Robin Wales | >Re-PHOTO

Olympics, Illegal Policing & Cody Dock – 2012

Olympics, Illegal Policing & Cody Dock: On Saturday 21st July 2012 I went to Stratford, first to photograph the Olympic flame being carried along the High Street, then to join a tour of the Carpenter’s Estate led by CARP (Carpenters Estate Against Regeneration.)

What should have been a straightforward visit was help up by police at the BBC’s request for around an hour without any legal reason before we were able to enter Lund Point, a tower block overlooking the Olympic area. This made me late for the Open Day at Cody Dock, where I arrived as most people were leaving.

You can read more detailed accounts of the events on My London Dairy, with many more pictures – links below.

Olympic Flame at Stratford Six Days Early

Stratford High St

Olympics, Illegal Policing & Cody Dock - 2012

The Olympic flame visited Stratford briefly but avoided the Olympic site where it was not due until the following Friday. I was surprised at how few came out to watch it.

The torch itself generated a little more interest. I’ve no idea who 070 was carrying it, and she handed it over to 071 at the junction with Warton Rd, which leads into the Olympic site a couple of hundred yards away.

An organised party of people visiting the Olympic site watched from the temporary bridge taking the Greenway over the High Street – with a big wooden torch behind them.

More pictures

Newham’s Shame – Carpenters Estate Tour

The Carpenters Estate, close to Stratford Station, was one of the better council developments of the 1960s, with a large area of two-story terraced housing, some maisonettes and three 22 storey point blocks as well as some existing small industrial premises. It included shops, a pub and a school, and later a community and health centre and remained a very popular estate.

But Newham Council saw the estate as simply as an opportunity to sell and make money and as a part of Mayor Robin Wales’ plans to make Stratford ‘London’s Third City’, even if this meant getting rid of many of the people who currently live there. The council began moving people out around 2004, leaving properties in good condition empty in a borough with London’s largest housing problem. In 2012 they were still hoping to sell it to University College for a new campus.

In 2011 the council decided to fix the elections to the Carpenters Tenant Management Organisation (TMO). They barred freeholders on the estate from standing for the new board of management and ‘lost’ five out of the six leaseholder nominations. At the AGM the TMO officials employed security guards to refuse entry to all freeholders who had been invited to attend.

The TMO was supposed to stand up for residents and to fight against the low valuations being made by the council for compulsory purchase of properties on the estate, but was now essentially a tool of the council. This led to residents setting up Carpenters Against Regeneration Plans (CARP) to challenge what they say are unconstitutional decisions made by the TMO and to get it to fulfil its duties to all residents of the estate, and to fight for the future of the residents and for a sustainable community.

The tour began at Stratford Station and we were taken on a long walk around the estate, with several CARP members speaking at various points.

*Lund Point. Some residents were upset not to have been consulted about the advertising on their blocks*

When we tried to visit two flats we had been invited to see in Lund Point we were stopped, first by BBC security and later by police, who stopped us from entering for around an hour and a half, but finally had to allow us to go in since we had an invitation from the residents of the two flats – more below.

*BBC employed security men bar our way into Lund Point – but are told we will be back later*

We continued to go around the estate and talk with some of the nearby businesses which are closing as people move out and redevelopment is taking place along the High Street, as well as briefly visiting James Reilly Point, where the BBC had wanted to set up their coverage, but determined action by one of the residents there had caused them to change their plans. Then we returned to Lund Point.

More information and pictures at Newham’s Shame – Carpenters Estate.

Police Deny Olympic Residents Access to Homes

Lund Point, Stratford

Following a request from BBC Security, police denied residents access to their tower block home close to the Olympic site in Stratford for well over an hour, before having to acknowledge they had no power to do so.

*Some of those on the tour were opposed to UCL’s proposed grab of the estate*

Colin, a resident in Lund Point on the Carpenters Estate in Stratford had invited a group viewing the estate in a tour organised by CARP (Carpenters Estate Against Regeneration) to come to his flat to see the high standard of accomodation in the 1966 tower block and the views across the estate. We tried to enter the building at 1.15pm but were blocked by BBC Security.

*We are shown the BBC is occupying the lift lobby as well as the floors they have part rented and there are health and safety hazards for residents, particularly their children*

When we returned 55 minutes later, there were a group of five PCSOs and a police officer assisting the security men in blocking our entrance. Again the resident and the group were refused entry but the police officer present refused to discuss why. She called for reinforcements; first one more officer and then two police vans arrived. Eventually I think a more senior officer decided that they were acting unlawfully and we were allowed to enter just before 3pm.

We take it in turns to go in and see the flat, which is in excellent repair (although the council say these flats are too expensive to refurbish, if UCL takes over the site it may reuse them as student residencies.)

Inside there was further resistance from BBC security and it soon became obvious why the BBC were reluctant to allow me and other members of the press on the tour to enter. Although this was still a residential building with around 30 flats still occupied, the interior appeared to be a health and safety nightmare, with cables, desks in lobby areas and so on.

