Guardians Offices, London Borough of Southwark, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-55
I walked down St Giles Road to the Peckham Road, turning east along it. At the end of the block on the corner of Havill Street is the former Guardians Offices built in an vaguely Art Nouveau style in 1904 for the Poor Law Guardians who ran the workhouse of which it was part. The sundial has the text ‘Do Today’s Work Today‘. The building is Grade II listed.
Under the 1929 Local Government Act the LCC took over the workhouse and infirmary buildings on the site and the same act abolished the Board of Guardians system in 1930. Many workhouses were redesignated as Public Assistance Institutions but Camberwell’s became St James’s Hospital and these offices became the Divisional Health Offices. Southwark Council inherited the building in 1966 but closed its offices here when it moved to Tooley Street in 2009. The building was bought in 2010 by homelessness charity Thames Reach who use it as an Employment Academy. There is also a cafe and tea room on the Havill Street side as well as a Montessori Nursery on the site.
Guardians Offices, London Borough of Southwark, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-45
A wider view of the building, still then in use by Southwark Council.
Camberwell Town Hall, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-56
On the east corner of Havill Street is the former Camberwell Town Hall designed in a Classical style by Culpin and Bowers and opened in 1934. It became the town hall for the London Borough of Southwark when this was created in 1965 and was still this when I took my picture. They sold it to a developer in 2009 when the council moved to Tooley St and it was converted into student accommodation for Goldsmiths College.
South House, 30-32 Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-41
This row of houses are Grade II listed and were built as separate houses ca 1790. Like the council offices across the road they were also in use as council offices until around 2010 with the house and have also been converted into student accommodation, with a total of 125 bedrooms in the three blocks including also listed Central and East Houses on the north side of Peckham Road and South House.. Joined to them the east end of the block (out of picutre at left) is still the Southwark Register Office.
Southwark Register Office is also Grade II listed and was built around 1790. At some unknown date it was liked to No 32 at right at second floor level, with the curious rooftop extension you see here. Presumably the tall archway in the middle had some purpose, and was possibly at one time without the lower wall and arch. Perhaps giraffes were kept in the gardens behind? Suggestions are welcome in the comments here or on Flickr.
The London Institute, Camberwell College of Arts, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-23
John Passmore Edwards gave money for the erection of the South London Gallery and the College, architect Maurice Bingham Adams, in memory of Lord Leighton. The gallery opened in 1891 and the Technical Institute in 1898. It became one of England’s leading art schools particularly after WW2. The Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts became a part of the London Institute formed by ILEA in 1986 and in 1989 it became Camberwell College of Arts becoming a part of the University of the Arts London in 2004.
South London Gallery, The Passmore Edwards South London Art Gallery, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-25
The Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts became one of England’s leading art schools particularly after WW2. It became a part of the London Institute formed by ILEA in 1986 and in 1989 it became Camberwell College of Arts becoming a part of the University of the Arts London in 2004.
My next post will start with a couple more pictures of Camberwell College of Arts before taking a walk up Havill Road.
On Saturday 3rd Novemeber I got to London earlier than anticipate and had time for a little walk before photographing the first protest I had come to cover, over the cuts to public libraries. Later I went to photograph another protest about the plans to demolish many London council estates under so-called ‘regeneration’ plans which involve demolition and rebuilding by developers with little social housing.
Euston to Kings Cross Coal Drops – Sat 3 Nov 2018
Problems on my railway journeys into London are rather common, often involving considerable delays. Last weekend a replacement bus for part of the way meant that my usually slow journey scheduled to take 35 minutes to travel 20 miles instead took an hour and a half. But on Saturday 23rd November 2018, there was something of a miracle. When I arrived at the station a train which should have arrived half an hour earlier was just pulling in and an announcement told me it would be running non-stop to Waterloo.
Where possible I like to arrive at events perhaps 10 or 15 minutes before the advertised start time make sure I don’t miss anything. Travelling across London is often a little unpredictable, with odd holdups so I usually allow plenty of time. I’d arrived at my station a few minutes early, and with the non-stop service got me to Waterloo around 25 minutes before I expected. The normal timetable schedule gives a 5 or 10 minutes slack to make it less likely that train operating company has to pay fines for late running, and without stops the journey is significantly faster. Together with an Underground train that came as I walked onto the platform I arrived at Euston with around three quarters of an hour to spare.
