Lend Lease Agreement Lapses

The exclusive agreement between Southwark Council and the Australian development firm Lend Lease Inc, for the Elephant and Castle redevelopment lapsed this week - without an agreement. 

In South London Press: Elephant and Castle Revamp In Doubt

And London SE1: London Recession Is a 'Huge Setback' Admits Council as Lend Lease Deal Stalls

 

Southwark Council admits that the recession has made a deal 'more difficult' but is confident that the economy will pick up 'in the medium term' and a deal can be reached. 

If it does fall through, it will be the second time a deal has fallen through. In March, 2002, Southwark Land Regeneration (SLR) also failed to reach an agreement with the council. 

   In the meantime, whither all those empty buildings? Will they be demolished this summer, as scheduled? What then? 

   I wonder if the Heygate will become one vast squatter's paradise in the year (or years) to come . . . 

More Photos from the Heygate . . .

A photographer named Anthony Wallace posted this short Photo essay called Sealed Up in a magazine called 'actuphoto'. He writes that he discovered some workers sealing off another empty flat while he was exploring the estate. 

"Inside, an old armchair had been left behind during the evacuation. The sunken seat cushion conjured up images of who had sat there and what kind of people had occupied the flat up until the previous day. 

The head of the welding team granted me permission to photograph other flats whilst they were being sealed. I found myself emphasizing with the abandoned objects and decided that I would collect one as a representative of each property. 

These photographs are a way of preserving the living spaces and some of the memories entombed in them.

Heygate Windows

Taken Fall, 2008: Looking south from KingsHill Estate: 

Waiting Rooms

Photo: Hannah Lucy Jones (http://hannahlucyjones.com)

Photographer Hannah Lucy Jones had a photo exhibit of the Heygate Estate at a group exhibition in Camberwell in February, 2009. 

   The show was called 'Waiting Rooms, between habitation and demolition'. 

   On her site, Jones writes: 

The first residents moved into the Heygate estate in Walworth in the early 1970’s. Never aesthetically pleasing, the estate has sunk into disrepair and does not meet the government’s 2010 Decent Homes standard. Some residents claim the Heygate has been abandoned by Southwark council. They complain of having no heating or hot water for days on end, of leaks and flooding, and of the council’s indifference to their housing needs.

The council promised residents brand new homes to move into on a like-for-like basis. However, the redevelopment has fallen behind schedule, and so far only 12 new flats have been built specifically for Heygate residents, at Wansey Street (completed 2006), of the projected 1000 plus. Southwark council has now brought forward the date by which all residents must have left the Heygate to September 2009. It is unlikely that any of the remaining 15 developments will be completed by this date, so the vast majority of Heygate residents are now having to use the Homesearch system and move into existing council stock in Southwark.

As the rehousing process – or ‘decant’ as the council phrases it – continues, the Heygate estate is gradually emptying out. To begin with empty flats were ineffectually barred off, and either squatters moved in or looters stole scrap metal such as water pipes from the empty flats, causing flooding in connecting flats still occupied. Now welding teams are on site all day, welding shut empty flats with grey steel boards. Some floors are now entirely empty and blocks such as Kingshill have become frightening places for the few residents left, who might live in the only flat still occupied, next to 21 other empty flats on their floor. Southwark’s Executive Member for Housing Kim Humphreys warned residents in November 2008 that as the estate emptied and became more unsafe, people were vulnerable to violence and even murder if they continued living on the estate and resisting a move into existing council accommodation. The remaining residents argue they would leave if the council would give them the new homes they were promised.

The Russians Do It Better . .. .

What the Heygate might look like one day, if they move everyone out then don't actually demolish . . . 

From Englishrussia.com:

Kadykchan, a lost Soviet era city that once contained 12,000 people, now totally deserted . . .

Trust the Russians to do it better. 

Not a buldozer or a builder's bum in sight . . .

BBC documentary short about the Heygate Estate, from March, 2009

More than 800 households have been moved off the estate. Yet 400 remain. Touching commentary by some the old people still living on the estate:

"They don't want the working classes in this area . . . "

"Put me on the scrap heap why don't they?"

The bulldozers and builder's bums are supposed to be making an appearance this summer, but we'll see if they do.

Old Punks Never Die . . .

They just end up in the Guardian.

Punks and Skins

Gavin Watson is a British photographer. He knew many of his subjects, and this intimacy comes out in his photographs. A London you couldn't imagine now, even in the post-turbo-capitalist phase - but who knows, if the recession deepens, it may be on the way back . . .