It was a pleasure to meet up recently with Derek Latham at Lancaster West estate in North Kensington where I was community artist in residence. He worked for the architectural firm of Clifford Wearden and Associates in the late 1960s making detailed drawings for Testerton, Hurstway and Barandon; locals call these low-rise housing blocks the “finger blocks” and they radiate out from the central high rise tower on the estate.
Ahead of out meeting, Derek kindly sent me his 1973 thesis: Community Survival in the Renewal Process – An integral part of the housing problem. It is a lovely collage of photos, transparent sheets and pull out diagrammatic sections. The relationship between development and community is very topical as RBKC council are currently consulting on a major regeneration in the area. I am also constantly thinking about what is the role of an artist in relation to these complex social issues. Derek gave me some fascinating food for thought about how you might become engaged or radicalised.
The following extracts are taken from a statement supplied by Derek and an audio interview on the estate.
“During the development in the 1970s I became concerned when I discovered that a large proportion of the existing tenants who lived in the area were not to be rehoused. This was because they were effectively itinerant tenants living in the Rachman owned properties. Often two families to a floor sharing a kitchenette and sometimes six families sharing one bathroom and toilet. We think housing conditions today are poor, but I wish I had the photographs to show you the appalling conditions that these people were living in. They truly were slums. Not because of the way they were originally built as fine townhouses for single families with their servants but because of the way they were being exploited with little maintenance and severe overcrowding as the housing shortage at that time was so acute. You could look at a film like Cathy Come Home which was made back in the 1960s which fully explains the situation at that time. Because of my concern at the situation I joined Shelter. But I could do nothing to help the families that were in the Lancaster Road West area, most of whom had already been moved out to create a “ghost town”. In fact the area was used as a film set just before it was demolished. All the buildings were painted black to create a macabre backcloth for some form of thriller or horror film. I am sorry, but I cannot remember the name of the film – I never did see it. (Derek is referring to the 1969 film, Leo The Last and which I used as the basis for an arts project).
I was passionate about the need for a better solution to housing regeneration than the large clearances that were occurring throughout all the major cities in Britain. Communities survived better through the redevelopment process if they could remain where they were. Hence I developed the philosophy of Gradual Renewal – simply removing the very worst of the houses that were in poor condition and replacing them on the same street with new houses fitted in between those that remained. The philosophy was that in 15 or 20 years when some more of the original houses reached the end of their economic life then these too could be replaced. This would utilise the hammer and chisel and a small-scale builder rather than the bulldozer and the tower crane. It would avoid the decade of disruption that occurs with clearance and redevelopment.
There aren’t slums now. There are estates which have been vandalised, but more often neglected. Maybe because they are more expensive to look after than other estates, so they don’t get that extra money. But in the long term maintaining places is cheaper than pulling them down and rebuilding them. And that’s without taking into account social costs. In my experience the disruption to the community is usually not less than 10 years from the start of a development to its end. This is a good part of any child’s life. What are the consequences of that? They are enormous and they don’t get costed down. The principal should be to save and find ways of improving. How can we build an extra floor if we want to increase the density? How can we improve the walkways or insulation? Sometimes you might need to demolish certain portions. I wouldn’t be alive now without some pretty good surgery from time to time. But the point about the good surgeons is that they only cut the bits that absolutely ned to be cut and the rest of the organ keeps going. And if you look at any community estate, it’s like a living being and will need some surgery. But surgery isn’t death by bludgeoning and waiting for a re-birth. Nobody survives that well.”