This gave me time for a walk to the newly opened retail development in the former King’s Cross coal drops. I’d photographed the disused coal drops many years earlier, taking pictures of the demolished bridges across the Regents Canal and the still standing drops on the north side where coal brought from the North in railway goods waggons was transferred into carts for delivery across London. At first the waggons were lifted and tipped, later waggons had opening doors in their bottoms to dischage directly in the waiting carts and lorries.
My walk also took me through Somers Town, which has some of inner London’s more interesting social housing and past the new Francis Crick Institute before reaching the canal and a new walkway to Coal Drops Yard and Granary Square, and gave some views of the gasholders relocated across the canal from Kings Cross, some of which are now filled with flats. I made my way back with just enough time to visit the toilets in St Pancras Station before going to the meeting point for the Library protest at the rear of the British Library in Midland Road.
Save Our Libraries march – British Library, Sat 3 Nov 2018
The march and rally against cuts in library services, which are a vital part of our cultural services, especially for working class schoolchildren and young people was organised by Unison and supported by PCS and Unite, but they seem to have done very little publicity and the numbers were far fewer than expected.
Unfortunately the march clashed with another event I wanted to cover and I had to leave a few minutes before it was due to start. Perhaps more joined the protest for the rally at the end of the march outside Parliament.
No Demolitions Without Permission – City Hall, London. Sat 3 Nov 2018
‘Axe the Housing Act’ had called a protest to demand an end to the demolition of council estates unless these were approved by a ballot of all residents, and for public land to be used to build more council homes rather than being turned over to developers to make huge profits from high-priced flats.
Most of those who came were from London council estates under threat of demolition by Labour London councils and speaker after speaker from estate after estate got up and spoke about the lies, evasions and often illegal activities of London Labour councils bent on demolishing their council estates.
Green Party co-leader and London Assembly’s Housing Committee chair Sian Berry
Instead of looking after their working class populations Labour councils are time and time again forcing through demolition of council estates, enabling developers to make huge profits by building flats for sale largely at market rent, with a small proportion of high rent ‘affordable’ homes and a miserably small number of homes at social rent, promoting schemes which cut by thousands the number of council homes.
Tanya Murat, Chair of Southwark Defend Council Housing
Although a new policy was about to come in to insist their should be residents ballots, London Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan had responded to this by fast-tracking 34 demolition schemes by Labour councils before it was implemented. He allowed some schemes to go forward without a ballot, and had failed to insist that all residents were allowed to take part in such ballots.
Former Lambeth Council leader and veteran Labour politician Ted Knight
Among the groups taking part in the rally were Class War and the Revolutionary Communist Group, both very much involved in campaigns across the capital on housing, and among the most effective at raising the issues involved in London’s housing. For some reason the rally organisers would not allow representatives of either of these to speak at the event, which led to a loud confrontation when Labour supporter Ted Knight came to speak. More below on this.
At the end of the rally people marched around City Hall with their banners.
Class War protest Labour Housing record – City Hall, Sat 3 Nov 2018
Whitechapel anarchist Martin Wright
Although Class War supporters were one of the larger groups taking part in the ‘No Demolitions Without Permission’ rally at City Hall they and others were denied any opportunity to speak as a part of the official rally.
Class War have been the most active group in supporting and raising the profile of campaigns in London against estate demolition mainly by London Labour councils who are responsible for the great bulk of estate sell-offs and demolition involving over 160 council estates – social cleansing on a massive scale. Among those protesting at the rally with Class War was Leigh Miller, recently illegally evicted from Gallions Point Marina under orders from the Labour Mayor of London.
Leigh Miller, recently illegally evicted from Gallions Point Marina and Lisa McKenzie hold the banner high
It was no surprise that when a prominent Labour politician got up to speak, Class War erupted, shouting him down to make clear that it was Labour who was responsible for estate demolitions. It was perhaps unfair on Ted Knight, a former Lambeth Labour leader who together with other councillors defied Thatcher and was surcharged and banned from holding public office for 5 years.
Ted Knight (right) and Martin Wright (left) shout at each other
Knight has supported Central Hill Estate residents in their fight against Lambeth Council’s plans for demolition, singing from much the same hymn sheet as Class War on housing issues. As Lambeth council’s leader he was clear that “Nothing is too good for the working classes” and estates such as Central Hill reflect this. And there was a little of old scores in the verbal attack on him by Whitechapel anarchist Martin Wright.
