Aylesbury £2.5bn Regeneration | Southwark | Demo + U/C

[SE9]

- This is not connected with the nearby Elephant & Castle redevelopment.

Aylesbury Regeneration
Walworth SE17
Southwark
Official Website: http://www.aylesburyregeneration.org.uk/
Southwark Council: http://www.southwark.gov.uk/yourserv...esestateregen/



Development Facts
£2.5billion
70 Acres
Demolition of the Aylesbury Estate
Construction of 4,200 new mixed-tenure homes
Construction of Phase 1 to start in Spring 2009

16th March 2009
Funding secured to construct the First Phase.
Phase One has now started construction.
£2million granted to improve Burgess Park.





Aylesbury Estate
Walworth SE17
Southwark
One of the largest housing estates of its kind in Europe. (In comparison, twice the size of Glasgow's 'Red Road' projects.)
The site of Tony Blair's first ever speech as Prime Minister in 1997.




Some recent photos by myself








Some recent photos from Flickr

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr



Phase 1a
South-west corner of the estate
Status: Demolition on blocks here has begun
Construction: 2009-2012










Context
Major regeneration projects in South East London

Aylesbury Regeneration: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=859444
Elephant & Castle Regeneration: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=496579
Greenwich Peninsula Regeneration:http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=632984
Kidbrooke Regeneration: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=670786
Lewisham Regeneration: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=888804

[StephenP]

What? Is that all getting demolished and re-built?

What a project!!!

[ferge]

Funny how they'd be virtually rebuilding the same thing, mind.. Fair enough, the internal space, the communal areas etc etc will all no doubt be radically different, and it'd be built of a higher quality (I'd presume) but isn't it just replacing like for like a little too much?

[SE9]

Originally Posted by StephenP

What? Is that all getting demolished and re-built?

What a project!!!

Yep, its all being demolished and rebuilt.

The top picture only shows half the estate, as it was taken from the middle of the estate (Chiltern Block).

Aylesbury is still 100% occupied though, unlike the Ferrier Estate which is half-empty.

[Officer Dibble]

Hm, that pic of the end of the building looks vaguely familiar...

Originally Posted by SE9

I wonder where I've seen it before. Ah, I know...

Originally Posted by chest

[SE9]

Oh dear!

Hmm.. reminds me more of Brixton's Loughborough Estate

image hosted on flickr

[citybus]

This estate doesnt look particularly run down, or that different from other London areas, aside from the extra long length of the blocks. Why is it such a failure? Is it the size of the estate that is the main factor?

[Octoman]

Originally Posted by ferge

Funny how they'd be virtually rebuilding the same thing, mind.|

I thought that. The estate is revolting but the plans are pretty much identical! A load of characterless blocks that will also look revolting.

Originally Posted by citybus

Why is it such a failure? Is it the size of the estate that is the main factor?

The people that live there made it a failure. Lack of aspiration and pride. If we cant 'mend' the people mending the buildings will make no difference.

[Officer Dibble]

[potto]

Well regeneration schemes tend to mix things up. Mobile affulent people move in. Councillors and police take note, services brought up to scratch. Any idiots hanging around dont have such a detrimental impact no longer is there safety in numbers, they become diluted in the area. The architecture is just a mechanism to implement this change and to fix any obviously glaring previous master plan floors like roads cutting off communities, impentetrable blocks and dead space. Gone is the old stigma. There is no particular reason why the new vision is going to fail.

[Octoman]

I agree with that Potto. Its a tough balancing act because drawing in too much 'new money' from outside leads to resentment from the existing residents as they are priced out of their homes and feel the character of the area change. Bring in too little and the same problems manifest themselves only in shiny new buildings.

I read somewhere that the crime and vandalism on even the most run down estate is committed by less than 5% of the residents. But the result is that the other 95% are fearful to go out leading to the desolatation we associate with these places. Any decent urban regeneration needs to deal with this 5% to be successful.

Its good that they seem to be creating communal areas directly overlooked by the properties (or at least it looks that way in the sketch). That will go a long way to helping residents self police the place. Look at the old layout and the buildings just overlook roads and carparks with the communal places out of sight and out of mind.

Its a huge project. Hope it works. And hope they come up with something a little bit more inspirational than rows of boxes ...

[SE9]

Originally Posted by citybus

This estate doesnt look particularly run down, or that different from other London areas, aside from the extra long length of the blocks. Why is it such a failure? Is it the size of the estate that is the main factor?

From the overview photos it doesn't look run-down, but upon closer inspection it is.

Its an estate of long interconnected walkways above ground, on a very large scale.

The design of the blocks mean that every flat is accessible to the public; there are no key-codes on any block in the estate.

It is a single estate, but it is one of an unbroken chain of estates that runs from Elephant & Castle to Peckham:


Rockingham Estate - Heygate Estate - Browning Estate - Aylesbury Estate - (Burgess Park) - Gloucester Grove Estate - North Peckham Estate.

Heygate, Aylesbury and the North Peckham area are being regenerated.

[Jack Rabbit Slim]

I'm waiting for some of the usual people on the forum to come on here and start rambling about how it's an interesting example of brutalist, simplistic 60's architecture and should be kept or only briefly refurbished....