*On the 20th floor we move out of the lift but are stopped on the corridor by security*

After visiting the first flat, we tried to visit another resident who owns a flat on the 20th floor of the block, and again police and security at first told us this was impossible. But we pressed on; we were blocked as we exited the lift, but when Warren confirmed he had invited us were eventually allowed through.

This is a residential area where people still live, despite the cables and poles

*Tawanda Nyabango talks about the estate and the Olympic site next door from the 20th floor of Lund Point*

More at Police Deny Olympic Residents Access

Olympic Views

Lund Point, Stratford

Although the BBC has taken over most of the top 5 floors of Lund Point on the Carpenters Estate next to the Olympic park as studios for its coverage of London 2012, there are still some flats occupied by owner occupiers in the block. On a tour with residents group CARP (Carpenters Against Regeneration Plans) I was invited to visit a flat on the 20th floor of this 22 storey block.

I had a very limited time to work but managed to make a couple of panoramas as the single images while I was there.

More, including some different ways of representing the panoramic view on My London Diary: Olympic Views

Cody Dock Open Day

South Crescent, Canning Town

The hold-up by security and police made me too late for the Open Day at Cody Dock but I did manage to take a few pictures. You can see more in my post on My London Diary in April 2012 when I wrote Cody Dock in April and wrote Gasworks Dock Revived, which tells something of the history of the dock and the efforts being made to develop it into a real community resource, as well as filling a vital link in the footpath along the bank of Bow Creek from Bow Locks eventually to the Thames (there is still another gap beyond Cody Dock.

A few more pictures: Cody Dock Open Day

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Streatham & Newham Carnivals – 2007

Streatham & Newham Carnivals: On Saturday 14 July 2007 I photographed carnivals in two areas of London, Streatham in south London and Newham in East London.

Although we had a long carnival tradition in England, and one that was much revived after the Second World War, many of those traditional carnivals had by around 2000 died out. But new carnival traditions, particularly from the Caribbean have come to take their place. Unlike the traditional events many of these received considerable funding from local authorities and organisations such as the Arts Council. While I was pleased to see this, I think we lost something by failing to support our own traditional and often rather zany activities.

The two events were rather different. This was only the second Streatham Carnival and seemed to be supported by small local groups and individuals. It was specifically a children’s parade, mainly with primary age children and their parents. The Newham event is a much larger council organised and sponsored event and includes many community organisations and schools and is in part a PR event for Newham’s Mayor.

The Streatham procession was mainly on the pavements of one of London’s busier roads, while in Newham to procession took place in a park and along less busy urban roads. The Streatham parade had a spontaneous feel while in Newham you were aware of the weeks or months of planning by the various organisations.

Here I’ll post a few pictures from each of them – with links to more pictures on My London Diary – and the short texts I wrote in 2007.

Streatham Carnival Parade

Streatham High Road

Streatham & Newham Carnivals - 2007 — *The procession walked along the pavement on both sides of the High Road.*

Saturday 14th July I photographed a small carnival procession in Streatham High Road, making its way down the pavement on the edge of the busy street, part of the Streatham Festival.

More pictures on My London Diary.

Newham Carnival

East Ham

Newham Carnival was a much larger affair, with quite a few local schools taking part along with other community groups. The carnival had a largely West Indian feel, although there were some Indian dancers. Of course those taking part reflected the multiracial nature of Newham, with over 60% of residents from ethnic groups other than White English, but I would have liked to see more diversity reflected. We even have an English Carnival tradition – and no reason why this, along with Irish and other ethnic traditions shouldn’t be more evident in events such as this

*Indian dancers were at the front of the procession*

More pictures on My London Diary.

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Focus E15 Occupy Police Station – 2016

East Ham. Sunday 10th July 2016

Housing Activists Focus E15 get their name from a hostel for young single mothers in Stratford, in the London postcode area E15. In September 2013 they were given notice of eviction from the hostel by by East Thames Housing Association after Newham Labour Council cut the funding. They were told they would have to move to private rented accommodation scattered around distant low-rent areas of the country if they wanted to be rehoused.

*Focus E15 protesters set up on Barking Rd, outside Newham Town Hall, with posters on its fence about Newham Mayor Robin Wales.*

Instead they decided to stick together and fight to remain in London where they had families, friends and support networks. Their campaign, supported by friends and family members as well as some members of the Revolutionary Communist Group, involving various direct actions including a party in the housing association offices, large marches, an occupation of Newham Council’s housing office, and of long-term empty council flats on a Stratford estate gained a great deal of local and national publicity. I was pleased to have photographed some of these events and you can find more about them on My London Dairy.

*Jasmin Stone holds up a RCG poster – ‘Newham residents suffer £50million cuts. Robin Wales gets £100,000 + £80,000 expenses’*

It was a successful campaign, but the group did not stop there, but widened into a much wider ‘Housing For All’ campaign, linking with other housing activists around the country and pushing housing for ordinary people higher up the national agenda.

*Focus E15 move towards the former police station*

They continue to fight Newham Council to meet their obligations towards local people, still in 2026 going to oppose evictions in the area, still accompanying people to support them at the housing office and still holding a weekly Saturday protest and advice stall on the pavement in the centre of Stratford on Stratford Broadway and an open meeting every Saturday afternoon in a former corner shop, Sylvia’s Corner.