Finally at the end of the rally, Leigh Miller did get a chance to speak.
As a number of those estate residents allowed to speak at the rally pointed out, homes will only be saved if people become more militant and engage in the kind of direct actions which Class War advocates – and not by rallies like today’s outside a closed City Hall.
Class War stood to one side at the end of the rally when most of the rest taking part marched around the empty offices, they were calling for a rather different revolution.
Post-war Pritchard House (left) has been demolished but the house at 66 Wansey St in the right half of the picture is still there. Everything to its left has now gone with only the steps of No 68 remaining for a small new block of two social housing flats.
The street now continues through where Pritchard House was to Brandon Street and it is now part of the Larcom Street Conservation Area. No 66 probably dates from around 1860 and it and other houses on the street are probably part of the earliest development of the area.
Wansey St, Southwark, 1989 89-1a-15
66 Wansey St comes at the end of a long terrace – longer when built as there is a gap between 46 and 54 with a post-war infill block almost certainly following war damage. The house is the grandest of those surviving and the only one with a carriage entrance. The street then ended here, with Gurney St at right angles.
The area suffered heavily in the Blitz, with houses in the area being damaged or destroyed, including one of the greatest disasters of the bombing. Bombs hit nearby 6 Gurney St, close to the New Kent Road, damaging it and other houses on the last night of the Blitz, 10/11 May 1941, but it was only over a year later than a huge unexploded bomb that had been buried deep under the rubble, totally destroying 6 Gurney St and the two houses on each side and severely damaging many others in the surrounding area. 18 people were killed and 62 severely injures. This house on Wansey St was at the limit of broken glazing, over 200 yards away.
Kingshill, Brandon St, Southwark, 1989 89-1a-16
This block was a part of the Heygate Estate, neglected and demonised by Southwark Council and eventually demolished to allow for development of the area largely as private housing mainly sold to overseas investors.
St Johns Institute, Larcom St, Walworth, Southwark, 1989
Built around 1900 thanks to the efforts of the then vicar of nearby St John’s Church, the Rev. A W Jephson, this remains in use as a community centre. There is now a block of flats to its left.
The Heygate Estate, one of the better planned council estates of its era was by designed by Tim Tinker and completed in 1974. Southwark Council saw an opportunity to profit from redeveloping the area and began a process of demonising the estate, which had been allowed to deteriorate. What had been social housing for around 3000 people provided only 82 socially rented homes in the new development, much of which was sold to overseas investors.
They ended up making a loss as having spent around £65 million on emptying it and scheming for its redevelopment against a strong campaign by residents they sold it to Lendlease for £50 million. However some councillors and officers are said to have done rather well out of it personally.
Another view of the Heygate from the outside. Like many developments of its time a central boiler provided heating efficiently to all or many of the properties, though often inadequate maintenance meant such systems broke down.
I’m unsure of the purpose of this large open area or of the strange markings on it.
The overhead walkway from which I took this picture was a part of the Heygate Estate and demolished with it. Morris Court, the Peabody flats it shows are still there on the corner with Larcom St. The Peabody Walworth Estate was built around 1915 replacing slum housing and modernised in the 1980s. There are a number of blocks around a large central courtyard along Rodney Road, Content St and Wadding St.
This is taken from another walkway on the estate. As a non-resident I found these rather easy to get lost on as they were not shown on my mpas, but although the estate had a bad reputation I never experienced any problems, and it was certainly pleasant to be away from cars which were often a hazard when taking pictures. But it would have possibly seemed more threatening late at night rather than on a Sunday morning.
Another picture from one of the walkways around this corner of the Heygate Estate, which perhaps shows some of my confusion. It also shows a few of the many trees which had been planted in the area, which had just about come to maturity when the estate was demolished.
Pepys Rd, New Cross, Lewisham, 1988 88-12d-64_2400
Pepys Road and Nunhead Cemetery
Pepys Road is a part of the large Telegraph Hill conservation area designated a couple of years after I made this picture. It is a late Victorian planned residential estate in what was then known as Hatcham and mostly consists of rather similar houses built by two local builders on a fairly steep hillside owned by the Haberdashers’ Company between 1870 and 1899. I don’t think there is any particular connection between Samuel Pepys and Pepys Road, but certainly he was frequently in the area both for his work as Secretary to the Admiralty very much involved in Deptford’s Royal Dockyard and visiting John Evelyn at Sayes Court. The semaphore telegraph at the top of the hill which gives the area its name arrived later in 1795.
