The Heygate Estate in Elephant And Castle

Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
Why is this thread in music? Well, that's the question I want to put to you.

The Heygate Estate is a massive, monolithic council housing clock in Elephant And Castle, South London. It's mostly unoccupied now and due to be demolished. However, it looks pretty striking from the outside.

Now, I'm pretty damn sure it's been used in some dubstep-type album covers. It's a really striking urban location, beautiful concrete. A guy from The Wire is doing a talk on the architecture of Elephant And Castle soon, and if there's any album covers which have used photos of it, he's keen to know.

Any idea? Here's a link to some images of it below.

http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=10112
 

nomos

Administrator
it looks like the image from the stateside release of run the road but i'm pretty sure that photo was something E3ish. martin could tell you.

i thought maybe one of the later dubstep allstars but it seems not.
 

nomos

Administrator
it looks like the image from the stateside release of run the road but i'm pretty sure that photo was something E3ish.
actually, strike that. i misremembered. but yes it looks very familiar in that context.
 
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john eden

male pale and stale
My mate chris at 56a infoshop (who are in the area) knows a fair bit about that sort of thing. I will ask him. When is talk? Bar oto thing?
 

computer_rock

Well-known member
it always reminded me a bit of a gursky photograph. and it definitely does scream album-cover art.

if it's true it's being demolished then that's really sad. ive made a habit of escaping corsica for 20 minute or so and sitting on the bench outside with a can of red stripe - looking up at all those unlit windows is quite serene
 

allegiant

Evenly Distributed
Off the top of my head, I can't think of any album artwork that featured the Heygate, but ITV definitely used to do a shitload of filming for 'The Bill' down there.
 

benjybars

village elder.
yeah it's an impressive structure.

getting to see it is one of the good things about going to corsica
 

mrfaucet

The Ideas Train
it always reminded me a bit of a gursky photograph.

This definitely. Although it can be said about a lot of blocks - the one I lived in last year was like this but on a smaller scale.

Musically I always connect it with Burial, but I don't think it features on any the cover art for his albums.

Don't want to derail the thread, but seeing as people have mentioned Corsica, does anyone know what is going to happen to it as a result of the redevelopment in E&C? Obviously Ministry of Sound is possibly under threat as a result of the development and similar things are going on with the Plastic People situation, so I guess the future isn't looking too bright for Corsica either? Have to agree that there's definitely something about leaving Corsica and being confronted with Heygate.
 

luka

Well-known member
you only need to listen to stories about new york to realise those people can actually rip the guts out a city... londons so complacent. like they got a natural right to have a thriving nightlife and music scene. few decisions from the big men and you can get left with nothing.
 
Musically I always connect it with Burial, but I don't think it features on any the cover art for his albums.

There is a slight connection as he said in the big Blackdown interview that Nil by Mouth is the film that best represents London, and it was filmed there. As for noise complaints in the new building, surely double/triple glazing will shield residents from the noisy freaks walking home from a night out?
 

worrior

Well-known member
This Channel 4 ident is from the aylesbury I think

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
 
Maybe I was getting mixed up. I think it says somewhere on the internet it was filmed in heyagte but it might just be for a little bit of the movie
 

Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
Thanks guys. Lots of stuff to chase down.

the talk is Will Montgomery at the Southbank somewhere – it's part of Ether.
 
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cresp

Member
Lots of the Michael Caine film 'Harry Brown' was shot on the Heygate. The semi-derelict state of it meant they were free to smash, burn and shout all they wanted.
 
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