Fade in. A city landscape. We hear questions being asked by a range of people. Tentative answers are given in response.
I’m moving onto Lancaster West estate, what is it really like?
It’s the largest estate in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, nearly 40 years old with lots of friendly people and the flats are well-sized. It’s in the ward of Notting Barns.
Is there a strong sense of community here?
It’s hard to be objective. The estate is run by the TMO and pioneered the first resident-lead management board for an estate in England. It’s a shame there is no current resident association, but groups are forming or reforming. There is also the critical voice of the Grenfell Action Group.
Want to smoke some weed?
No thank you, I’m a bit busy with my art at the moment.
What is a community artist?
Amongst other things, one who works on social issues and works collaboratively with the community.
This is a replay of the type of conversations I’ve had on the estate.
Incidentally, I’m the community artist. After 4 months, I feel at home with what some residents call the forgotten estate.
What can I contribute to its tales of woe and wonder?
How do we hear voices that are never heard?
What stories are worth telling?
Are we myth making, rabble rousing or hopefully coalescing the community?
What is this? Where is this? It’s worth while mapping this territory in more detail.
Lancaster West is 1200 homes scattered over a large site – they built with a flair for space in the 70s. The various parts of the estate were never unified with concrete decking as the original architects had envisaged. This design would have synchronised with the nearby Westway and underground. Cars that fly in the sky and commuters that are tubed, on this section, in an elevated train. So why not have people walking in the sky?
“The deck may be thought of as the deck of a ship, in so far as it is the roof on which one can walk, and other superstructures or buildings either penetrate or sit on the top of it.” (60s Masterplan)
Decking only now survives wrapped around the tower block. It offers a pleasant promenade to look down on the green and the recently built academy and leisure centre.
Who? Let us meet some of the residents.
The lady who does yoga in her flat and dreamily looks across to the horizon and the London Eye. She tells me there is a solar eclipse this week and it’s effecting the geo-politcal balance.
The community gardener who has just seen himself in Visions of Paradise at the Portobello Film Festival. He is waiting for the bearded wonder upstairs to rain down on his garden. He talks about the estate as a black and white film in which there is a sudden shaft of colour. Does this colour represent his Wizard of Oz thunder storm?
I mention to him a B&W film that I had a starring role in and which deployed a lightning flash of colour. Great minds!
Another resident says I should be making a film about the refugee crisis. He also adds that we should not let anyone else into the country. Are there refugees making the perilous journey to our new world and who might end up on this estate? If they arrive and get lost (see previous blog), they could ask the postman on his beat. He clearly knows his way around but is busy complaining about boys interfering with his trolley.
Listen to those other voices.
Some are asking when will the Grenfell tower improvement works end?
Others – when will regeneration really begin?
What does the future hold with all the changes being planned in the area?
I attempt to crystal gaze into the future as I listen to voices from the past.
The wonderfully named Moo-Cow Bakery on Avondale Road was concerned about the impact of planning blight. That was in 1966 and Lancaster West estate was in the pipe line.
The swinging milkman of this era was probably revelling in changes to society. The inner walkways on the estate were actually designed to allow his float to deliver milk to the doorstep.
Jump cut to other voices.
I see a man served with a compulsory purchase order and his cri de coeur to the authorities: “As a negro, I have no status. I have no one to whom I can go for sincere advice including the Colonial office.”
There is correspondence from the Oriental Casting Agency who were located at 239 Lancaster Road. The owner fears the impending redevelopment will displace his business and not compensate adequately. This firm specialised in supplying Afro-Asian artists to the entertainment industry. I wonder if they provided the cast for the magical film Leo The Last that was made in 1969? Leo was set on Testerton Street as it was being slum cleared for the building of Lancaster West. The themes of the film (race, housing and community relations) resonate with the contemporary world.
The past is still living memory. There is a large online community of former residents who cling to prelapsarian Notting Barns. Sharing intimate stories and photos on the Born in W10 and W11 Facebook groups. They have bitter sweet stories to tell about their proud working class origins. And how their home lives were shattered for the building of the estate.
It was Harold Macmillan who said “You never had it so good”.
Migration, austerity. Forks in the path, left and right.
Is this old news or new?
Council minutes tell us there were at least 6 petitions mounted by Lancaster West residents. I was struck by the 1981 petition when 238 residents wrote to the Health and Housing Committee of RBKC. It contained the following prayer:
“We the undersigned residents of the Lancaster West estate demand that the council gives priority to resolving the problems caused by the plague of cockroaches, bugs and other insects in our homes. We understand these insects constitute a health hazard and we are taking legal advice. We may consider withholding our rent and rates until those insects are eradicated from our estate.”
Suffice it to say, praying was not enough. Residents visited the town hall and dropped live cockroaches onto councillors in a meeting.
Fast forward to a drawing event held on the 4th July.
Young children on the estate completely reinvent their home environment.
Concrete and bricks morphed into an art world – theme park ride – battle zone for Spider Man. Many thanks to the following children: Zaid, Cameron, Abdul, Ilyas, Jonayd and Sara. Especially Mehdi who told several stories to illustrate his drawing:
“Once upon a time there was a boy on a boat and he went into space – a flying boat. And he eat the King Alien and then the alien eat him.
He went back to earth running. He lived happily ever after.”
I also like the way Mehdi described his story telling skills.
“I made two stories up. I use my imagination. I press the imagination button.”
Let us end, by returning to that first question.
A lady who was driving along Grenfell Road, spotted me filming and stopped in her tracks. She was moving here and what was the estate like? I didn’t mention any biblical scenes pertaining to cockroaches or an apocalyptic movie scenario.
Was she moving into one of the new flats being created as part of the £10 million regeneration for Grenfell tower?
Does she have children that will one day use the nursery or boxing club on the estate?
She is the future and may that future be born free of insects and disasters.
Lancaster West is approaching 40 years of age. This is potentially a starting point for a midlife crisis. If we need spiritual guidance, our mystical community gardener, Stewart Wallace, should have the last word:
“Sometimes the weather’s miserable. You have to see the colour in it.
Be happy. It’s easier. Just look for a tiny bit of happiness.”
