Aylesbury Estate

The Aylesbury Estate is a housing estate located in Walworth in south east London, England. The majority of the homes are one or two bedroom flats and more than half are in high-rise blocks. The estate is often used as a typical example of urban decline. It is considered one of the most notorious estates in the UK, and was for this reason the site of Tony Blair's first speech as Prime Minister in 1997, in an effort to demonstrate that the government would care for the poorest elements of society. [http://archive.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/seu/newsa52f.html?id=400]

The estate was designed by architect Derek Winch and construction started in 1963. Built on 285,000 square metres the estate was an attempt by planners to house some of London's poorest families. The 2,700 dwellings were designed to house a population of roughly 10,000 residents, making it the largest public housing estate in Europe. The estate is named after Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire and the various sections of the estate are named after other local towns and villages in Buckinghamshire including Foxcote, Wendover, Winslow, Padbury, Taplow, Ravenstone and Chiltern.

In the 1970s residents in the ground floor flats successfully campaigned for gardens to be fenced off adjoining their flats. The final blocks of flats were completed in 1977 and the estate included a nursery, a day centre and a health centre.

However as old tenants moved out and new tenants came in, the estate went through a period of decline in the 1980s. The area is now considered to be in the bottom category on the ACORN classificationfn|1 for inner city adversity, signifying an area of extremely high social disadvantage. Crime is highly prevalent in parts of the estate with the Guardian newspaper recently reporting a crime taking place every four hoursfn|2. The population is very racially diverse with two thirds of residents being of black and minority ethnic heritage.

In 1999 the estate was awarded New Deal for Communities status and given £56.2m of central government funding (over 10 years). It was expected that this money would bring in £400m of housing association funding into the estate as part of a stock transfer deal. A tenant ballot was held on transfer to a housing association which was rejected by 73% of the tenants on a 73% turnout. [http://society.guardian.co.uk/housingtransfers/story/0,8150,624987,00.html] .

On September 27 2005, the London Borough of Southwark decided that rather than spend £350 million updating the estate to basic living standards they would order its demolition and replace the dwellings with modern houses controlled by a housing association. The plan involves increasing the density of housing from the current 2,700 units to 4,900. 2,288 units would remain social housing and the remainder would be for sale. The sale of these units is planned to fund the whole scheme.

On Boxing Day 2007, a resident was shot in the communal garden by the Chartridge building of the estate: disappointment was expressed that the body had lain undiscovered for more than 24 hours. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7165113.stm]

Over the summer of 2008, local residents and members of the community craft group, In-Spire, in conjunction with London knitting group I Knit London, launched a unique project to create a knitted scale model of the estate as a lasting memorial to the estate, prior to its demolition.

The estate has featured highly in many television shows including The Bill, Spooks and has been featured in a Channel 4 ident, showing urban depravation, for some years.

More recently, Aylesbury has been in the local news [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7583245.stm] as result of Southwark Council paying for private buses (to Elephant & Castle station) for its employees working at its Aylesbury Regeneration Office. These services were provided in response to a recent number of attacks on its employees as they made the mile journey on foot. While the report does go on to say the council is planning on removing these services in the next few months, the reporter does question whether this will actually happen.

External links

* [http://www.aylesburyndc.org.uk/ Aylesbury NDC (New Deal for Communities)] An organisation that had been given £56.2m to deal with the estate's problems.
* [http://www.southwark.gov.uk/Uploads/FILE_16452.pdf Southwark Council newsletter for tenants]
* [http://www.iknit.org.uk/aylesbury.html Knit the Aylesbury Estate]

Notes

* [http://www.caci.co.uk/acorn/acornmap.asp ACORN classification]
* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/comment/0,11026,1486084,00.html Story from the Guardian]