*Some of the protesters had used ladders to climb onto the balconies and hang banners*

Their campaign brought them into conflict with Newham’s then Mayor, the abrasive Robin Wales, which at times became highly personal, with the mayor attacking them when they protested against him and his policies. The council’s actions against the group included the ludicrous ‘arrest’ of a table at their stall, arrests of Jasmin Stone, physical assaults and various attempts at intimidation.

The protest took place on the second day of the annual Newham Show, a PR exercise for the Mayor. For the previous two years the group had been physically prevented from handing out leaflets at the show, so in 2016 they set up a stall on the main Barking Road a short distance from the show to hand out their housing information leaflets to the crowds making their way to it.

The Grade II listed former East Ham police station on the corner of High Street South, opposite Newham Town Hall had closed two years earlier and was then empty. [The Met sold it in 2018 for £3.4million.] After a few speeches and handing out leaflets for around an hour on Barking Road, the protesters picked everything up and walked the few yards to the police station where some had already used a ladder to climb onto the two balconies and hang banners.

*A protester holds a ‘Robin Wales’ selfie-stick*

The protest continued there, with more speeches. One woman on her way to the show stopped and spoke on the open mike and demonstrated how she thought people should kick Mayor Wales out of Newham – and in 2018, at least partly as a result of demonstrations like these, the Labour Party managed to do so, despite what had seemed his iron hold on the party machine.

Other housing activists came to speak and the rally continued. A police car stopped and the officers came to talk with the protesters. They claimed to be worried that the balconies could be dangerous – but they look pretty solid and sound to me and the protesters and the rally continued.

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Focus E15 Mums at City Hall

More London

I’d first met the young mothers facing eviction from the Focus E15 hostel in Stratford around a month earlier when I had gone with them into the offices of East Thames Housing Association to occupy the show flat there and hold a party in protest against the threat of being evicted from their nearby hostel because Newham Council had decided to cut its funding.

Newham Council seemed clearly to be failing these mothers and children and were trying to move them away from Newham into private rented accommodation, sometimes hundreds of miles away from their friends, families, colleges, nurseries and support networks in Newham in order to evade their responsibility for them.

Clearly the council, then led by Newham Mayor Robin Wales, had not expected these young women to put up much if any fight against this unjust treatment, but the Focus E15 women were determined not to move away from London. Their continued protests, always powerful and colourful attracted media coverage and made their case into a national scandal, and they revealed the serious mismanagement of the council.

Stratford was at the centre of a housing boom, particularly around the former 2012 Olympic site but this was largely for private sale, which many flats being bought up by investors, many from abroad wanting to cash in on London’s housing price boom, despite Newham having the highest waiting list for social housing in London.

Focus E15 and others pointed to the Carpenters Estate, a well-designed and highly popular council estate in a highly desirable location next to Stratford Station and the Olympic site where there were large numbers of empty flats and houses – some having been left empty for 10 years. Rather than seeing this as successful housing for the people of the borough, the council had regarded it as an asset to be sold off.

In February 2014 the mothers and children were still all living in the Focus E15 Mother and Baby Unit despite having been served eviction orders the previous October – East Thames had promised they would not be forced out until they had alternative accomodation. And they hired an open-top bus to bring themselves to City Hall.

*Green Party GLA member Jenny Jones visited the protest*

City Hall has now moved out to the Royal Docks, but in 2014 was in an unusually shaped Norman Foster building on Queens Walk next to the Thames on the privately More London office development owned by the Kuwaiti sovereign wealth fund (Ken Livingstone called it a ‘glass testicle’.) And although Focus E15 were allowed to protest by the security there, they were told they must not hand out leaflets. And no one at City Hall was prepared to accept the card the mothers signed for Boris Johnson.

Their protests did result in them being rehoused in London, but the women didn’t stop there, developing into a ‘Housing For All’ protest, including an occupation of empty flats on the Carpenters Estate which achieved national news coverage. Locally they fought for others, going with them into Newham’s housing office and demanding the council meet its legal requirements and also stopping evictions.

They set up a housing advice and support stall every Saturday on Stratford Broadway and more. I’m sure that it was due to their activities that eventually the local Labour party turned against Robin Wales, getting rid of him.

*Assistant director of the affordable homes programme in London, Jamie Ratcliff came to meet the E15 Mums*

Their Focus E15 campaign, still continuing and still demanding ‘social housing, not social cleansing!’ became the most effective housing campaign in the country. I’m pleased to have been able to give them some support.

*The mothers take their card for Boris into City Hall, but staff refused to accept it*

The pictures on this post are all from Friday 21st February 2014 and there are more together with the text I wrote in 2014 at Focus E15 Mums at City Hall.

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Focus E15 Mothers Party Against Eviction – 2014

Focus E15 Mothers Party Against Eviction: Ten years ago today, on Friday 17th January 2014 I went to Stratford to photograph and support mothers threatened with eviction from their hostel.

