Last month, to accompany its exhibition at the RIBA, Karakusevic Carson Architects published a book titled Social Housing: Definitions & Design Exemplars, which contains 24 case studies of new developments across Europe and the UK, many of them estate regenerations in London. These include the Colville, King’s Crescent and Nightingale estates in Hackney and the Bacton … Continue reading Social Housing: Demolitions, Privatisations & Social Cleansing
Author: Simon Elmer
Class War on Woodberry Down: A National Strategy
Woodberry Down in Manor House is one of the most sinister places I’ve ever visited. The council estate, built between the 1950s and 1970s, sits either side of the Seven Sisters Road, cradled in a bend of the New River flowing south. But turn down Woodberry Down itself and behind the Edwardian terraces and red-brick … Continue reading Class War on Woodberry Down: A National Strategy
Vote Labour? The Aims and Values of Estate Demolition
ASH has been told a lot recently – by people we know and by people we’ve never met – that ‘Now is not the time to be criticising the Labour Party!’ When is it ever in the eyes of Labour supporters? But the particular argument for not doing so now – as it is every … Continue reading Vote Labour? The Aims and Values of Estate Demolition
A Vote for Labour is a Vote for . . . Helen Hayes
This is Helen Hayes, until Parliament was dissolved the Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, speaking (you can listen to her here) against the Conservative government’s Housing and Planning Bill at a march organised by Lambeth Housing Activists on 30 January, 2016. Nice, isn’t she? Well, take a closer look. Before being elected a … Continue reading A Vote for Labour is a Vote for . . . Helen Hayes
A Vote for Labour is a Vote for . . .
This is Helen Hayes, until Parliament was dissolved the Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, speaking (you can listen to her here) against the Conservative government’s Housing and Planning Bill at a march organised by Lambeth Housing Activists on 30 January, 2016. Nice, isn’t she? Well, take a closer look. Before being elected a … Continue reading A Vote for Labour is a Vote for . . .
In Defence of Our Land: Historical Similarities Between the Enclosure of Common Land from the Thirteenth to Nineteenth Centuries and the Privatisation of Public Land in the Twenty-First; or, Why the Class War Never Changes, Only its Historical Form
These extracts are from John Wright’s recently published book, A Natural History of the Hedgerow (2016). I began reading it partly out of my love and hatred of hedgerows, about which I have written before on this blog in an article on Land Values, but also as an escape from the violence, injustice, political corruption … Continue reading In Defence of Our Land: Historical Similarities Between the Enclosure of Common Land from the Thirteenth to Nineteenth Centuries and the Privatisation of Public Land in the Twenty-First; or, Why the Class War Never Changes, Only its Historical Form
Electoral Defeatism
The widely held view that the result of the coming general election is a foregone conclusion has really brought out the desperation in the so-called radical left. We’ll leave aside the dreamers who have supported Jeremy Corbyn through his 18 months of indecision, inactivity and failure; but even those who have opposed Labour on everything … Continue reading Electoral Defeatism
An Exemplary Regeneration: King’s Crescent Estate
‘It’s a question of never demolishing, never reducing or replacing; always adding, transforming and reusing.’ – Frédéric Druot, Anne Lacaton, Jean Philippe Vassal, PLUS : Large-scale Housing Development (2004) The regeneration of the King’s Crescent estate in Hackney is an exemplary regeneration. Everyone says so. Philip Glanville, the current Mayor of Hackney and former Cabinet Member … Continue reading An Exemplary Regeneration: King’s Crescent Estate
The Peasants’ Revolt: Lessons from History
This article, published on the 27th anniversary of the attack by the Metropolitan Police Service on the Poll Tax demonstration in London on 31 March 1990, is dedicated to Ian Bone, class warrior and comrade. The illustrations of the Peasants’ Revolt are by Clifford Harper. When looking back on an historical event it’s useful to … Continue reading The Peasants’ Revolt: Lessons from History
The Good Practice Guide to Resisting Estate Demolition: ASH response to the GLA
Unfortunately it takes longer to unwrap a lie than it does to tie it with a pretty bow and sell it to ‘the People’, and the Greater London Authority’s Draft Good Practice Guide to Estate Regeneration, published in December 2016, is a cellophane-wrapped, ribbon-tied box of untruths. This commentary by Architects for Social Housing, therefore, … Continue reading The Good Practice Guide to Resisting Estate Demolition: ASH response to the GLA
Simon Elmer 