The Aylesbury Estate contains 2,704 dwellings, spread over a number of different blocks and buildings, and was built between 1963 and 1977. There are approximately 7,500 residents. The estate is currently undergoing a major regeneration programme.
Major problems with the physical buildings on the estate and the poor perception of estates in Britain as a whole have led to the Aylesbury Estate gaining the title of "one of the most notorious estates in the United Kingdom".[1] It has often been called the largest public housing estate in Europe, although this is difficult to verify with any accuracy.
In 1997, Tony Blair chose to make his first speech as Prime Minister here, in an effort to demonstrate that the government would care for the poorest within society.[2][3] The estate is often used as a typical example of urban decay.
The Aylesbury Estate is an ethnically diverse area: according to the most recent census, around 25% of respondents were White British, with Black ethnic groups accounting for over half of all respondents. Around a third (34%) of residents are of school age, and fewer than 1 in 10 are aged 65 or above. Nearly two-thirds of respondents identified themselves as being Christian, with 17% being Muslim.
History
The estate was designed by architect Hans Peter "Felix" Trenton and construction started in 1963.[4] Built on 285,000 square metres the estate was an attempt by planners to house some of London's poorest families. It was an effort of reconstruction as part of a comprehensive slum clearance policy by the Borough of Southwark.[5] The 2,700 dwellings were designed to house a population of roughly 10,000 residents, making it one of the largest public housing estates in Europe. The estate is named after Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire and the various sections of the estate are named after other local towns and villages in Buckinghamshire including Foxcote, Wendover, Winslow, Padbury, Taplow, Ravenstone, Latimer and Chiltern. The estate's design embraces ideas of modernist urban planning as expressed by Le Corbusier in his 1935 vision of the Ville Radieuse, such as standardisation, free circulation of pedestrians and traffic and generous access to sunlight and natural ventilation.[5]
In the 1970s residents in the ground floor flats successfully campaigned for gardens to be fenced-off adjoining their flats. The final blocks of flats were completed in 1977[6] and the estate included a nursery, a day centre and a health centre.[7]
Taplow on Thurlow Street
However, as old tenants moved out and new tenants came in, the estate went through a period of decline in the 1980s. The area is now considered to be in the bottom category on the ACORN classification for inner city adversity, signifying an area of extremely high social disadvantage.[8]
The buildings have been described as "poorly designed" by Labour Councillor Johnson Situ, and with constant problems and heating breakdowns as they near the end of their life.[9]
In 1999 the estate was awarded New Deal for Communities status and given £56.2m of central government funding (over 10 years). It was expected that this money would bring in £400m of housing association funding into the estate as part of a stock transfer deal. A tenant ballot was held on transfer to a housing association which was rejected by 73% of the votes on a 73% tenant turnout.[10]
Regeneration
On 27 September 2005, the London Borough of Southwark decided that rather than spend £350million updating the estate to basic living standards, it would order its demolition and replace the dwellings with modern houses controlled by a housing association. The plan involves increasing the density of housing from the current 2,700 units to 4,900. 2,288 units would remain social housing and the remainder would be for sale. The sale of these units is planned to fund the whole scheme.
The regeneration of the Aylesbury Estate has been divided into several phases which will see the estate being re-built in 20 years.[11] The indicative phasing plan states when tenants plan to be re-housed and when leasehold properties would be bought by Southwark Council. However, this timetable is subject to a certain amount of flux, until the development partner is appointed and the more detailed scheduling of the work can begin, which will offer greater certainty to residents about when they will need to move.
The first Phase 1a was completed in August 2013, it lies near the south-west corner of the Aylesbury Estate and is divided into four development sites: A, C, B/E and D. This phase was developed with the L&Q housing association. It comprises 261 units, and a new resource centre for adults with disabilities. It is a mixture of affordable and private housing, with existing Aylesbury residents given priority to move into the new buildings.[12]
The first stage of Phase 2, also known as Plot 18, includes 300-313 Missenden, 57-76 Northchurch and the space to the south of Taplow. The second stage of Phase 2 includes all the Wendover, Wolverton, Winslow, Padbury, Ravenstone and Foxcote blocks as well as Brockley House. Demolition of the blocks on Plot 18 started in 2017 and over 1,000 new homes will be built across this phase over the next seven years.
Phase 3 includes all Taplow and Northchurch blocks to the west of Thurlow Street as well as 184 and 218 East Street. Demolition of the existing blocks is programmed to start in 2021 and 200 new homes will be built in this phase over the next six years.