Focus E15 Mothers Party Against Eviction – East Thames Housing, Stratford

The eviction threat came when Newham Council withdrew funding from the Focus E15 Foyer run by East Thames Housing Association. Rather than accept the evictions and be rehoused by the council in private rented flats in far-flung areas of the UK – including Wales and Liverpool, the women in the hostel decided to join together and fight.

They fought to be rehoused near to friends, families and support including nurseries close to their local area to avoid distress and dislocation for themselves and their children – and eventually they won.

The fight by Focus E15 brought national publicity to the scandals around local authority housing, and was a inspiration to others around the country. They continue their fight with their ‘Housing For All‘ campaign and remain an active campaign against evictions in Newham, including a weekly street stall every Saturday on Stratford Broadway.

Their campaign against Newham Council and its right-wing Labour Mayor Robin Wales who seemed to regard the London borough as a personal fiefdom led to some devious and at times illegal attempts to silence them and was almost certainly a factor in fomenting the revolt by Labour Party members that eventually led to him being deposed. Though his replacement as Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz, is perhaps only a slight improvement.

All local authorities have suffered under cuts by central government, and in particular attacks on social housing provision, begun under Thatcher and continued by all governments since. The cuts made by the Tory-led coalition following on from the financial crash of 2008 tightened the screw on them still further.

Newham under Robin Wales appears to have decided that they needed to attract a wealthier population to the area and get rid of some of their existing population and had decided in the early 2000s to sell off a well-located and popular council estate close to the centre of Stratford to whoever they could. They began the process of ‘decanting’ people from the Carpenters estate around 2004, with many properties being left empty for years despite having – together with Lambeth – the largest housing waiting lists in Greater London – around 3.5 times the average among London authorities.

One of the Focus E15 slogans was ‘Repopulate the Carpenters Estate’ and it was in part due to their actions, alongside those of other campaigners, that the estate was not sold off and demolished. The estate is now being regenerated by the council although Focus E15 find much to criticise in the council’s plans.

The Focus E15 had begun in September 2013 and the action ten years ago was one of their earliest. I met with them and supporters, including those from the Revolutionary Communist Group, on a street corner near the offices of East Thames and walked with them into the large foyer, where they posed for a photograph for one of the local newspapers.

Then some of the mothers and children moved into the show flat at the front of the offices, with others remaining on the street outside with banners and placards, handing out leaflets to people walking by and using a megaphone to explain why the mothers were protesting.

The member of East Thames staff who had been dealing with the mothers came to talk with them. He assured them that they would be allowed to remain until satisfactory accommodation had been found for them.

The mothers pointed out that East Thames had large numbers of homes available, including many on the former Olympic site in Stratford, but were told that East Thames could not allocate affordable properties directly, but had to work with Newham council.

He seemed genuinely suprised to hear from the mothers that Newham had made offers involving rehousing away from London, in Hastings, Birmingham and elsewhere, away from friends, families, colleges, nurseries and support networks, and stated that East Thames intended to see them rehoused in London.

Later the Group Chief Executive of East Thames, June Barnes arrived and talked with the mothers telling them the same. East Thames seemed clear that the real problem was with Newham Council and not with them, though the campaigners were not really convinced.

You can read a longer account of the protest and party with many more pictures on My London Diary at Focus E15 Mothers Party Against Eviction.

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A Table, COP21, Refugees and Santas – 2015

A Table, COP21, Refugees and Santas On Saturday 12 December 2015 I started at the ‘Free the Focus E15 Table’ protest in Stratford, came to Westminster where climate activists were protesting on the final day of the COP21 Paris talks, then to a solidarity vigil for refugees at Downing Street. Since Christmas was approaching there were also santas on the streets, including some on BMX bikes taking part in a charity ride as well as others taking part in the annual Santacon.

Free the Focus E15 Table – Stratford

A Table, COP21, Refugees and Santas - 2015

Focus E15 had since they began over two years earlier been a major irritant for Newham Council, drawing attention to the failure of Newham Council to sensibly address the acute housing problem in the borough, which has around 5,000 people living in temporary accommodation.

At the same time 400 council homes in the Carpenters Estate close to the centre of Stratford have remained empty, some for over ten years as the Labour council under Mayor Robin Wales have been trying to sell it off.

Focus E15 have opposed, at first on their own behalf and later for others in their ‘Housing For All’ campaigns the council policy they label ‘social cleansing’, which attempts to force those needing housing out of London and into private rented property in towns and cities across the country- Hastings, Birmingham, Manchester etc – and even in Wales.

As well as organising protests, opposing evictions, demanding the borough meet its statutory obligations to house homeless individuals by going with them to the housing office they had for over two years held a weekly street stall every Saturday on a wide area of pavement on Stratford Broadway, speaking, providing advice and handing out leaflets.

On the previous Saturday in a clearly planned operation, Newham’s Law Enforcement officer John Oddie assisted by several police officers, confronted the campaigners and told them they were not allowed to protest there, and that unless they immediately packed up their stall, sound system, banners and other gear it would be seized. Council and police cited legal powers that were clearly inapplicable to this situation and this was clearly an illegal act.

