn't allowed to fly those horrid big flags on the Arcade site! We've consulted a planning expert who tells us that flags are regulated under advertisement consent, not planning permission, but that a developer is only allowed to fly such flags on site once they have full planning permission for the development itself. St Modwen hasn't even applied for planning permission yet.
We're not in the least bit surprised. Flying corporate flags illegally fits perfectly with a developer that arrogantly boasts that it will be working on site in Spring 2009 (almost as if the council has promised that it will get planning permission...). Ordinarily a council would serve an enforcement notice on a developer for putting up flags illegally, but because they're working together we're guessing the council is unlikely to do so unless we remind them.
So... we have complained to the council and asked them to get St Modwen to take those flags down at once! If you're furious about them too, please send a quick email saying so as well - to LBWF's assistant director for development Shifa Mustafa and CC it to the cabinet members for environment Cllr Bob Belam and regeneration Cllr Terry Wheeler.
Many thanks to the resident who tipped us off about this. Please everyone keep all those ideas and relevant newspaper clips coming!
Antiscrap: Calling all artists
Fab campaign group Antiscrap is organising an exhibition for the E17 Art Trail called "State of the Borough 2008" (a response to the council's invitation only non-debate of the same name) and are asking artists to give vent to their feelings about the state of Waltham Forest... celebrate life here, get involved with the debate, produce mock film posters, postcards, prints, paintings or what you will.
For example, they've suggested local campaigns could translate their messages into art works: a film poster for "Withering Heights" from Fight the Height, a "wish you were here postcard" from the St James St library, a "where are they now" set of photos for all the closed and missing cinemas, etc.
Entries have to be ready for hanging on Friday the 5th of September, they must be in wooden frames with mirror plates. The exhibition will be in the indoor market in Wood St, where the "Inspired by William Morris Exhibition" was held last year. If you would like submit work or request further information drop an e-mail to exhibition@antiscrap.co.uk
So... if you feel inspired to contribute, whether for Fight The Height or with something else, drop them a line! We'd certainly love to see artists respond to the monstrous tower blocks planned for Walthamstow and the lack of council foresight that will see a multiplex and a giant Primark where locals want to see a reopened EMD and shops that compliment Walthamstow market and trigger real regeneration not corporate .
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Arcade hoardings take the mickey!
Look really closely at the artists' impression on the Arcade hoardings you can see a Bang & Olufsen shop (a very high-end hi-fi emporium - click on the picture above to see it bigger). Which stands in stark contrast to the planned Primark that we, and market traders, fear will put many stalls and smaller shops out of business - see the story below.
The devil is in the detail... The hoardings do say "This image is indicative and does not resember the final scheme" but we think the contrast between Bang & Olufsen and Primark shows how much St Modwen is taking the mickey out of Walthamstow.
The Arcade scheme was supposed to kick off regeneration. But we don't think a massive cheap clothes shop, a boarded up high street and decimated market sounds like regeneration. This planned tower block offers Walthamstow nothing that we want or need, but it threatens to damage what we already have.
If you agree, please join us at noon on Sunday 1st June in Walthamstow town square for a short demo against the tower block plans that promises to be fun for all the family.
Oh and many thanks to the resident who pointed this out - and the many of you who are constantly emailing in with relevant news, it's much appreciated!
Could Boris block the tower block?
It's well worth reading two stories from yesterday's Evening Standard: The towers that Boris could stop being built and Comment: credit crunch will dictate skyline. These explain that Boris is embracing the powers to veto planning permission that Ken gave himself, but intends to use them to overturn planned tower blocks all over London.
The interesting thing is that many of the 14 developments the Standard picks out as likely to be axed are barely taller than the ones we're facing in Walthamstow, on the Arcade site and at Blackhorse Lane. Could we be numbers 15 and 16?!
We're contacting Boris, and his new planning adviser Sir Simon Milton. And we'll let you know how we get on...
Monday, 19 May 2008
Developer buys Walthamstow Stadium
No prizes for guessing the site of the next piece of overdevelopment for Walthamstow... news reached us this weekend that the world famous Walthamstow Stadium dog track has been sold to a development consortium. See the Walthamstow Guardian story. The sale has been rumoured for years but the owners have long denied it. The track's tote board was listed by English Heritage last year... but now it looks like the stadium will be demolished and the tote board will no be surrounded by yet another high-rise housing development that no-one wants.