Phase 4 includes all the Missenden, Michael Faraday, Gayhurst, Gaitskell, Latimer, Calverton, Danesfield and Emberton blocks. It also includes Chadwell House, Lees House, Soane House, Dorwell House and 51-67 Inville Road. Demolition of the existing blocks is programmed to start in 2023 and over 1,500 new homes will be built over the next nine years.
While this was updated in May 2018, it is noted that the regeneration is a long-term project so facts and figures may change over time. In addition, the Aylesbury Area Action Plan (AAAP) adopted 10 years ago was supposed to govern the 25-year redevelopment of the estate. It is then expected to require a high level of consultation and the involvement of affected residents throughout the regeneration process.
Demolition
Overview:
Client: Notting Hill Housing (NHH) + London and Quadrant Housing Association
Architect: HTA Design LLP
Demolition Contractors: Keltbray Ltd (Initial Stages), Erith Contractor Ltd (First Development Site demolition contract)
Building Contractors: Notting Hill Genesis (First Development Site Package A construction, Approved Premises Facility construction), Vistry (Plot 18 construction contract)
Area: 221,000 sq. m
Reason for Demolition: End of service life and poor energy efficiency
Future Plan: Phased mixed-use redevelopment including residential units, retail space, community use, medical centre, early years facility and workspace
As part of the pre-demolition works starting August 2015, Keltbray Ltd has been contracted as the demolition contractor to carry out the initial stages.
For the first development site demolition, works are carried out by specialist demolition company, Erith Contractors Ltd. According to the Aylesbury Regeneration Newsletter, a top-down demolition method is adopted with machines working on top of the building. Scaffolding and Monaflex (the white scaffold sheeting) is used one floor at a time as the demolition progresses. This reduces dust and noise levels. The sequence of works programme from March 2020 to July 2020 began from handover of subplot 5 partial & complete to hill construction, demolition of 1-172 Chiltern, demolition of link bridge on Portland Street, and finally removal of obstruction and foundation.
As construction continues, demolition work is also included in the works programme under building contractor. Starting spring 2021, Vistry, which is the Plot 18 contractor, is responsible for the demolition of Northchurch and Section 278. The estimated completion time is 13 weeks. Works included barriers and road sweepers on site, water for any dish suppression, hoarding around Northchurch and traffic marshals guiding traffic. Standard monitoring included dust and noise levels in compliance to construction trigger levels. Newsletter are sent quarterly to inform public.
Criticism
Part of the Aylesbury Estate as seen from Burgess Park
The NSP described the Aylesbury estate as “characterised by large concrete slab buildings built in the mid-1960s –70s, now at the end of their service life.”
This drew criticism from residents, leading to a change of wording. Further objections during the EIP hearing, argued that the Council had submitted no evidence supporting the claim that the estate was at the end of its service life and had failed to investigate whether refurbishment could be a more viable and sustainable option. This was contrasted to Southwark’s decision to bail out Notting Hill Genesis housing, at a cost of over £200m, after the housing association failed to deliver the First Development site, evidently hit with financial viability problems.
Successful examples of the refurbishment of estates built using the same system as the Aylesbury and which might usefully be examined, can be found on the Six Acres estate in Islington and the Doddington estate in Battersea.
Occupation
In January 2015, following the March for Homes, a block on the estate was occupied by a group of squatters and housing activists in a protest against the demolition of the estate and the gentrification of London. Despite facing resistance from the police and security guards the occupation continued, shifting from block to block as the protesters faced eviction notices. The occupation gained press attention for its tactics and for the counter measures taken by Southwark Council—who installed security guards, security dogs, and a spiked fence to deter protesters.[13][14][15]
As the regeneration continues in phases, more estate is dominated by the construction site and the tenants who remain report feeling increasingly fearful. In March 2021, it had been reported that vacant properties in the low rises were being taken over by squatters because of inadequate police security. In addition, many residents are suffering from long-standing heating and hot water outages and leaks in their homes. According to the remaining residents, there has been growing frustration by what they say is too little action from Southwark Council and the Met to make the area safe.