When Focus E15 stood their ground, police took the table they were using and threw it into the back of their van and drove away with it. It was probably on the advice of their lawyers that a couple of days later the council wrote a letter to the protesters asking them to reclaim the table; Focus E15 asked them to return it to them on Stratford Broadway this Saturday – but it didn’t arrive.

But there were plenty of tables there when I arrived with several groups coming to show solidarity and defend the right to protest including Welwyn Garden City, South Essex Heckler, Basildon and Southend Housing Action, Clapton Ultras, East London Radical Assembly, Anarchist Federation, Carpenters Estate, Aylesbury Estate Southwark, Squatters & Homeless Autonomy and more. Some came with tables and Focus E15 had also brought a replacement.

The protest was lively with speeches, singing and dancing, and although the local paper, too much in the council’s pocket, was ignoring ‘Tablegate’ a BBC local crew did come and film a few interviews. Police and Newham Council seemed to have learnt from the previous week’s farce and kept away.

Free the Focus E15 Table

Climate Activists Red Line protest – Westminster Bridge

Campaign against Climate Change protested by carrying a ‘red line’ across Westminster Bridge against the inadequate response to global temperature rise reached at COP21 which was on its final day.

Many climate activists were still in Paris, so the protest was rather smaller than usual. They met for a sort rally opposite Parliament in Old Palace Yard before marching behind the Campaign against Climate Change banner and a trumpeter on to the pavement across Westminster Bridge.

There they unrolled a 300m red length of cloth, carrying it above their heads across the bridge as a ‘red line’. For many countries, a maximum global temperature rise of more than 1.5°C will mean disaster, and the Paris talks have not committed to this nor have they set up any real mechanism for holding countries to the more limited commitments they have made.

The world needs a far more urgent change to renewable energy, with fossil fuels being left in the ground – or only extracted for use a chemical feedstock. But huge vested interests in the fossil fuel lobby are still dominating the thinking of most governments – and the annual COP meetings.

The protest called for the UK government to reverse the anti-Green measures introduced since the 2015 election, and to get behind green jobs, energy use reduction measures and renewable energy and t abandon its plans for carbon burning technologies and fracking in particular. Vital for the future of the world, these changes would also aid the UK economy.

More at Climate Activists Red Line protest.

Christmas Solidarity Vigil for Refugees – Downing St

As darkness fell refugees, solidarity campaigners and Syrian activists came to a Downing St vigil demanding justice for refugees, opening of EU borders to those fleeing war and terrorism and a much more generous response from the UK government.

A strong and gusty wind made it hard to keep candles alight and they had to be pushed through the bottom of plastic cups to provide windshields to stay alight.

As well as Syrians, there were other refugees from around the world, as well as some of the many British who are disgusted at the miserable response of the Tory government. Despite much lobbying which forced David Cameron to increase the UK response, the UK still only agreeing to take 20,000 refugees in the next five years, while Canada will take more – 25,000 – in a single year.

Christmas Solidarity Vigil for Refugees

Santas in London

While I was photographing the climate ‘red line’ on Westminster Bridge a large group of Santas rode past on BMX bicycles on a charity ride and I rushed across in time to photograph a few of them. These BMXLife ‘Santa Cruises’, in 2023 in their 9th year, have now raised over £135,000 for Children’s Heart charity ECHO. The 2023 ride starts from Leake Street at 11am on 16th December.

After the Refugee Vigil I walked up to Trafalgar Square where santas were beginning to arrive at the end of a long day walking around London in the annual Santacon, an alcohol-fuelled annual fun event which describes itself as “a non-profit, non-corporate, non-commercial and non-sensical parade of festive cheer.” This year’s event was last Saturday, 9th December.

More pictures at Santas in London.

2012 Olympics – Lund Point Holdup By BBC

2012 Olympics – Lund Point Holdup By BBC: Eleven years ago on Saturday 21st July much of the nation was eagerly awaiting the start of the 2021 London Olympics. I wasn’t, though I was at least starting to think it wouldn’t be long before it was all over, but we still had it all to put up with. All the pictures in this post were taken at events around the area that day.

Many still regard it as having been a great national event, bringing people together, but I still find it hard to have many positive thoughts. Like another major event, most of the promises we were made about its legacy have turned out to be false. Many were clearly lies from the start, and a huge attempt was clearly made to mislead the public, with our newspapers and broadcast media playing a major and continuing role.

On the streets of east London there were many critics and sceptics from the start, many like me who were surprised and alarmed when the bid was won in 2005. Most of their worse fears have since come to pass and the local area has seen little gain.

Newham remains an area with huge housing problems, and it was some of those that took me there on Saturday 21st July 2012, specifically over the council’s terrible treatment of the Carpenters Estate, a once popular council estate adjoining Stratford Station.

It’s location made it a valuable prey for developers and Newham’s elected Labour Mayor, Sir Robin Wales had clearly thought the site was being wasted on its social housing tenants and had begun running it down and ‘decanting’ residents back in 2004. But schemes to sell it off, including one as a new campus for University College London (UCL) were eventually stopped by protests from residents, UCL students and staff and Stratford’s dynamic housing activists, Focus E15.

