The Heygate Estate in Elephant And Castle

A good friend of mine constructed an audio walk for London Architecture Week in 2006, he talks to people from The Heygate and Rockingaham. They were great apartments inside, it was just a nightmare getting access to them. All the entrances an exits were pretty dangerous just because they were designed poorly, nothing really to do with the Heygate residents.

This is a link to the audiowalk - click on the one which says "Guided By Voices":
http://www.utrophia.net/projects/bcaudiowalks

There was also a great documentary about the estate made in 2000 but I can't remember what channel it was on. One of the case studies in the documentary were a bunch of young guys who had set up a pirate radio station in their flat.
 

Pestario

tell your friends
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.

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.

Corsica studios benefits from being in a railway arch which helps attenuate much of the sound but I think crowds outside in the smoking area would be more of an issue. Right now there's only the shopping centre to the west and some warehouse thing to the east so there's no real problem but if any of these sites develop with residential then problems could arise...
 

Elephant Notes

New member
Info on Heygate and the displacement of the tenants

Hiya all
I recognise a few names and rants on this post. And I guess a few of them will recognise this.

If you're interested in the background to why The Heygate is now artists and photographers No.1 playground for moody shots of 'failed modernism' (as I read today on someone's blog), you can go here:
http://southwarknotes.wordpress.com/heygate-estate/

You can also read this article abot how the last remaining tenants are being shafted once more by the local Council:
http://www.southwarknews.co.uk/00,news,18859,185,00.htm

"Doreen Gee, 71, suffers from arthritis and has been unable to secure a new home, despite bidding for close to 30 properties through the council's Homesearch system. She received her notice to quit her property last week."

Lovely way to treat people.

So, I would say anyone who wants to come to Heygate and lark about in the 'former crime ghetto' (another blog quote!), it would be nice if they could read up on some of the history and reasons why it's empty. For now, it's still the homes of a few people struggling to get a better deal from the Council.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Thanks for the info.

Sobering, but not exactly unexpected.

Grim reading.
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
No worries. And looking at the website, they've shown tons of interesting films in the past. Just signed up to their mailing list.
 
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