The estate has featured in many television shows including The Bill, Spooks, and from 2004–15 was featured in a Channel 4ident, in which the camera "tracks down rubbish-strewn balconies [while] other balconies and floating concrete structures shift into place forming the shape of the Channel 4 logo."[16] The washing lines, shopping trolley, rubbish bags and satellite dishes were, however, "all artificial embellishments added in by film-makers" to assist in what Ben Campkin, former director of the UCL Urban Laboratory, called the estate's depiction as "a desolate concrete dystopia [which] provides visual confirmation of tabloid journalists' descriptions of a 'ghost town' estate." The ident was also the first and last of its respective series to be broadcast. According to a report by The Guardian, the residents of the Aylesbury estate were tired of having their community portrayed in a poor light for decades.[17][18]
In January 2014, Creation, a development trust for the estate, released a remake of the ident, produced and directed by Nick Street, and launched a campaign to persuade Channel 4 to use it instead of the original.[19] Charlotte Benstead, a director at Creation, said:
For years it was the first port of call for directors, producers and location scouts looking for grim backdrops to murder scenes, gun and drug storylines and gang-related crimes in soaps and gritty dramas. Due to pressure from local residents, Southwark council banned filming on the estate, but the ident continues to be aired regularly. All these representations have perpetuated the reputation of the estate... We felt we needed to record an alternative and more truthful version of the clip. We worked with film-maker Nick Street to make our own version that looks beyond the concrete exterior.[17]
In February 2014, Channel 4 told BBC London that it had "viewed the new film, liked it and has been in contact with the filmmaker about running it once. However the broadcaster said it would not be dropping the original ident."[20]
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighted areas in inner cities to clear out slums and create opportunities for higher class housing, businesses, and other developments. In the United States the term technically refers only to a federal program in the middle-to-late 20th Century, but colloquially is sometimes used to refer to any large-scale change in urban development.
Park Hill is a housing estate in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It was built between 1957 and 1961, and in 1998 was given Grade II* listed building status. Following a period of decline, the estate is being renovated by developers Urban Splash into a mostly private mixed-tenure estate made up of homes for market rent, private sale, shared ownership, and student housing while around a quarter of the units in the development will be social housing. The renovation was one of the six short-listed projects for the 2013 RIBA Stirling Prize. The Estate falls within the Manor Castle ward of the City. Park Hill is also the name of the area in which the flats are sited. The name relates to the deer park attached to Sheffield Manor, the remnant of which is now known as Norfolk Park.
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Roundshaw is a housing estate and park in south Wallington and Beddington on the eastern edge of the London Borough of Sutton. Grid Ref TQ302633.
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Span Developments Limited was a British property development company formed in the late 1950s by Geoffrey Townsend working in long and close partnership with Eric Lyons as consultant architect. During its most successful period in the 1960s, Span built over 2,000 homes in London, Surrey, Kent and East Sussex – mainly two- and three-bedroom single-family homes and apartment buildings.
The Ferrier Estate was a large housing estate located in Kidbrooke, Greenwich, south London. Built as social housing between 1968 and 1972, it was demolished as part of the Kidbrooke Vision scheme between 2009 and 2012 and replaced with housing and retail space known as Kidbrooke Village.
The Red Road Flats were a mid-twentieth-century high-rise housing complex located between the districts of Balornock and Barmulloch in the northeast of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The estate originally consisted of eight multi-storey blocks of steel frame construction. All were demolished by 2015. Two were "slabs", much wider in cross-section than they are deep. Six were "points", more of a traditional tower block shape. The slabs had 28 floors, the point blocks 31, and taken together, they were designed for a population of 4,700 people. The point blocks were among the tallest buildings in Glasgow at 89 metres (292 ft), second in overall height behind the former Bluevale and Whitevale Towers in Camlachie. The 30th floor of the point blocks were the highest inhabitable floor level of any building in Glasgow.
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Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. Dwellings built for public or social housing use are built by or for local authorities and known as council houses. Since the 1980s non-profit housing associations became more important and subsequently the term "social housing" became widely used, as technically council housing only refers to housing owned by a local authority, though the terms are largely used interchangeably.
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Grenfell Tower is a derelict 24-storey residential tower block in North Kensington in London, England. The tower was completed in 1974 as part of the first phase of the Lancaster West Estate. The tower was named after Grenfell Road, which ran to the south of the building; the road itself was named after Field Marshal Lord Grenfell, a senior British Army officer. Most of the tower was destroyed in a severe fire on 14 June 2017.
Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) is a housing association formed in April 2018 by the merger of Notting Hill Housing and Genesis Housing Association. Notting Hill Genesis’ primary purpose is to work in the community to provide decent and affordable homes for lower-income households.
↑ Glendinning, Miles; Muthesius, Stefan (1994). Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. New Haven: Yale University Press. p.282. ISBN9780300054446.
1 2 Phipps, Simon (2016). Brutal London. September Publishing. p.185. ISBN9781910463635.
Creation Trust – successor to the Aylesbury NDC, working to ensure that residents receive the economic and social benefits of the regeneration of the area.
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