Tag: Merton

North and South – London, May 1994

North and South – London: In May 1994 I was mainly photographing around Enfield, the most northerly of London Boroughs, but in the middle of one film there are a few pictures from Morden, the southern end of the Northern Line. I can’t remember why I made the trip there, possibly on a visit to a friends or perhaps on a family outing to Morden Park on the River Wandle.

Chimes, pub, 510, Hertford Road, Enfield Wash, Enfield, 1994, 94-05-1-26
Chimes, pub, 510, Hertford Road, Enfield Wash, Enfield, 1994, 94-05-1-26

This pub or club seems to have had an unusually large number of changes over the years and was also at various times Club X Zone’, Bar FM’, ‘Bell’, ‘Hotshots’, ‘Texas Cantina’, and more. Now a restaurant.

Shop Window, Bush Hill Park, Enfield, 1994, 94-52-61
Shop Window, Bush Hill Park, Enfield, 1994, 94-52-61

A strange assortment of clothing on some rather odd two dimensional figures of women with holds in their heads and a line of children’s toys at the bottom of the window.

The Flower Box, Bush Hill Park, Enfield, 1994, 94-52-62
The Flower Box, Bush Hill Park, Enfield, 1994, 94-52-62

A colourful building though I was sad that parts of the mural below the windows was was obscured by almost empty display stands, one made from milk crates.

The Flower Box, Bush Hill Park, Enfield, 1994, 94-52-65
The Flower Box, Bush Hill Park, Enfield, 1994, 94-52-65

A small section of the mural from the previous picture shows a wedding couple striding across the fields.

Shops, London Rd, Morden, Merton, 1994, 94-52-44
Shops, London Rd, Morden, Merton, 1994, 94-52-44

A fairly typical suburban shopping street with a Boots, Abbey National, Holland & Barrett and at right ‘A NEW FORCE ON THE HIGH STREET’ which I’ve never heard of. The sun is clearly shining but there are ominous clouds above.

Merton Civic Centre, London Rd, Morden, Merton, 1994, 94-52-46
Merton Civic Centre, London Rd, Morden, Merton, 1994, 94-52-46

These buildings are still there on the corner of London Road and Crown Lane close to Morden Underground Station and are still Merton’s Civic Centre.

Shops, Merton Civic Centre, Crown Rd, Crown Lane, Morden, Merton, 1994, 94-52-32
Shops, Merton Civic Centre, Crown Rd, Crown Lane, Morden, Merton, 1994, 94-52-32

The Civic centre is in a triangle of land surrounded by busy roads. This view seems now largely unchanged except for the names of the shops.

Morden Court Parade, London Rd, Morden, Merton, 1994, 94-52-34
Morden Court Parade, London Rd, Morden, Merton, 1994, 94-52-34

Morden Court Parade is still there a little to the south on London Road from the Civic Centre and looks in rather better condition now. But sadly those 1930s windows have been replaced by fatter plastic double glazing which although greatly more comfortable for the residents both for keeping warm and reducing traffic noise from busy A24 dual carriageway rather spoil the appearance of the building. There are also some new balconies which fit in fairly well with the building and although it has lost than ‘MORDEN COURT PARADE’ from the frontage it has been replaced rather larger on the roof.

Back to North London in my next post from 1994.

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Housing For Need Not Greed

Housing For Need Not Greed: Mostly my posts here look at old work, either from a few years ago or my work on London back in the 1980s and 90s. But I’m still goining out at taking pctures if not quite as often as I once did. So this post is about one of the two events I photographed last weekend.

Housing For Need Not Greed - Aysen Dennis - Fight4Aylesbur
Aysen Dennis – Fight4Aylesbury

Last Saturday, 8th July 2023 was National Housing Action Day, and a march from the Elephant to the Aylesbury Estate was one of 16 across the country on National Housing Day. Others were taking place in Lambeth, Islington, Kensington, Cardiff, Glasgow, Abbey Wood, Wandsworth, Harlow, Merton, Ealing, Cornwall, Folkestone, Devon, Birmingham, and Hastings.

Housing For Need Not Greed -Tanya Murat - Southwark Defend Council Housing
Tanya Murat – Southwark Defend Council Housing

The Southwark protest demanded Southwark Council stop demolishing council homes and refurbish and repopulate estates to house people and end the huge carbon footprint of demolish and rebuild. They demanded housing for need not corporate greed, refurbishment not demolition, filling of empty homes and an end to the leasehold system.

Housing For Need Not Greed
Marchers at the Elephant on their way to the Aylesbury Estate

Demolition and rebuilding of housing produces huge amounts of CO2, and whenever possible should be avoided now we are aware of the real dangers of global warming. Instead existing buildings should be insulated, retrofitted and refurbished and properly maintained.

Housing For Need Not Greed

Southwark Council’s estates have for well over 20 years been deliberately run down and demonised with some being demolished and replaced. Around 1000 council homes on the Aylesbury Estate have already been demolished buy around 1,700 are still occupied but currently scheduled for demolition.

Marchers on Walworth Road on their way to the Aylesbury Estate.

These homes were well built for the time to higher standards than their replacement and could easily and relatively cheaply be brought up to modern levels of services and insulation with at least another 50 years of life. The estate was carefully designed with open spaces, natural daylight and a range of properties, many with some private outdoor space. The planned replacements are at higher density, less spacious and unlikely to last as long – and only include a small proportion at social rents. Current tenants are more secure and the properties are far more affordable.

People on the street watch and video the march

Many of those whose homes have already been demolished here and on the neighbouring Heygate estate have been forced to move outside the area, some far from London as they can no longer afford to live here.

Bubbles and Marchers on Walworth Road on their way to the Aylesbury Estate.

Although the developers have profited greatly from their work with Southwark Council here and in other estates, and some officers and councillors involved have personally landed well-paying corporate jobs and enjoyed lavish corporate hospitality, the schemes have largely been financial disasters for the council and council tax payers.

Fight4Aylesbury was formed in 199 as Aylesbury Tenants and Residents First, and has been fighting Southwark Council’s plans to demolish the estate since then. While these schemes – part of New Labour’s regeneration initiative – have always been destructive of local communities and disastrous for many of those whose homes have been demolished, we now see that they are also environmentally unsupportable.

You can watch a video on YouTube of Aysen Dennis, Fight4Aylesbury and Tanya Murat, Southwark Defend Council Housing talking about the protest, and FIght4Aylesbury recently released a newsletter, The Future of the Aylesbury with more details on the estate and their proposals. A few more of my pictures from the event are in the album Housing For Need Not Greed – National Action Day, London, UK and are available for editorial use on Alamy.