These two houses, Silverdale and Thornhill are on the west side of the street at 62 and 64, and are part of a long succession of more or less identical properties on both sides of the street. But these were the only pair with an ice-cream van outside when I made this picture.
Probably because of its uniformity I took few pictures on my long walk up the hill on Pepys Rd, just a couple of pictures at the top of the hill of Hatcham College, one of which (not digitised) includes the statue of Robert Aske, one of only five listed buildings in the conservation area, the others all being telephone kiosks!
I was on my way to Nunhead Cemetery, one of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ great cemeteries set up around the then outskirts of London as its population was growing rapidly and the small parish cemeteries in the city were becoming dangerously overcrowded.
Anglican Chapel and monuments, Nunhead Cemetery, Nunhead, Southwark, 1988 88-12d-16
Parliament passed an act promoting the establishment of private cemeteries outside central London in 1832 and in the following decade seven were established – in date order Kensal Green, West Norwood, Highgate (West), Abney Park, Brompton, Nunhead and Tower Hamlets.
Allen tomb, Nunhead Cemetery, Nunhead, Southwark, 1988 88-12d-22
Nunhead, originally known as All Saints’ Cemetery, was established by the London Cemetery Company in 1840 and is one of the least well known of the seven though it is the second largest at 52 acres.
Financial difficulties caused its closure in 1969 and it was bought for £1 by Southwark Borough in 1975. In 1981 the Friends of Nunhead Cemetery was formed and together with the council began the restoration of the cemetery which was reopened to the public in 2001.
I think my pictures were taken on a Sunday afternoon tour led by the Friends. The include some of the more notable monuments in the cemetery which you can find out much more about on the Friends web site and they offer regular guided tours, but you can wander freely on your own as the cemetery is open to the public daily and you can find a useful map on the web.
The Wikipedia entry on Nunhead Cemetery lists a number of notable people whose graves are in the cemetery, but few were familiar names to me. One who very much made an impact on London was Sir George Thomas Livesey (1834 – 1908), engineer, industrialist and philanthropist and chairman of the South Metropolitan Gas Company. Another was Thomas Tilling, who gave London its first double-decker buses and was for many years England’s major bus operator. Allegedly ‘Tom Tilling’ became Cockney rhyming slang for a shilling coin, though I never heard it used.
The Brockley footpath runs along the southwest edge of Nunhead Cemetery and I was able to leave the cemetery and walk down it back towards Nunhead. You can exit the cemetery on Limesford Road and walk along this to the path.
This post looks at the end of my walk south of the river on Sunday 13th November 1988 – the previous post was Flats, A Square, Bread & Funerals – Walworth – and finishes with a few pictures taken at night in the City of London.
Southwark Council built the Aylesbury Estate between 1963 and 1977. It was one of the larger if not the largest public housing developments in Europe, with around 2,700 homes. Wendover, designed by the boroughs architects, was completed in 1970. I think it’s two blocks contains around 471 flats as well as a learning centre and tenants hall.
Like many council estates it was poorly maintained over the years and parts of the estate were deliberately used by the council to house people and families with various social problems, something exacerbated by the Conservatives plans, particularly under Thatcher, to get rid of social housing, resulting in it increasingly becoming housing for the most deprived members of society.
The estate has a central boiler for heating and hot water, which has increasingly suffered from failures which residents say the council is very slow to take action over. The flats also have fallen behind more modern standards of insulation etc, and are in need of some refurbishment, though the council drastically overstated the costs of this when making their case for demolition.
I’ve in recent years been inside quite a few flats on the estate, often lovingly maintained and decorated by their residents who have been fighting a long battle against council plans to redevelop the area.
Although the council carried out a long PR campaign against this and the neighbouring Heygate Estate – including Tony Blair making his first speech as Prime Minister here and launching the party’s programme of regeneration of housing estates.
Its relatively open and fairly traffic-free nature along with convenient location made the estate a favourite for “grim backdrops to murder scenes, gun and drug storylines and gang-related crimes in soaps and gritty dramas” until pressure from local residents forced Southwark Council to ban filming in the area.
