 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(March 2011) |
The Thamesmead Housing Co-operative was a housing estate in Thamesmead, South East London in the London Borough of Greenwich. It was a purpose-built housing cooperative and like others it was an experiment in building close-knit communities and as a way of helping single people and couples.
It was dissolved in the 1990s and taken over by Hyde Housing Association (now The Hyde Group).
| |
Thamesmead Housing Co-operative was established to address the lack of housing for vulnerable single people in the area. Applicants to live on the CO-op were interviewed in order to establish their housing needs and also their ability to co-exist with others in shared houses. New tenants were required to purchase a £1 share in order to become a member of the co-operative, which entitled them to attend and vote in the annual general meeting, to elect or stand for the management committee, participate in the co-operative's affairs and receive its services.
The co-operative consisted of an enclave of 40 flats and 20 shared houses in red brick. The flats were intended for couples but not families and the houses were shared by 4 - 6 people, some having a purpose build disabled unit attached. The buildings were laid out in five courtyards with addresses in Blyth Road and Slocum Close. A hall and office were provided for purpose of holding meetings and managing the co-operative.
Difficulties in running the co-operative as a stand-alone project led to the involvement of Hyde Housing Association, which took over the management of the properties around 1990. Later it was established that the transfer process had not been correctly handled, and the process was properly completed in the late 1990s. During the transition period the project ran under two names, the original Thamesmead Housing Co-Op and the ill-fated Hyde Housing version known as "Thamesmead Management Co-Op" at 29 Blyth Road, London, SE28 8LJ, which was not recognized by the responsible Government body "The Housing Corporation" and caused the delay in formal transfer to Hyde Housing. Among the founder members were Graham Simpson, who later became the last chair of the original co-op, Paul Clewlow, treasurer, and Dave O'Brien, all who had lived on the scheme for a number of years. In its death throes the co-op was subject to a large number of fraudulent housing applications from Nigerian applicants who saw it as a source of cheap student accommodation rather than the having the common goal of the original ethos and as a result the ethnic make-up consisted of 96% African 3% British and 1% Asian.[ citation needed ] This was wildly disproportionate and different to the local boroughs ethnicity and at that time made it stand out. Subsequently, Thamesmead as a whole has been the favored residential starting point in the UK for most arriving West Africans to the extent that it is now known locally as "Little Lagos". [1]
The properties have continued as a shared housing scheme.
Thamesmead is an area of south-east London, England, straddling the border between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. It is located 11 miles (18 km) east of Charing Cross, north-east of Woolwich and west of Erith. It mainly consists of social housing built from the mid-1960s onwards on former marshland on the south bank of the River Thames.
The London Borough of Bexley is a London borough in south-east London, forming part of Outer London. It has a population of 248,287. The main settlements are Sidcup, Erith, Bexleyheath, Crayford, Welling and Old Bexley. The London Borough of Bexley is within the Thames Gateway, an area designated as a national priority for urban regeneration. The local authority is Bexley London Borough Council.
A condominium is an ownership regime in which a building is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual owners. These individual units are surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned and managed by the owners of the units. The term can be applied to the building or complex itself, and is sometimes applied to individual units. The term "condominium" is mostly used in the US and Canada, but similar arrangements are used in many other countries under different names.
A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity, usually a cooperative or a corporation, which owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings; it is one type of housing tenure. Typically housing cooperatives are owned by shareholders but in some cases they can be owned by a non-profit organization. They are a distinctive form of home ownership that have many characteristics that differ from other residential arrangements such as single family home ownership, condominiums and renting.
The Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op, is a British consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses including grocery retail and wholesale, legal services, funerals and insurance retailing.
Erith and Thamesmead is a constituency created in 1997 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Abena Oppong-Asare of the Labour Party.
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 over 100,000 homes across London and the home counties. It is also a community benefit society and urban regeneration agency, with a focus on placemaking, stewardship and a provider of an extensive range of community programmes.
Abbey Wood is an area in southeast London, England, straddling the border between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. It is located 10.6 miles (17 km) east of Charing Cross.