Friday, 16 May 2008
SAVE THE DATE! Sunday 1st June
Our first demo against the tower block plans will be daytime on Sunday 1st June in central Walthamstow.
More details to follow soon but please try to be available for a short, fun protest against the plans that should get us lots of publicity.
New to Fight The Height? Please click here to find out more about how and when you can object to the planned tower blocks that would overshadow low-rise Walthamstow, the planned Primark that would be a disaster for market traders, and the planned multiplex that would be the final nail in the coffin for the EMD/Granada cinema.
Meeting re: the giant telly
Next Tuesday (20th May) 7:30-9pm at Waltham Forest Theatre in Lloyd Park there will be a meeting about the giant telly - sorry, "live site" - proposed for the town square.
Sadly the meeting is only open to members of Apex Arts (the artists formerly known as Waltham Forest Arts Council). But... you can join on the night for a tenner, so if you're feeling a bit arty and you want to find out more about the plans and question the people behind them (about stuff like why does it have to be right next to the children's playground or why must it be on for 16 hours a day even when there isn't anything worth watching) then why not turn up and sign up!
Blackhorse Action Group social
It's not all doom and gloom, even when you're fighting several tower blocks - including one 23 storey monster! Tomorrow (Saturday 17th May) the fabulous Blackhorse Action Group are having a big social at Douglas Eyre Sports Pavilion, Coppermill Lane. Expect fun for all the family from 3pm, then a bat walk and grown-up entertainment from 7pm. See the Blackhorse Action Group website for more info - and see you there!
Sunday, 11 May 2008
"What can I do?!"
New to Fight The Height? Thanks for visiting! Here's how to get involved in the campaign against tower block plans in Walthamstow...
1. Join us! Please send a quick email to mail@fighttheheight.co.uk saying that you support us - we'll add you to our email list and keep you updated on actions, for example letting you know when to object to planning applications and when we are holding demonstrations.
2. Tell everyone! Please send a quick email to all your local friends and family and tell them about our campaign, giving them the website address. It's simple maths... if tens of thousands of people see this website, thousands will join the campaign and hundreds will send in objections at the right time. Being bombarded by hundreds of letters will make a HUGE difference to the councillors who make the decisions - and could be enough to save Walthamstow from tower block plans.
Friday, 9 May 2008
Could Boris's new man help us?!!!
According to this Evening Standard story (from 6th May) Boris Johnson has appointed Westminster Council leader Simon Milton to advise him on housing and planning... and Westminster is known for its opposition to tower blocks. Mr Milton will be hearing from us!
High rise: heaven or hell?
In this recent article from Star magazine, Bill Hodgson looks at the history of what went wrong with tower blocks. It's fascinating stuff... According to a recent survey by the Architecture Commission, less than one per cent of people would live by choice in a tower block. Which is why tower blocks are being torn down while others are being built! (like the one pictured, in Glasgow, being demolished last year).
Over to Bill for a history lesson...
The recent row between council leader Clyde Loakes and his deputy Keith Rayner over the role of tower blocks in public housing has re-opened a long running debate on the merits of high rise living. While Councillor Loakes believes new blocks could solve the borough’s potential housing shortage, his deputy argues such a move would repeat the costly mistakes of the past. The dispute erupted following the publication of research suggesting 12,000 homes must be built in Waltham Forest to accommodate a projected population increase of 20,000 people.
Click on "Read More" below to read the full article.
On the up
In May 1949 London’s first council housing tower block was opened in Holborn. A staggering 2,700 more would follow around the capital in the years ahead. The early blocks were inspired by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier who sought to solve the problem of overcrowded cities by building elegant ‘streets in the sky’ for socially diverse communities. “We must decongest our cities by increasing their density,” he said. “We must improve circulation and increase the amount of open spaces”. He envisaged residential towers with lavish communal roof gardens set amidst vibrant green spaces with transport freeways to ferry inhabitants to their workplaces.
His ideas were seized upon by councils across Britain, desperate to replace slum dwellings and re-house citizens made homeless during the Second World War. Le Corbusier’s vision seemed irresistible at a time when economical construction methods using prefabricated panels and concrete promised a brave new world for the urban dweller.