*Good solid 1960s housing on a pedestrianised street . A popular estate on which many bought houses*

Focus E15 had begun when Newham Council decided to shut down a hostel in central Stratford for single mothers and their children, offering only to move them out of Stratford to distant towns and cities across the UK into poor quality private rented accomodation with no security of tenure and higher rents, some hundreds of miles away from family, friends, nurseries and other support they had in Newham. Robin Wales infamously told them “if you can’t afford to live in Newham, then you can’t afford to live in Newham”.

*A woman still living on the Carpenters estate*

The Focus E15 mothers stood together and fought – and largely won, getting rehoused in the local area. But they decided to continue their fight for others in housing need, particularly in Newham. There story became national news and they continue with weekly stalls on Newham Broadway and a shop not far away.

*Lund Point – advertising added for Olympics without consultation*

Carpenters Estate residents were shocked when the council in 2011, upset that residents wanted to remain on the estate, decided to fix the elections to the Carpenters Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) by barring freeholders on the estate from standing and simply losing five of the six nominations from leaseholders. Security staff prevented freeholders who had received invitations to the meeting from attending, effectively allowing Newham council to take over the TMO and end any real participation by residents over the esatate’s future.

*BBC employed security – the sign says Residents Only*

Residents formed Carpenters Against Regeneration Plans (CARP) to challenge the decisions made by the TMO and to get it to fulfil its duties to all residents of the estate, and to fight for the future of the residents and for a sustainable community. In particular freeholders were appalled at the low valuations put on their properties by the TMO commissioned valuation service, with compensation for compulsory purchase often appearing to be only around half of market values for similar propeties in the area.

*This Barber – the last man standing on Stratford High St*

CARP had arranged a number of tours around the estate, and I met with them at Sratford Station, having on my way taken a few pictures of the Olympic Torch Relay which had passed along Stratford High Street earlier in the day, though only watched there by a small handful of people. There were more on a footbridge built for the Olympics across this busy main road, which would have been a small but useful Olympic legacy, but was to be demolished shortly after.

*Police had come to back up BBC security and refuse us entrance*

Our tour from the station led by Tawanda Nyabango who lived for many years in one of the tower blocks and several other residents including CARP vice-chairman Joe Alexander talked to us on a lengthy tour of the estate and the nearby Waterworks River, one of several waterways through the Olympic site.

*After we were allowed in BBC security try to stop us leaving the lift*

We then tried to visit two more residents living in flats in one of the three tower blocks on the estate, Lund Point. The BBC were setting up in the top five floors of the block for their Olympic coverage, and we were prevented from entering the block by BBC security staff who then brought in police to support them.

*But finally we made it to a flat on the 20th floor*

We argued that we had an invitation from the residents, but were still refused entry, until after and hour and a half waiting finally the police officers present received orders that they had no right to refuse our entry and we were finally allowed in.

I was able then both to meet the residents and photograph the Olympic site from their windows. The residents of the block have complained strongly about the way the BBC have taken over parts of their building and apparently our holdup was simply one of many incidents. I took rather more pictures including some panoramic views – at Olympic Views though my time here was very limited.

I had intended to finish my day after the Carpenters Estate tour with a visit to the Open Day taking place at Cody Dock on Bow Creek, and I hurried there from Stratford. But because of the holdup at Lund Point, the events there had ended by the time I arrived, and I took a few pictures and left for home.

Robin Wales is no longer Mayor, eventually being forced out despite his attempts to manipulate votes to remain in office. Under the replacement Labour Mayor there are new plans for the Carpenters Estate though Focus E15 are still campaigning for the repair, refurbishment and repopulation of the estate with long-term council tenants.

Much more about all these events on My London Diary:

Olympic Flame at Stratford 6 Days Early
Newham’s Shame – Carpenters Estate
Police Deny Olympic Residents Access
Olympic Views
Cody Dock Open Day

I originally posted this on 21st June when it should have been posted on 21st July.

Housing For All – Focus E15

On Saturday 19th September 2015, two years after the start of the Focus E14 and a year since their successful occupation of empty flats on Stratford’s Carpenters Estate gained national headlines about both their own treatment by Newham Council and the problems faced by others around the country in finding homes, Focus E15 organised a march, rally and party.

In a ‘long read’ published in The Guardian at the end of June 2022, Oliver Wainwright writes about the particular problems that Newham and the other ‘Olympic boroughs’ are facing and how these have been worsened since the Olympics came to the area. His ‘A massive betrayal’: how London’s Olympic legacy was sold out details how the many promises made before and after London’s winning bid have failed to materialise.

As Wainwright states, in the area “there are almost 75,000 households on the waiting list for council housing, many living in desperate poverty. Thousands of former residents have also been rehoused outside the area since the Olympics took place.

Wainwright quotes the former directory of the agency which bought up land for the Olympic site and evicted local businesses as saying “There is no pretence any more that the legacy is trying to get a positive outcome for East Enders .. It is driven by a total market ideology, dressed up in some good aspirational talk, with a few baubles thrown out to keep local people happy, while mostly catering for the rich. It is a massive failure at every level“

Although Wainwright points out the naivety of London Mayor Ken Livingstone in his ruthless support for the bid – which he saw as the only way to get the billions needed to develop the area – he makes clear who the real villain was, Livingstone’s successor Boris Johnson.