Channel4 took footage from the estate to use in their channel ident, adding to it, according to Ben Campkin of UCL quoted in Wikipedia, “washing lines, shopping trolley, rubbish bags and satellite dishes” to show it as “a desolate concrete dystopia [which] provides visual confirmation of tabloid journalists’ descriptions of a ‘ghost town’ estate.“
Residents wanted refurbishment rather than demolition – which will lead to many of them moving much further away from the centre of London. But councillors salivated at the thought of profits and handouts from the developers and never seriously considered anything other than demolition and replacement. Their decision lead to a series of occupations by housing activists of properties due for demolition. The complete destruction of the estate seems likely to take around another ten years with the final phase beginning next year. You can read much more about what has happened – and the duplicity of Southwark Council on the Southwark Notes site.
I walked on through both the Aylesbury and Heygate estates, both estates with a bad reputation for crime, but where I never suffered an uneasy moment despite having around £10,000 of equipment in my camera bag. I didn’t stop to take many pictures after those of Wendover, probably because I was getting tired. I did took a few frames on the New Kent Road and then walked on past the Elephant.
This entrance on Lambeth Road was one I’d photographed previously and probably I made a slight detour to do so again. I’d made an earlier picture using the tiny Minox that lived in my jacket pocket and it was severely underexposed. I had to send the camera for servicing. It was distributed by Leica, who told me it couldn’t be repaired, but offered me a replacement at considerably below the shop price. I had it in my pocket on 13th November taking my first test film, and took it out and made another exposure with it which was fine – and very similar to this, made on an Olympus SLR. Both are online on Flickr.
Frank Love, Lambeth Rd, Newington, Southwark, 1988 88-11e-63
The previous image was the trade entrance at No 47 for Frank Love at New XL House, No 45 Lambeth Rd. Its signs read PLUMBERS BRASSFOUNDRY COPPER TUBES AND FITTINGS but I think the works had closed when I made this image. You can view an earlier image of the whole frontage by Bedford Lemere & Co in the Lambeth borough archive, and see some of their advents on Grace’s Guide. I think these were the last pictures taken on my walk which ended at Waterloo Station.
Dagwoods, St Alphage Highwalk, City, 198888-11e-41
Dagwoods offered Quality Sandwiches to city workers in their lunch hour but the area was pretty empty at night, although there are still a few lights in the offices. The large area of pavement emphasises that emptiness.
I think I was probably coming back from an event at the Museum of London and had decided to take a little walk with my camera, though from some of the other pictures it seems clear I had come without a tripod.
Night, Bassishaw Highwalk, City, 1988 88-11e-42
Another deserted area of highwalk, and the sharpness and depth of field suggests I was able to steady myself well to produce this handheld – it will have been taken at a pretty slow shutter speed. This section of highwalk and the office building at right is still there though looking rather different.
Too much of the older London remained for the planners’ dreams of the separation of pedestrians from traffic to ever really be feasible except in a few small areas of the city – and there are very few escalators or lifts where the elderly and disabled can access them.
Night, Bassishaw Highwalk, City, 1988 88-11e-45
One of my favourite modern buildings in London, and one I’ve photographed several times in daylight. I suspect it was this building that really prompted me to make this short walk at night. After the four frames (only one digitised) I made here I did wander around an make a dozen or so more exposures, but nothing which really caught my interest when I was deciding which to put on-line.
65 Basinghall St is Grade II listed as “Former exhibition hall, magistrates court and offices, now converted to offices, 1966-69, by Richard Gilbert Scott of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, Son and Partner” and was built in 1966-9. There is a long essay in the listing text. But perhaps sufficient to say its roof is one of the finest uses of concrete at least in the UK.
The Elephant, Sewol and Brexiteers Saturday 13th April 2019 in London, three years ago seems very distant to me now.
Love the Elephant, Elephant & Castle, London
The main event I covered on the day was at the Elephant & Castle shopping centre in south London, where local people and supporters were calling on Southwark Council and developers Delancey to improve the plans for the redevelopment of the area.
