https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXzM56YIVW0&fbclid=IwAR0nhaN8IfvxEF6kUE_iupahjx24oefNO8gtKIRJdIAntxs_talg8HxWKHc The report on which this film is based can be read in the pdf titled The Costs of Estate Regeneration. I first gave this presentation at a conference held by the Socialist Workers Alliance back in June; then again at a meeting of the Revolutionary Communist Group in July at the launch of their pamphlet Whose … Continue reading The Costs of Estate Regeneration: A Film for Everyone
Author: Simon Elmer
A Home for All? The Art Exhibition as Political Propaganda
The ‘6 radical experiments in social housing’, which include the Spa Green estate (1946-49), Keeling House (1954-59), the Alexandra Road estate (1968-78), and the Byker estate (1969-82), currently on show at the exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum will be familiar to anyone with an interest in the history of council housing, and by … Continue reading A Home for All? The Art Exhibition as Political Propaganda
Invisible Britain: The Art of Catharsis
‘I have spoken of the operation of a certain type of fashionable photography that makes misery into a consumer good. When I turn to the New Objectivity as a literary movement, I must go a step further and say that it has made the struggle against poverty into a consumer product. In fact, in many … Continue reading Invisible Britain: The Art of Catharsis
Two or Three Things to Remember on this Day of Remembrance
A conflict started by the ruling classes of Europe’s imperialist nations for the right to expand or maintain their empires in the Balkans, the Middle East, India, Africa and Asia, the Great War (1914-1918) was overwhelmingly fought by the working classes of those nations, who — even if they saw through the nationalist rhetoric of … Continue reading Two or Three Things to Remember on this Day of Remembrance
Supply and Demand in Centre Point Residences
Last week I was commissioned by VICE to write about the news that the unsold apartments in Central Point Residences had been taken off the market by the developer until offers met their multi-million-pound sale price. VICE only wanted 800 words; but this is the longer article I got out of it, in which I … Continue reading Supply and Demand in Centre Point Residences
Questions without Answers: Reginald House and Old Tidemill Garden
On 19 October I wrote the following on the Save Reginald Save Tidemill Facebook page. My comment was written in response to a shared statement by Lewisham Labour Councillor Joe Dromey, the Cabinet Member for Finance, Skills and Jobs, that he had originally made on the I Love Deptford page about the regeneration scheme. The son of Harriet … Continue reading Questions without Answers: Reginald House and Old Tidemill Garden
Policy Proposals on Estate Regeneration: ASH Presentation to the Tulse Hill branch of the Labour Party
Last night I gave another presentation of the findings in the ASH report on The Costs of Estate Regeneration. This time it was to the Tulse Hill branch of the Labour Party, one of whose members had invited me to come and talk. He told me that, while the previous Chair had always refused any … Continue reading Policy Proposals on Estate Regeneration: ASH Presentation to the Tulse Hill branch of the Labour Party
London’s Most Influential: Citigroup and the Subprime Mortgage Crisis
‘What makes a city influential? Some say it’s the economic opportunities or the technological capabilities or the possibilities of connecting with other cities. We say it all comes down to people. The progress-makers. The ones whose boundless drive, passion and brilliance bring a city to life like no other. They’re why we’ve made it our job … Continue reading London’s Most Influential: Citigroup and the Subprime Mortgage Crisis
The Architecture of Death
As some of you will know, on Tuesday, 2 October a man was killed by a window pane falling from the Corniche building, which with Merano Residences (designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners) and the Dumont building (designed by David Walker Architects) is one of three new developments of what the advertising boards call ‘luxury apartments … Continue reading The Architecture of Death
Rebuilding Britain: Housing at the Labour Party Conference 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzA15gpgjCk 1. The Tory Housing Crisis ‘A new world of energy innovations: E.ON’ – is the advertisement that pops up on screen when I go to download the agenda for this year’s Labour Party Conference, obscuring the information behind. I guess it’s appropriate in a way, since its to E.ON – one of the world’s … Continue reading Rebuilding Britain: Housing at the Labour Party Conference 2018
Simon Elmer 