Glenkerry House is a housing block on the Brownfield Estate in Poplar, London, England, designed by the studio of the controversial Brutalist architect Ernő Goldfinger. 14 storeys high, it stands in proximity to and complements the appearance of Balfron Tower and Carradale House, which were designed by Goldfinger himself and are now Grade II listed. There are four four-bedroom maisonettes on the ground floor, 18 one-bedroom, 45 two-bedroom and 12 three-bedroom flats; 79 flats in all.
The Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (RACS) was a large consumer co-operative based in south east London, England. The co-operative took its name from the Royal Arsenal munitions works in Woolwich and its motto was: "Each for all and all for each". In 1985 it merged into the national Co-operative Wholesale Society.
Market Estate is a public housing estate consisting of 271 flats and maisonettes situated to the north of Caledonian Park in the London Borough of Islington. It is named after the Metropolitan Cattle Market which operated on the site until the 1960s. After slaughter the carcasses of cattle and sheep were sent by underground trains to Smithfield Market to be traded. Three of the six blocks that make up the estate are named after breeds of animal that were traded in the market: Tamworth (pigs), Kerry (cows) and Southdown (sheep). The remaining three blocks are called the Clock tower blocks after the market's clock tower which still stands in Caledonian Park. This contains a working clock used as a prototype for the mechanism of Big Ben.
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.
The United Kingdom is home to a widespread and diverse co-operative movement, with over 7,000 registered co-operatives owned by 17 million individual members and which contribute £34bn a year to the British economy. Modern co-operation started with the Rochdale Pioneers' shop in the northern English town of Rochdale in 1844, though the history of co-operation in Britain can be traced back to before 1800. The British co-operative movement is most commonly associated with The Co-operative brand which has been adopted by several large consumers' co-operative societies; however, there are many thousands of registered co-operative businesses operating in the UK. Alongside these consumers' co-operatives, there exist many prominent agricultural co-operatives (621), co-operative housing providers (619), health and social care cooperatives (111), cooperative schools (834), retail co-operatives, co-operatively run community energy projects, football supporters' trusts, credit unions, and worker-owned businesses.
A student housing cooperative, also known as co-operative housing, is a housing cooperative for student members. Members live in alternative cooperative housing that they personally own and maintain. These houses are designed to lower housing costs while providing an educational and community environment for students to live and grow in. They are, in general, nonprofit, communal, and self-governing, with students pooling their monetary and personal resources to create a community style home. Many student housing cooperatives share operation and governing of the house. As with most cooperatives, student housing coops follow the Rochdale Principles and promote collaboration and community work done by the members for mutual benefit.
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 Clays Lane Estate was a housing estate in Stratford, east London, and the UK’s largest purpose built housing cooperative. It was an experiment in building close-knit communities as a way of helping vulnerable single people. It became the subject of significant controversy when it was demolished to make way for the site of the London 2012 Olympic games.
Anglia Regional Co-operative Society Limited was the fifth largest consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. It was formed by the merger of the Greater Peterborough Regional and Anglia co-operative societies in 1987. The Society had over 80 stores, principally trading in East Anglia. Head office was located at Westgate House, Peterborough until 2011.
The Barnfield Estate is a housing estate located in Woolwich, Royal Borough of Greenwich, south east London.
West Whitlawburn Housing Co-operative is a housing co-operative and registered social landlord on the outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland. Situated in Cambuslang the co-operative is a social housing provider managing 644 former council housing on the West Whitlawburn estate, housing approximately 2500 residents. As a fully mutual housing co-operative the tenants are members and shareholders and elect a management committee of members to oversee the running of the organisation. Founded in 1989 the co-operative is one of the largest housing co-operatives in Scotland, and one of the few stock transfer social housing co-operatives not to have been converted into a housing association.
Sanford Housing Co-operative or Sanford Co-op is a housing co-operative located in south east London. Currently home to around 120 people, it is the first purpose-built housing co-operative in the United Kingdom and has run without interruption since its opening in 1974.