The campaigners main banner had the message ‘LOVE THE ELEPHANT – HATE GENTRIFICATION’ and this is an area that epitomises the changes that have been taking place in many of London’s poorer areas for many years now. Traditionally working class South London, this area has been at the centre of major demolitions of large council estates and their replacement largely by expensive high rise blocks at market rents with a nominal amount of so-called ‘affordable’ and miniscule amounts of truly social housing.
Immediately to the east of the shopping centre had been the award-winning Heygate Estate, completed in 1974, once popular for its light and spacious flats, but long subjected to a process of managed decline by Southwark Council who even employed PR consultants to emphasise a negative view of the estate, together putting together what the estate’s architect Tim Tinker described in 2013 as a “farrago of half-truths and lies put together by people who should have known better.” The council deliberately used parts of it in the latter years to house people with mental health and other problems, and as temporary accommodation. I photographed the estate on several occasions, most recently on a tour by residents opposed to the redevelopment of both the Heygate and the neighbouring Aylesbury Esate in 2012, Walking the Rip-Off.
The Heygate estate had a mixture of properties with large blocks of flats on its edges and contained 1,214 homes, all initially social housing, though many were later purchased by residents who became leaseholders. It’s replacement, Elephant Park is far less well planned but according to Wikipedia will “provide 2,704 new homes, of which 82 will be social rented. The demolition cost approximately £15 million, with an additional £44m spent on emptying the estate and a further £21.5 million spent on progressing its redevelopment.” The council sold the estate to the developers at a huge loss for £50m.
Many of the flats on Elephant Park were sold overseas as investment properties, the continuing increases in London property prices making these a very attractive holding. The new estate will also provide housing for those on high salaries in London, with a railway station and two underground lines providing excellent transport links for professionals working elsewhere in the city. Those who previously lived and owned properties on the Heygate have had to move much further from the centre of the city, some many miles away.
The Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre, was opened in 1965 on the site of the 1898 Elephant & Castle Estate which had been badly damaged by wartime bombing, and was the first purpose-built shopping centre in the UK and certainly one of the first in Europe. Many of its 115 shops were then owned by local traders.
A market trader speaks about the poor deal they are getting
The rally and procession by Southwark Notes, Latin Elephant and Up the Elephant at the Elephant & Castle called on Southwark Council and the developers Delancey to develop the Elephant for the existing population and users, rather than as social cleansing to attract new, wealthier residents and shoppers. They would like to see a development that retains the existing character of the area which has become very much a centre for South London’s Latin community many of whom live in the surrounding area. It became the most diverse and cosmopolitan shopping centre in London, with also other amenities such as a bowling alley and bingo hall, serving the population of the area.
Security officers order the campaigners out of the market area
They say the development should include more social housing and call for fairer treatment of the market traders, who should be provided with ‘like for like’ new spaces at affordable rents and be given adequate financial compensation for the disruption in business the development will cause.
A long series of protests in which locals were joined by students from the London College of Communication whose new building forms a part of the redevelopment did lead to some minor improvements to the scheme by the developers, but the shopping centre closed in September 2020 and demolition went ahead and was complete around a year later. The new development will include high-rent shops, almost certainly mainly parts of major chains, expensive restaurants and bars and plenty of luxury flats, along with a small amount of “affordable” housing.
Sewol Ferry Disaster 5 years on – Trafalgar Square
The good transport links that make the Elephant so attractive to developers also took me rapidly into the centre of London as the procession of protest there came to and end, although events there were continuing all afternoon – only four stops taking 6 minutes on the Bakerloo Line to Charing Cross.
I’ve photographed the small monthly vigils by campaigners in remembrance of the victims and in support of their families of the 304 people who died in the Sewol Ferry Disaster of 16 April 2014 on a number of occasions, though its always difficult to find anything new to say, either in words or pictures.
But this was a special event, the fifth anniversary of the disaster, and the 60th 60th monthly vigil. Campaigners continue to call for a full inquiry, the recovery of all bodies of victims, punishment for those responsible and new laws to prevent another similar disaster. They tie cards on lines with the class and name of the 250 high school children who were drowned after being told to ‘stay put below deck’.
Brexiteers march at Westminster – Westminster Bridge
Brexiteers were continuing to march weekly around London holding Union Jacks, St George’s flags and placards and many wearing yellow high-viz jackets because although there had been a small majority in favour of leaving Europe in the 2016 referendum, Parliament had not found a way to get a majority to pass the legislation needed. It was this indecision that led to a resounding victory for Boris Johnson in the 2019 election in December, though unfortunately his ‘oven-ready’ agreement has turned out to be extremely half-baked and most of the things dismissed by Brexiteers as scaremongering have turned out to be true, while the promises made by the Leave campaign have so far largely failed to materialise and most seem unlikely ever to do so.
