Comments on: Return Of The Monoliths

By: Jonty

Jonty — Sun, 26 Apr 2015 22:56:24 +0000

It is easy to place all of the blame for these obvious failures of urban renewal and housing schemes on “The Rich,” but many of the original planners were just as likely to be well-intentioned Labour politicians as they were to be the popular image of the money grubbing Tory. As dreadful as these towers were in terms of damage to established communities and aesthetics, the slums were awful, too, and many outsiders were shocked that so many people lived in such cramped and squalid houses, often with exterior toilets and other issues that seemed inhumane and Dickensian in the later part of the twentieth century. These towers were an easy answer to a difficult question, and most of the blame for shoddy construction should be placed at the feet of the building contractors, who won the contracts because they placed the lowest bid and then cut corners to extract maximum profit. In hindsight, the failures of these housing plans for the poor are clearly evident, but it is too simple to look at the period in which they were created through the lens of the London of today. Yes, there was greed manifested by some of the players, but the plans themselves arose out of a general concern for the poor followed by action, however ill-suited it may seem today. Today, land in London has reached such epic levels of value, there will never be projects like this again. Unlike then, there is no genuine concern for London’s poor today, let alone any actionable plans to create affordable housing for them. In an age when Sloane Rangers have been priced out of their own neighbourhood and millionaires compete in bidding wars for houses in Spitalfields, I doubt there will ever be such a level of action taken for an ever growing demographic: those who simply cannot afford to live in London. These plans of the past were very bad indeed, but no plans at all will be truly catastrophic.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 17:52:21 +0000

More information on the Sainsbury Whitechapel project can be found here: http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/whitechapel

By: Phil Maxwell

Phil Maxwell — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 14:41:41 +0000

A wonderful record. History is repeating itself.

By: Catherine Morris

Catherine Morris — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 13:49:45 +0000

There are also plans further east in Mile End to build a 33 floor tower block of flats on the corner of Mile End Rd and Burdett St. It will stick out like an eyesore from the much lower adjacent features on the cross road

By: Valerie-Jael

Valerie-Jael — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 10:35:01 +0000

It is really scary what it happening there. Perhaps they expect the ‘natives’ to understand that the city workers, bankers and smart young things need a place just round the corner from their places of work. The greed of the builders, planners and investors seems to grow with the height of the buildings they want to erect. They just don’t give a damn about the ‘ordinary’ people they are driving away. The higher the building, the lower the morals – brave new world indeed. Valerie

By: Jackie K

Jackie K — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 09:35:03 +0000

My grandparents lived in Cann Hall Road, Leytonstone for 40 years before they were “re-housed” by the council to the Langthorne Estate. Although by no means tall buildings, they are (still) wide, monstrous monoliths which basically trapped them on the second floor. They passed away within 18 months of moving.

By: Eddy

Eddy — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 09:02:52 +0000

Thanks for a moving and heartfelt post. And thanks to Mr Claridge for sharing these powerful images. They are new to me and deserve a large audience. But how sad that we have learned so little. This beautiful sentence came to mind…

“There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.” – Jane Jacobs

By: joan

joan — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 08:38:54 +0000

We moved into a flat on the thirteenth floor of Latham House, opposite the Troxy, at Christmas 1963 when it was brand new, as was I – being only 6 months old. We moved out 16 years later when Tower Hamlets council rehoused us to a lower rise flat in a new estate alongside the Troxy. My mum and dad were thrilled to have been rehoused (from Wapping’s Stephen and Matilda house) to a flat with underfloor heating and all mod cons. Undoubtedly the build quality wasn’t brilliant (I can remember all sorts of creaks in the wind – my sister and I were never allowed to see tower block disaster movies like Towering Inferno for fear that they would worry us!) but the community was there. Communal areas and lifts were specially swept and cleaned if a wedding or funeral was to take place (I particularly remember this from when my sister got married in 1977) and we certainly knew our neighbours and were frequently in and out of each other’s flats. I have vivid memories of the three day week and how many neighbours came into our house to boil kettles on our gas hob (most people having electricity). And people helping each carrying shopping up the stairs when the lifts were out. The death knell for our particular block was when Tower Hamlets got rid of the caretaker and decided that high rise living should be for single people rather than families with young children. The people who moved in – particularly students who weren’t intending to stay long term – had no desire to keep the community or cleanliness going.

There were undoubtedly some real downsides. My parents wouldn’t allow us out to play in the streets because there were big roads to cross to the park. But even there the corridors became our play spaces and I remember much time spent sitting in the communal airing cupboards at the ends of each corridor.

Joan

By: alison homewood

alison homewood — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 07:35:21 +0000

What a sobering reminder of what we lost and what we stand to lose in Norton Folgate and elsewhere.

Just because the new monoliths are mainly glass now (British Land, Norman Foster, BORIS et al), doesn’t mean today’s towers have any more soul – and the density of them is much much worse.

I was shown around a one-bed flat in the new-build Lexicon on City Road last week. The kitchen-cum-living room was just 16 sqm with a view onto the Canaletto tower, oh joy! And the “water feature” was a canal cul-de-sac strewn with litter – no-one cared enough to clean it. The flat was being sold by someone who had bought it off-plan and never lived in it. The price – £675,000. London will surely be flooded soon with these ‘opportunities’….

Interesting how today’s marketing materials just say ‘tower’ – the block got lost along the way, and hey, tower sound so much nicer, more like a castle or a fairy-tale than communist bloc.

I walked back from St Leonard’s church last night, where my Huguenots ancestors were baptised, married and buried, past the boarded up remaining terraces of Norton Folgate awaiting their fate, and could have cried.

I’ll help man the barricades when/if the time comes….

Let’s hope Tower Hamlets do the right thing….

By: Achim

Achim — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 07:28:47 +0000

You only can call it “Non-Architecture” — just good for blowing up!

Love & Peace
ACHIM