Many pointed out the problems over the years the bid was being made, and locals and others actively campaigned against the Olympic bid, over the removal of many successful businesses from the area, the demolition of a fine cooperative housing estate, the removal of allotments and the cycle circui, the loss of green space. People warned that the Olympic priorities would result in a development very different to that serving the needs of the area. And it has.

I’m pleased to have recorded at least some of that opposition in My London Diary over the years. I’d come to know the area over a number of visits since the 1980s and knew some of those involved in the protests which I photographed throughout the period, as well as continuing my photographic documentation of the area, much of which was published in my 2010 book ‘Before the Olympics‘, where I wrote ‘Stratford Marsh was one of the areas I found most interesting from the start; then a curious mixture of wilderness and industry … What was once an exciting and varied area with a great range of wildlife is now sterilized and under concrete.

The 2008 financial crisis meant the government had to pick up many of the bills, and large parts became publicly owned. Wainwright points out that the sale of the athlete’s village for around half what it cost to build meant a £275m loss to the taxpayer, who had funded the social aspects including a “school and health facilities, while the private sector kept the more profitable parts of the scheme – the shopping mall, the offices and the luxury flats.”

Newham’s Mayor until 2018, Robin Wales, encouraged the development of high-priced flats as attracting a wealthier demographic to the borough, and at the same time presided over a policy of ‘displacement and relocation of low-income households, as far afield as Stoke-on-Trent’. The Focus E15 mothers he tried to disperse away from London named it clearly – ‘Social Cleansing’.

The huge redevelopment in the area since 2012 has resulted in only 110 genuinely affordable homes. Newham currently has over 27000 applicants on the Housing Register and some 4500 families in temporary accommodation. Newham began emptying one notable large estate in central Stratford, the 1967 Carpenters estate of 710 homes in 2004 and by 2012 more than half of the homes were empty. The residents had wanted the estate refurbished, but Newham hoped to sell it off. When protests led to UCL withdrawing plans for a new campus, they looked for a developer, but those plans were dropped in 2018 and a new start made.

*Bridge House – LB Newham’s Housing Office*

There is much more in Wainwright’s article than I’ve mentioned, along with some of my own thoughts here, particularly about the huge failures of Boris Johnson and the failure to provide the kind of overall planning that could have occurred had the area been developed as a new town with the legacy corporation reinvesting “profits back into the future of the place, as happened in the postwar New Towns and places like Milton Keynes.” But instead it has been a commercial operation and one that has turned into a financial disaster for the taxpayer, rich pickings for developers and a social and environmental mess.

Wainwright describes the outcome in his final paragraph as “a nice park dotted with impressive sports venues and high-end homes, with some cultural attractions on the way.” I have to disagree, particularly about the park. It’s a park that is still scarred by the Olympics with large arid areas which I think will leave much of it forever beyond redemption, though there are some nicer parts. But I can only echo his next sentence: “But the poorest and most vulnerable, in what remain London’s most deprived boroughs, have lost out.“

The Focus E15 march began with a rally in Stratford Park. It was supported by people from a huge list of organisations I list on My London Diary. They they then marched around Stratford town centre, past the bus station, the station and the Theatre then back down the Broadway, stopping briefly outside Foxtons, where Class War staged a brief protest inside the estate agents offices.

They then moved on to the LB Newham’s Housing Office at Bridge House for another protest. Finally the marched on to the Carpenters Estate to hold a rally in front of the flats they had occupied for two weeks in 2014. Their occupation had led to these flats being re-occupied along with a few other of the roughly 400 empty properties on the estate.

If you’ve not yet read ‘A massive betrayal’: how London’s Olympic legacy was sold out please do. You can read more of what I wrote back in 2015 and see many more pictures on My London Diary:
Focus E15: Rally before March
Focus E15: ‘March Against Evictions’
Class War Occupy Stratford Foxtons
Focus E15: Anniversary of Carpenters Occupation

Focus E15 Mums at City Hall 2014

Focus E15 Mums at City Hall 2014. Focus E15 mothers and children, threatened with eviction from the Mother and Baby Unit at the Focus E15 hostel in Stratford came on a decorated bus to City Hall, holding a party outside and trying to hand in a petition and card to then city Mayor Boris Johnson.

I’d met the Focus E15 Mums the previous month when they partied inside the Stratford offices of East Thames Housing Association who run the hostel, but the eviction notices had come in October 2013 because Newham Council had decided to cut the funding for the hostel.

Newham was then at the centre of a post-Olympic housing boom, with both private developers and East Thames building large blocks of flats around the area. But the great majority of these are for sale or rent at market prices, and many were being bought not to live in but by overseas investors keen to cash in on the steeply rising prices of housing in London. Even housing associations build mainly for those on good salaries who can afford shared ownership schemes, with minimal homes at council-level rents.

