The Carpenters Estate is located in Stratford, Newham, East London, close to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The estate is formed of low rise social housing and three tower blocks. The estate has been continually earmarked for demolition and redevelopment.
Carpenters Estate is located in the London Borough of Newham. [1] The estate's name originates from The Worshipful Company of Carpenters, an ancient London livery company, which in the late 19th century bought what was farmland in West Ham for industrial development. Many of London's factories were built on the canals of the River Lea, the railroads, and Carpenters Road in the following decades. To house the workers for these factories, the Company of Carpenters built rows of Victorian terraced houses between Carpenters Road and the neighbouring town centre of Stratford. [1] The Company made efforts to improve the lives of the area's employees and residents, including the creation of a school and a social club. [1]
However, during the Second World War, Stratford was a frequent target for air raids, and by the end of the war much of the Carpenters Estate housing had been destroyed or was badly damaged. [1] The present estate was built in 1967, combining low rise housing (Doran Walk) and three tower blocks:
The estate also contains a school, college and some businesses. [2]
The estate has been subject to plans for refurbishment and redevelopment going back to 2001. In 2004, Newham Council stated that "the estate was falling into disrepair and needed significant improvement work to bring it up to a modern standard and maintain it", but that "after analysing costs, it was clear that this would be an expensive process costing up to £25 million per tower". [2] The process of emptying James Riley Point commenced in 2004, however, funding to continue the refurbishment of this and the remaining two blocks was considered too expensive by the Greater London Authority. [2] Following a public meeting in 2008, the Council recommended the demolition of the remaining tower blocks and some smaller blocks on Doran Walk. [2]
As Newham redeveloped parts of Stratford for the 2012 Olympic Games, the future of the estate was once again under the spotlight given its proximity to the Olympic Park and plans being led by then Mayor of Newham Robin Wales for University College London to build a new campus. [3] [4] However, in May 2013, the campus plan had fallen through. [5] A 2013 research study on the effects of the Olympics on regeneration in East London noted that more than half of the residents had been decanted from the estate by September 2012. [6]
Focus E15 was formed in September 2013 by a group of young mothers campaigning for housing rights - they themselves having faced eviction from a Newham hostel due to funding being withdrawn. [7] In June 2014, Focus E15 staged a protest at the Carpenters Estate over the ongoing social housing problems in the borough. [8] Both the group and the plight of the estate was brought to wider attention when on 23 September 2014, they occupied one of the empty low-rise blocks on the estate to provide a social centre. [9] [10] The occupation came to an end on 7 October when the group agreed to leave the flats after the Council issued legal and eviction notices. [11] A dispute between Focus E15 and Mayor Wales would proceed to wage for some months. [12] [13] [14]
Focus E15 continue to campaign and highlight social housing problems in the borough including the ongoing battle over the Carpenters.
In November 2015, Newham Council re-avowed their commitment to demolish and redevelop the estate, [15] whilst the Greater Carpenters Neighbourhood Forum persisted in their calls for both its refurbishment instead and better engagement with local residents. [16] In August 2017, the Council announced the commencing of a tendering process to enlist a developer to undertake the estate redevelopment, [17] however, in November 2018 it was announced by the Mayor of Newham that this had been shelved, with new promises that any redevelopment would be "led by residents and include a minimum of 50 per cent affordable homes". [18]
In November 2021, Newham commenced the formal regeneration project for the estate, [19] beginning with a ballot of residents on the 19 November. [20]
In 2010, scenes from the science-fiction film Attack the Block were filmed on the estate, featuring locals as extras. [21]
In 2018, scenes from the surveillance thriller The Capture (TV series) were filmed in the Carpenter's Arms, a local pub on the estate. [22]
In 2018, the Blueprint Theatre Company staged a production of a new work at Rich Mix in Shoreditch called Legacy, which highlighted the issue of social cleansing in the area. Based loosely on the story of Mary Finch, a local activist who had refused to leave her flat on the estate, the play examined an extended family living at the Carpenters' who fight back when faced with the possibility of eviction and relocation after the council and developers begin planning a regeneration of Newham in order to prove the positive legacy created by the London 2012 Olympics. The production followed extensive research and interviews with local residents and rehearsed readings at Theatre Royal Stratford East and Rich Mix. It was written by Sally Grey and Susan Avery, directed by Tracy O'Flaherty, and starred Shenagh Govan, Sally Grey, Nicholas Khan, Adam Elms, Katie Males, and Jacqui Gray.
British producer and rapper Funky DL released the 2018 album Dennison Point, recalling his time as a young child living in the block. [23]
Stratford is a town in east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. Until 1965 it was within the historic county of Essex. Part of the Lower Lea Valley, Stratford is situated 6 miles (9.7 km) east-northeast of Charing Cross, and includes the localities of Maryland and East Village.
West Ham is an area in East London, located 6.1 mi (9.8 km) east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham.