The early blocks offered spacious and well-appointed living space but it was not long before financial constraints forced compromises in both materials and dimensions. Le Corbusier’s emphasis on green spaces and public facilities was also sidelined in the rush to accommodate as many people as quickly and cheaply as possible.
The crowning glory of London high rise living emerged in the 1960s when the heavily bombed Cripplegate area provided the setting for the new Barbican Estate. An enormous concrete jungle softened by artificial lakes and networks of terraces and trees, the Barbican offered affordable accommodation for City workers with social housing available on the neighbouring Golden Lane Estate. “The intention is to create a residential precinct in which people can live both conveniently and with pleasure,” said chief architect Peter Chamberlin. “Despite its density the layout is spacious. The buildings and the space between them are composed to create a sense of order without monotony”. The project was perhaps closest to Le Corbusier’s intentions and the aspirations of the post-war planners. Ironically, as the Barbican prepared to welcome its first tenants, the reputation of British tower blocks was about to be dealt a fatal blow.
Disaster
The fall from grace of tower blocks began on 16 May 1968 in Newham when the newly opened 23-storey Ronan Point partially collapsed following a gas explosion, killing residents and causing chaos in the local area. Although blocks would continue to be built for housing throughout the 1970s, the disaster destroyed public confidence in their structural safety while reports of poor insulation, inadequate security and insect infestations further tarnished their appeal. Many blocks had also been hastily constructed at inconvenient out-of-town locations with little provision for transport, welfare or shopping which isolated them from the wider community. Problems with faulty elevators made them especially unpopular with the elderly, young families and disabled tenants. Meanwhile, poorly maintained and badly lit communal areas provided a breeding ground for petty crime which left many residents living in a climate of fear. The blocks were now firmly recast as ‘slums in the sky’, blighting the landscape and perpetuating the social problems they were designed to eradicate.
Widespread demolition of tower blocks began in the 1980s with mass removal programmes carried out around the country throughout the 1990s, echoing the post-war slum clearances which had preceded them.
When Labour swept to power in 1997, architect Richard Rogers was appointed to formulate a new model for urban living and social housing. Planning laws were introduced to encourage sustainable low rise developments of three to six storeys. Lord Rogers developed blueprints for human scale urban villages with a ‘ten minute walk rule’ to ensure residents would have easy access to shops and services.
Yet a select few tower blocks remained surprisingly resilient and would eventually inspire a cautious reassessment.
Rebirth
In the 1980s, Notting Hill’s Trellick Tower was London’s most notorious housing block. Stories concerning vicious rapes in dimly lit stairwells, children being attacked outside their homes by heroin addicts and squatters setting fire to flats made lurid newspaper headlines. The block’s fortunes were unexpectedly revived when ownership transferred to a tenant’s management organisation that introduced a range of improvements including a concierge, intercoms and CCTV. Crime dramatically fell and the block was boldly reinvented as an icon of urban cool. Now a mixture of private and social housing, it gained the ultimate seal of approval when English Heritage listed it. Tellingly, Trellick stands amidst some of the country’s most attractive Victorian housing and is a stone’s throw from the fashionable bustle of Portobello Market. Less than 10 minutes from the West End by tube, it makes a strong case for the viability of tower blocks situated in an already popular location.
Similarly, the Barbican Estate has confounded the sceptics and is now regarded as a stylish London address. “It is of special architectural interest for its scale, cohesion and ambition,” said former arts minister Tessa Blackstone. “It is much loved by residents and has earned itself a place in the hearts of Londoners”. Location has again played a major role in the Barbican’s appeal with one of the world’s greatest arts institutions on its doorstep and the City of London a gentle stroll away. Nowadays one bedroom apartments sell for £350,000, well beyond the reach of the average City worker for whom it was designed.
Nevertheless, one local housing expert warns these examples are not indicative of the bigger picture. “Despite a few notable exceptions, the overwhelming evidence is clear,” she said. “Exceeding five storeys does not work in the context of social housing. It is a proven recipe for disaster and shouldn’t even be considered”. She points to a recent survey by the Architecture Commission which found less than one per cent of people would live by choice in a tower block.
With much brownfield land earmarked for development in the neighbouring boroughs of Newham and Tower Hamlets and the government planning a massive expansion of London to the east via the multi-billion pound Thames Gateway project, perhaps councillors should really be debating whether Waltham Forest needs substantial extra housing at all.
Article reproduced courtesy of Star Magazine/The Lightside.
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