Memorial for Grenfell

Image after JAA Studio Private contractors and consultants on the Grenfell Tower refurbishment Mark Allen, Technical Director of Celotex, and member of the Building Regulations Advisory Committee Deborah French, UK Sales Manager, Arconic Ray Bailey, Managing Director, Harley Facades Bob Holt, Director and Executive Chairman of Lakehouse services Bob Greene, Technical Contract Manager, RGE Services … Continue reading Memorial for Grenfell

Southwark Sleeper: A New Housing Initiative for London’s Homeless (Or Not)

In exciting news for developers, Sadiq Khan has announced a new package of funding under his Homes for Londoners programme. In collaboration with Southwark council, ‘Southwark Sleeper’ will be test-piloted this winter as a solution to the growing army of London’s homeless. Peter John OBE, Leader of Southwark council and newly-elected Chair of London Councils, … Continue reading Southwark Sleeper: A New Housing Initiative for London’s Homeless (Or Not)

What Is To Be Done? Changing Metaphors of Change

1. Radical for Revolutionary During my misspent youth we spoke, however hopelessly – no doubt because hopelessly – of ‘revolution’; even, with an eye to dialectical materialism, of ‘The Revolution.’ I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now. But nowadays (except among my communist comrades) the standard appellation among socialists and activists … Continue reading What Is To Be Done? Changing Metaphors of Change

The Propaganda of Estate Regeneration: The Lincoln Estate, Poplar Harca and the British Broadcasting Corporation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=P06DmLD2dAA In April of this year the BBC re-televised its three-part series Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British, which had originally been aired in May 2016, and was again in May 2017. Halfway through the final episode, ‘The Flat’, which focuses on the history of the Lincoln estate in London’s Bow, Dan Cruickshank jumps … Continue reading The Propaganda of Estate Regeneration: The Lincoln Estate, Poplar Harca and the British Broadcasting Corporation

Manufacturing Consent: GLA Capital Funding Guide: Section 8. Resident Ballots for Estate Regeneration Projects

This is ASH’s brief commentary on the Greater London Authority policy on Resident Ballots for Estate Regeneration Projects, the recently published addendum to the London Mayor’s Good Practice Guide to Estate Regeneration, and the outcome of the promise to ballot residents made by Jeremy Corbyn at the Labour Party conference back in September 2017. This … Continue reading Manufacturing Consent: GLA Capital Funding Guide: Section 8. Resident Ballots for Estate Regeneration Projects

Dresden Diary: Architecture, History and Politics

‘The city as a form of settlement did not arise by chance. The city is the richest economic and cultural form of community settlement, proven by centuries of experience. In its structural and architectural design the city is an expression of the political life and the national consciousness of the people.’  – Government of the … Continue reading Dresden Diary: Architecture, History and Politics

Figs from Thistles: Labour’s Grenfell Opportunism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL1nycH2x_w ‘Never again will we allow this to happen. But what has been so despicable about this, is that this has happened in the richest borough, in the fifth richest country in the world, where we have a government and a local council more interested in saving money than saving lives. If there is anything … Continue reading Figs from Thistles: Labour’s Grenfell Opportunism

The Tower: Rewriting Grenfell. ASH response to Andrew O’Hagan

Most of us by now are familiar with how our national press and media worked to shape public opinion immediately after both the police assault on picket lines at Orgreave Colliery in 1984 that resulted in niney-five charges of riot being made against striking miners, and the death of ninety-six football supporters in the Hillsborough … Continue reading The Tower: Rewriting Grenfell. ASH response to Andrew O’Hagan

London’s Empty Housing: Causes, Existing Policy, Future Solutions and their Enforcement

1. Empty Housing In January of this year the Liberal Democrat Party published data gathered from Freedom of Information requests to 276 councils revealing not only the number of empty dwellings in the UK and how long they have been left empty, but the lack of action by local authorities to bring them back into … Continue reading London’s Empty Housing: Causes, Existing Policy, Future Solutions and their Enforcement