The Nightingale Estate is located in the Lower Clapton area of the London Borough of Hackney, next to Hackney Downs. The estate originally consisted of six 22 story tower blocks, but was redeveloped between 2003-2006 and replaced with mostly low-rise buildings. Only one of the towers, Seaton Point, still remains.
The original six 65-metre (213 ft), 22 story Nightingale Estate blocks were approved and built in 1968 by the then Greater London Council. [1] These were (from west to east):
In the late 1980s/early 1990s, the flats fell into disrepair. Rising problems of crime and anti-social behaviour on the estate led to some residents taking action. [2] As part of a then UK Government regeneration scheme, Hackney Council drew up plans to redevelop the estate which led to five of the blocks (with the exception of Seaton Point), being demolished. [2]
Farnell Point was the first to be felled by implosion on 26 July 1998, [3] followed by Embley Point and Southerland Point on 3 December 2000. [4] Finally, Rathbone Point and Rachel Point were demolished on 30 November 2003. [5]
Between 2003-2006, a redevelopment saw low-rise housing built to replace the demolished towers. [2] [6]
In 2017, Hackney Council announced a £200 million plan to construct 400 homes on the site, in addition to 300 built earlier. [7] [8]
Embley Point was home to London pirate radio stations in the early 1990s including Kool FM. One such station Rush FM, was subject to a high-profile raid in July 1993 resulting in media coverage about alleged drug and rave party links to stations operating from the estate. [9]
The estate is represented on the artwork for the first three singles released 1994 by electronic music act Spring Heel Jack - member Ashley Wales lived at Rachel Point. [10] It has also featured in the music videos of bands Travis, Suede, and Blur.
Seaton Point is the setting for the 1998 novel of the same name, edited by Robert Dellar and contributed to by him amongst other authors. [11]
The BBC television show Top Gear used the estate demolition as part of a stunt for the 'indestructible' Toyota Hilux, which was hoisted onto the roof of Rachel Point. The car still worked after the demolition and was placed on the wall of the Top Gear studios. [7]
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction. It is used as a residential, office building, or other functions including hotel, retail, or with multiple purposes combined. Residential high-rise buildings are also known in some varieties of English, such as British English, as tower blocks and may be referred to as MDUs, standing for multi-dwelling units. A very tall high-rise building is referred to as a skyscraper.
Little London is a residential area of Leeds in England, north of the city centre and Leeds Inner Ring Road. It is so called because in the 19th century it had fashionable housing and interesting architecture comparable to London. In the 1950s and '60s it became largely council housing and now consists of a mixture of high and low-rise flats and housing. The area falls within the Little London and Woodhouse ward of the City of Leeds Council. The area is divided into four estates; Lovell Park, Oatlands, Carlton and the Servias.
The Aylesbury Estate is a large housing estate located in Walworth, South East London.
Sighthill is a neighbourhood in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde and is part of the wider Springburn district in the north of the city. It is bordered to the north by Cowlairs, to the east by the Springburn Bypass road and the Royston neighbourhood, to the west by the Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk Line and to the south by the Townhead interchange of the M8 Motorway.
Hutchesontown is an inner-city area in Glasgow, Scotland. Mostly residential, it is situated directly south of the River Clyde and forms part of the wider historic Gorbals district, which is covered by the Southside Central ward under Glasgow City Council.
Beaumont Road is a housing estate located in Leyton in East London. It is the largest housing estate in the borough of Waltham Forest, and is now the last high rise estate in Leyton. All neighbouring high rise estates have been demolished. It is situated just south of the Bakers Arms, on Leyton High Road.
Hackney Downs is a park and an area of historically common land in the Lower Clapton area of the London Borough of Hackney. The name is sometimes also used to apply to the neighbourhood around the park.
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.
Gowkthrapple is a small neighbourhood of Wishaw, Scotland, situated around 3⁄4 miles (1.2 km) from the town centre. The name "Gowkthrapple" is a Scots compound word made up of "gowk", meaning "idiot" or "cuckoo" and "thrapple", meaning "throat" or "strangle". One theory of how the community gained its name is that there was a woodland here which was notable for cuckoos. Gowkthrapple can be entered off of Castlehill Road which runs the length of the estate. Formerly an industrial area, associated with the Pather Iron and Steel Works and then Smith's clock factory, which opened in 1951. This closed in the 1970s, although the premises remain standing on Smith Avenue and have been reused as Garrion Business Park. In 2016, Gowkthrapple had an estimated population of 1330.
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.
Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland, has several distinct styles of residential buildings. Building styles reflect historical trends, such as rapid population growth in the 18th and 19th centuries, deindustrialization and growing poverty in the late 20th century, and civic rebound in the 21st century.
Haggerston is a locale in East London, England, centred approximately on Great Cambridge Street. It is within the London Borough of Hackney and is considered to be a part of London's East End. It is about 3.1 miles (5 km) northeast of Charing Cross.
Orchard Park Estate is an area or housing estate situated on the north-western side of Kingston upon Hull, England.
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.
Muirhouse is a residential suburb in the south-east of Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, coming under the Motherwell South East & Ravenscraig council ward and bordering the Flemington neighbourhood in the town, plus the Craigneuk and Netherton areas of Wishaw. It consists of thirteen tower blocks, amidst low rise flats and numerous houses.
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.
The Seaton Carew lighthouses were a pair of leading light towers built in Seaton Carew to guide ships into the River Tees. The low light was demolished over a century ago and what remained of the high light has been rebuilt in Hartlepool Marina.
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.
Tower blocks are high-rise buildings for residential use. These blocks began to be built in Great Britain after the Second World War. The first residential tower block, "The Lawn", was constructed in Harlow, Essex, in 1951; it is now a Grade II listed building. In many cases, tower blocks were seen as a "quick-fix" to cure problems caused by the existence of crumbling and unsanitary 19th-century dwellings or to replace buildings destroyed by German aerial bombing. It was argued that towers surrounded by public open space could provide for the same population density as the terraced housing and small private gardens they replaced, offering larger rooms and improved views, whilst being cheaper to build.