Newham Council Mayor Robin Wales told the mothers there were no properties available in the area at council rents. He made it clear than if you are poor, Newham doesn’t want you, and they were offered rented accommodation far outside of London, in Birmingham, Manchester, Hastings and even Wales – “expensive, sometimes poor quality, insecure one year private rents” – with the threat that anyone who turned down the offers would be regarded as having made themselves intentionally homeless and get no help from the council.

The mothers in the hostel decided to stand together and fight the council, demanding they be placed within suitable socially rented accommodation in Newham. Among other areas they point out that there is good quality council-owned housing on the Carpenters Estate, a short walk from their hostel, which Newham council have left empty, in some cases for ten years, as they try to sell off the area for development – despite having the highest waiting list for social housing in London.

As I wrote in 2014, London Mayor Boris Johnson Boris Johnson “has made it clear that he is opposed to the gentrification of London, stating: ‘The last thing we want to have in our city is a situation such as Paris where the less well-off are pushed out to the suburbs’ and promising ‘I’ll emphatically resist any attempt to recreate a London where the rich and poor cannot live together…’ But these turned out to be typically Johnsonian empty words and during his time as London Mayor he did nothing to help those in housing need and stop those cleared from council estates having to move miles further out.

*The card Boris Johnson wouldn’t accept*

On the day of the protest the mothers tried to deliver a card to him, but his office simply refused to take it. The assistant director of the affordable homes programme in London, Jamie Ratcliff did come down to meet them and took their petition, but had little to say to them, giving them his card and telling them to email him.

*Mothers go in to deliver the card but no-one would accept it*

More on the event on My London Diary at Focus E15 Mums at City Hall.

The Focus E15 Campaign eventually got all or most of the mothers and children rehoused locally, and they continue to compaign in Newham for Fair Housing For All, holding a street stall despite harassment from council and police every Saturday on Stratford Broadway, helping homeless families get proper treatment from the council, protesting for those in terrible conditions in temporary accomodation and stopping evictions, and taking part in protests and campaigns for social housing in London and elsewhere.

Focus E15 Mothers Party Against Eviction 2014

*Focus E15 Mothers and children party in the show flat – 17th January 2014*

Focus E15 Mothers Party Against Eviction 2014
Housing remains one of London’s larger problems, with sky-high house prices and market rents. At the start of 2022 the average flat rent in London is over £360 per week – around £19,000 per year, while the average property price according to Zoopla is £681,427.

Housing has always been a problem in London, but in the 1950s, 60s and 70s things were beginning to improve, largely due to both Labour and Conservative councils building council houses and flats. By the 1960s over 500,000 new flats were added in London and nationally around a third of UK households lived in social housing.

The government’s minimum wage for 2022 will be £9.50 per hour from April – an on that rate you would need to work for around 38 hours a week just to pay for a flat – and of course would have no chance of ever buying a flat or house. Things have got considerably worse since 2010, and in boroughs like Newham average rents now are 65% of average wages.

The building programme slowed down in the 1970s as governments made it more difficult for councils to build, but the real watershed came with Margaret Thatcher’s 1980 Housing Act which gave council tenants the right to buy their properties at between 33-50% of market value – and stopped councils from using the proceeds to built more properties.

Further housing acts under Thatcher led to the transfer of much social housing to housing associations, which were allowed to access private finance while councils were very much restricted in their borrowing. Housing associations continue to build some new properties, but the numbers are small in relation to demand, and much lower than those built by councils in the 1950s-70s. Official figures for 2019 show only 37,825 new homes built for letting at below market rents while over 1.1 million households are on housing waiting lists – around 30 times as many.

So it is not surprising that councils such as Newham have a huge housing problem, and the council says it has the highest levels of overcrowded housing in the country, one of the highest proportion of people living in insecure private rented homes and in houses of multiple occupation and the largest number of homeless people – including those in temporary accommodation.

Newham was one of the first councils to get an elected Mayor in 2002, and Robin Wales held that post until 2018 when he was deselected as candidate. Many blame him for the particular failures over housing in the borough and point to properties on the Carpenters Estate in particular, some of which have been deliberately left empty for around 15 years.

The first group to organise and call out the council on their failures over housing were young single mothers who were threatened with eviction after Newham Council removed funding from East Thames Housing Association’s Focus E15 Foyer in Stratford. Newham Council had tried to get them to move well away from London, in Hastings, Birmingham and elsewhere, away from friends, families, colleges, nurseries and support networks. These offers were for private rented accommodation, with little or no security of tenure and would leave them at the mercy of often unscrupulous or uncaring landlords.

For once the group stood together and determined – helped by friends – to fight the council, not just for their own cases, but also for others whom Newham is failing to provide accommodation. Though they attracted national publicity and won their fight to stay in the London they continue to hold a weekly protest and advice stall in central Stratford every Saturday – I visited it again in late 2021. Their fight exposed the failures of Robin Wales and was certainly one of the factors in his losing support in the borough.

You can read more about the protes when a group of the mothers with their children went into the East Thames offices and held a party in their show flat on on My London Diary in Focus E5 Mothers Party Against Eviction. The East Thames staff who came to talk with them were generally sympathetic and attempted to reassure them but told them it was the responsibility of the council and not the housing association to rehouse them.