The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham is a London borough in East London. It lies around 9 miles (14.4 km) east of Central London. It is an Outer London borough and the south is within the London Riverside section of the Thames Gateway; an area designated as a national priority for urban regeneration. At the 2011 census it had a population of 187,000, the majority of which are within the Becontree estate. The borough's three main towns are Barking, Chadwell Heath and Dagenham. The local authority is the Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council. Barking and Dagenham was one of six London boroughs to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.
The London Borough of Newham is a London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of West Ham and East Ham, authorities that were both abolished by the same act. The name Newham reflects its creation and combines the compass points of the old borough names. Situated in the Inner London part of East London, Newham has a population of 387,576, which is the third highest of the London boroughs and also makes it the 16th most populous district in England. The local authority is Newham London Borough Council.
Plaistow is a suburban area of East London, England, within the London Borough of Newham. It adjoins Upton Park to the north, East Ham to the east, Beckton to the south, Canning Town to the south-west and West Ham to the west.
Canning Town is a district in the London Borough of Newham, East London. The district is located to the north of the Royal Victoria Dock, and has been described as the "Child of the Victoria Docks" as the timing and nature of its urbanisation was largely due to the creation of the dock. The area was part of the ancient parish of West Ham, in the hundred of Becontree, and part of the historic county of Essex. It forms part of the London E16 postcode district.
The Lower Lea Valley is the southern end of the Lea Valley which surrounds the River Lea in eastern Greater London. It is part of the Thames Gateway redevelopment area and was the location of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Sir Robert Andrew "Robin" Wales is a British Labour Party politician who served as the directly elected mayor of the London Borough of Newham from 2002 to 2018. Prior to taking up that newly created role, he was leader of Newham council since 1995, having been a councillor from 1982 to 1986 and 1992 to 2002.
The Peabody Trust was founded in 1862 as the Peabody Donation Fund and now brands itself simply as Peabody. It is one of London's oldest and largest housing associations with around 55,000 properties across London and the South East. It is also a community benefit society and urban regeneration agency, a developer with a focus on regeneration, and a provider of an extensive range of community programmes.
The Aylesbury Estate is a large housing estate located in Walworth, South East London.
Grahame Park, located on the site of the old Hendon Aerodrome in North West London, is a north London housing estate in the London Borough of Barnet, including 1,777 council homes built in the 1970s.
The Heygate Estate was a large housing estate in Walworth, Southwark, South London comprising 1,214 homes. The estate was demolished between 2011 and 2014 as part of the urban regeneration of the Elephant & Castle area. Home to more than 3,000 people, it was situated adjacent to Walworth Road and New Kent Road, and immediately east of the Elephant & Castle road intersection. The estate was used extensively as a filming location, due in part to its brutalist architecture.
Orchard Village, formerly known as the Mardyke Estate, is a housing development in the South Hornchurch area of London, England.
In England and Wales, squatting—taking possession of land or an empty house the squatter does not own—occurs for a variety of reasons which include needing a home, protest, poverty, and recreation. Many squats are residential; some are also opened as social centres. Land may be occupied by New Age travellers or treesitters.
UCL Urban Laboratory is a cross-disciplinary centre for the study of cities and urbanism, based at University College London. It carries out research, education and outreach activities both in London and internationally. The Urban Laboratory was established in 2005. UCL Urban Lab is a department of the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment which also co-operates with the faculties of Engineering, Social and Historical Sciences; and Arts and Humanities. The current director and Head of Department is Dr Clare Melhuish, who took on the role from Dr Ben Campkin in 2018.
Cressingham Gardens is a council garden estate in Lambeth. It is located on the southern edge of Brockwell Park. It comprises 306 dwellings, a mixture of four, three and two-bedroom houses, and one-bedroom apartments. It was designed at the end of the 1960s by the Lambeth Borough Council Architect Edward Hollamby and second architect Roger Westman, and built at the start of the 1970s. In 2012 Lambeth Council proposed demolishing the estate, to replace the terraced houses by apartment blocks. Most of the apartments would then be for sale to the private sector. The residents, those in Lambeth who wish to prevent the gentrification of the borough, and those who want to conserve what they believe to be important architectural heritage, are campaigning to prevent its demolition.
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Focus E15 is a campaign group formed in London in 2013 by a group of mothers threatened with eviction from their emergency accommodation in a hostel for young homeless people in Newham. The group squatted empty flats on the Carpenters Estate in Stratford in September 2014, drawing widespread attention in the mainstream media. Most of the young women were eventually rehoused within the borough, as they had requested. Having won their own battle, they have continued to protest both against the local housing policy of Newham Council and for housing rights more generally. They have done so by occupying various buildings and supporting different individual struggles.
The Winstanley and York Road Estate comprises two large estates of predominantly public housing apartments in Battersea, London, adjacent to Clapham Junction railway station, although some have since passed into private ownership.
The 2022 Newham London Borough Council election took place on 5 May 2022. All 66 members of Newham London Borough Council were elected. The election took place alongside local elections in the other London boroughs and elections to local authorities across the United Kingdom.
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