Johnson’s deal – important parts of which he seems not to have understood, particularly over the Irish border arrangements has left us in the worst of all possible worlds, though it has made some of his wealthy friends – including some cabinet members – considerably wealthier and protected them from the threat of European legislation that would have outlawed some of their tax avoidance. Back in 2019 I commented “We were sold the impossible, and things were made worse by a government that thought it could play poker when what was needed was a serious attempt at finding a solution to the problems that both the UK and Europe face.”
The protesters were also protesting with flags and banners supporting members of the armed forces against their trial for killings in Northern Ireland and for the Islamophobic campaign ‘Our Boys’ which seeks to have a drunk driver of Hindu origin who killed three young men prosecuted as a terrorist.
The March Against Housing & Planning Bill on January 30th 2016 was organised by activists from South London, particulary from the London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark.
These include many who are fighting against the demolition of social housing that is taking place across London, including in Lambeth and Southwark. Council tenants and leaseholders on council estates are fighting to save their homes – and fighting against Lambeth and Southwark councils who together with private developers and estate agent advisers are bent on demolishing the estates and replacing them with new estates which are largely for private rent or sale at London’s inflated market prices.
Southwark Council in particular carried out an expenisive PR exercise to demonise the Heygate Estate at the Elephant & Castle, having failed to carry out necessary maintenance and flooded the estate with people with various social problems over a number of years. The whole disastrous history has been documented in depth on the Southwark 35% site. A prize-winning estate with 1,214 homes built in 1974 to provide social housing for around 3,000 people was deliberately run-down and demolished. It’s replacement, Elephant Park has less than 100 social housing units. Many of its new flats are simply investments for overseas owners.
Southwark sold the Heygate to developers for one third of its previous valuation, and spent more on the scheme than it received. A study by Global architect firm Gensler concluded that the £35m spent by Southwark in rehousing the estate residents was exactly the same as it would have cost to refurbish the estate up to modern standards – and would have avoided the huge carbon footprint of demolishing and rebuilding.
A well as Heygate, Southwark Council’s main target has been the Aylesbury Estate, where Tony Blair chose to launch the Labour regeneration policy which has enabled corrupt councils to destroy much of what remained of social housing. For many council officers and some councillors it has enabled them to move into highly paid jobs with developers as a reward for their services. Lambeth has also been pursuing similar policies (along with other boroughs in London) and in particular with the Central Hill estate close to Crystal Palace.
An angry heckler – their argument continued after the speech by Livingstone
The protest against the Housing & Planning Bill in 2016 was also attended by people from both Lambeth and Southwark Council, and when Southwark Council Cabinet Member for Housing Richard Livingstone stepped up to the microphone to speak at the rally before the march some trouble was inevitable. Among those loudly heckling him was another of the speakers, Simon Elmer of Architects for Social Housing.
Class War have also been active in support of social housing in South London in particular and livened up the march by dancing along the street with banners singing the ‘Lambeth Walk’. One banner carried the words of a leading US Anarchist Lucy Parsons (1853-1942), “We must devastate the avenues where the wealthy live” and another had a field of crosses with the message “We have found new homes for the rich“.
Class War supporters rushed across the street for a short impromtu protest in front of a large branch of one of the leading estate agents driving the gentrification of London and advising councils and government on housing policies, but soon rejoined the main march of around 2,000 people heading for Westminster Bridge and Downing St.
At Downing St there was another protest outside the gates. Police had formed a line across Whitehall and directed the march to the opposite side of the street opposite Downing St. The march followed them across but then many simply walked back across the street to mass in front of the gates for a rally led by Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! who have been active in supporting the Focus E15 Mothers in their campaign against the housing failures of Newham Council.
A resident of the Aylesbury Estate in Southwark speaks about the council’s terrible record
Most people have never heard of the annual Municipal Journal Local Authority Awards, a kind of self-congratulatory back-slapping beanfeast for local authorities on the lines of the Oscars and a dinner at the Hilton, doubtless on our council tax.
Protesters ignore hotel staff and police who tell them they must move
The news in 2016 that two of London’s councils with the worst records for housing were nominated for awards angered London housing protesters and Focus E15, the Revolutionary Communist Group, Class War, Architects 4 Social Housing and others organised a protest outside the Park Lane Hilton including a rather different awards ceremony.
Protesters from Newham blame Labour Mayor Robin Wales ‘Robin the poor’
They pointed out that Southwark had by 2016 demolished 7,639 units of social housing, sold off public land to developers, and evicted people unlawfully and accuse Newham of social cleansing, rehousing people in distant parts of the country while council properties remain empty, and of causing mental health problems through evictions, homelessness and failure to maintain properties.
Simon Elmer of Architects for Social Housing objects to being assaulted by a police officer.
Police tried to move the protesters away from the hotel entrance and across the service road, but most resisted and held their ground, with police keeping the entrance clear, A few did move across the road were they could hand out flyers people arriving by taxi. There were a a few minor incidents when police pushed a protester holding a banner and again when several protesters held banners and placards in front of the restaurant windows.
Class War had brought their banner with a quote from US anarchist Lucy Parsons “We must devastate the avenues where the wealthy live” particularly appropriate for a protest in Mayfair and outside the Hilton. Police made a rather unwise and ineffectual attempt grab this from them but soon gave up.
People continued to arrive for the event and to walk past the protesters. Many had come from towns and cities across the UK for the event and where probably not particularly away of the situation in London boroughs.
I played around a little with the reflections in the polished metal canopy above the Hilton entrance, which was doing a good job in keeping the light rain off most of the protesters, though I was getting a little wet.
Looking up from the service road we could see those attending the awards ceremony talking and drinking before the dinner, while outside the protesters were beginning their own awards.
There were quite a few speeches from various of the activists, and Southwark won the award as London’s worst council, with Newham a close second.
Five years ago, on Saturday 30th January, Lambeth Housing Activists organised a rally and march from the Imperial War Museum to Downing St to protest against the Housing and Planning Bill, which was to have a particularly large impact in London and greatly worsen the already acute housing crisis here.
Rather unusually, the activists were joined for the march by some local councillors including Southwark Council Cabinet Member for Housing Richard Livingstone. Southwark, a Labour dominated council, has attracted a great deal of criticism over the demolition of council estates in the borough, including the scandal of the Heygate estate at the Elephant & Castle, and many on the protest were residents of estates currently being demolished – such as the Aylesbury estate – or under threat of demolition. Southwark and other Labour-run councils in London have made huge reductions in council housing through their so-called regeneration of estates, with many former residents being forced to move away from inner London and into much higher rent private or housing association properties, often with very poor security of tenure.
There were a number of speakers at the rally, including the then Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett and housing researchers and activists, who were listened to attentively and warmly applauded, both for their condemnation of the Bill and also of the social cleansing effect of the estate demolitions being carried out by councils. It was hardly surprising that when Richard Livingtone came to the microphone he was greeted by boos and loud heckling and a heated argument with one of the activists.
Eventually the rally broke up and the march began, starting by walking through the streets of Lambeth before turning around to make its way through Westminster. Class War and friends decided to liven things up a little, first by dancing along the street singing the ‘Lambeth Walk’ and then by rushing across the pavement towards a branch of of large estate agents and protesting outside it for some minutes before moving on.
Earlier at the rally Simon Elmer of Architects for Social Housing had given a closely researched and caustic assessment of the role of Labour Councils and housing policies which have been largely dictated by estate agents. Class War had brought a number of more controverisal banners related to housing, among them one with a picture of a military cemetery with its field of crosses stretching into the distance and the message ‘We have found new homes of for the rich’ and the Lucy Parsons banner with its quotation “We must devastate the avenues where the wealthy live”.
Police had rushed to protect the estate agents, but Class War made no attempt to enter or damage the property, and soon moved off. There was what seemed to be some entirely pointless harassment of protesters by police – including the so-called liaison officers – throughout the march, but I saw no arrests.
At Downing St police formed a line to lead the marchers to the opposite side of the road, and the activists followed their direction then simply walked across Whitehall behind the police line and posed for pictures in front of the gates and spilling out to block the north-bound carriageway. Police attempted to persuade them to move and eventually people drifted away and I left too.
All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.