What an absolute hell-hole. It's looking at places like that that make me exremelty grateful I was not born into a family that had to live there. The worst kind of architecture, muddy grey concrete, souless and depressing to look at. To be honest I don't think these new plans are going to damatically alter that...although it is a start. I like the fact that they are demolishing it all, and not trying to refurb it in the usual London way of preserving shit architecture and ignoring the destruction of good buildings.

[Blindfold]

Originally Posted by SE9

It is a single estate, but it is one of an unbroken chain of estates that runs from Elephant & Castle to Peckham:

Rockingham Estate - Heygate Estate - Browning Estate - Aylesbury Estate - (Burgess Park) - Gloucester Grove Estate - North Peckham Estate.

Heygate, Aylesbury and the North Peckham area are being regenerated.

The final link in that chain was the Camden Estate which was connected to the North Peckham via footbridge over Commercial Way and took you all the way south to Peckham High Street. The regeneration of the Gloucester Grove, North Peckham and Camden Estates is complete with the Camden being demolished in its entirity.

With North Peckham, only about 1/3 remains as the rest was demolished. Curiously some of the unusally tall lift shafts have been kept (without lifts) despite the estate never being a high-rise. The blocks remaining have been refurbished and remodelled extensively. The 3rd floor walkway originally gave access to all of the flats, even those at ground level. Bridges have been removed, security doors installed and ground and first floor flats have new entrances from the ground floor. The whole estate was re-roofed in the 80's or 90's as it originally had flat roofs.

North Peckham Estate taken by myself in 1998:









The Aylesbury is actually being demolished due to structural defects which were 'found' after the residents voted against the estate being transferred from Southwark Council to a housing association.

[SE9]

^
Great shots there...
Its so hard to find shots of housing estates that were demolished pre-2000 in South London.
Pictures of the North Peckham Estate or Angell Town Estate before their regeneration are hard to come by.


This photo by wjfox illustrates the size of Aylesbury Estate, which is outlined in white:

[SE9]

L&Q starts building new homes on the Aylesbury Estate
http://www.24dash.com/news/Housing/2...lesbury-Estate
12.06.09

L&Q has started building the first of 260 new homes on the Aylesbury Estate in South London.

To mark the occasion estate residents joined children from Surrey Square School to bury a time capsule on the site. The capsule contains a film capturing memories of some of the older Aylesbury residents, as well as treasured items from the school children. It will stay buried for ten years.

John Lumley, Senior Project Manager from L&Q said: “We are delighted to begin work on the Aylesbury estate, building great new homes for local people in Southwark. We've worked closely with residents and Southwark Council in getting the design right, and look forward to helping to regenerate the Aylesbury estate.”

Councillor Paul Noblet, Southwark Council's Executive Member for Regeneration, said: “When this time capsule next sees the light of day in 2019, these children will be adults - starting their own working lives and families, and reaping the benefits of this massive regeneration programme.”

L&Q commenced work on the first Aylesbury site in March 2009. It is being built and managed by L&Q and comprises 260 new homes, commercial units and a state-of-the art Aylesbury Resource Centre, which will provide facilities for people with sensory, neurological and physical disabilities, along with health and therapy services, adult education, employment support, and IT.

Work is progressing well with garages that were on the site now demolished. Preparations are now under way for the laying of foundations.

The Aylesbury Estate which lies to the east of Walworth Road, and north of Burgess Park, in Southwark, is one of the most well-known estates in Europe. The estate encompasses 28.5 hectares and is home to over 7,500 people. A regeneration programme over 15-20 years, at a cost over £2.5 billion, is now under way.

The estate will be demolished in stages and their replacement with 4,200 new mixed-tenure homes, improved open spaces, better community facilities, safer streets, and improved accessibility to public transport cycling and walking.

In addition, Southwark Council has been working with the Aylesbury New Deal for Communities (NDC) to deliver a £56 million social programme on the estate. Benefits for residents have included more jobs, greater economic prosperity, improved educational results for young people on the estate and lower crime levels.

[the spliff fairy]

I can't see the plans

[SE9]

^
Images of Phase 1a from the Regeneration website:












A photo I took this morning of the Phase 1a site:

[SE9]

Aylesbury gets boost by sharing £1.7bn pot
July 2009
http://www.southwarknews.co.uk/00,news,15647,185,00.htm

The project to demolish the Aylesbury Estate received a cash boost this week, when the government announced the release of £1.7billion to help deliver new homes across the country.

Southwark Council plans to clear the estate were announced in 2005, with tenants being rehoused in a staged programme starting in January 2010.

The cash,which will be shared with nine other projects, will go towards the second and third stages of the project and will contribute to the construction of around 1,000 homes. The cash will be released through the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).

The Executive member for Regeneration, Cllr Paul Noblet, said: "We are delighted with the announcement that the HCA has granted Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding for the Aylesbury regeneration scheme.

"The PFI will be used to fund the demolition and build of new homes, open spaces and facilities for the Aylesbury and will ensure that we have the bulk of funding in place for the next nine years of this ambitious regeneration
programme."

The Aylesbury is one of ten projects nationwide identified as requiring the investment, with the HCA labelling some of the areas as the most deprived in the UK.

Housing Minister John Healey said: "At a time when private house building has declined dramatically during the recession, government investment and action means more affordable homes are now being built more quickly and we are helping to keep the construction industry going. In fact we've doubled the investment in the homes we're building through our affordable housing programme compared to this time last year."

The four stage rehousing programme for the estate is set to begin next January, with a phased approach to moving people and demolishing homes being adopted.

The estate is about 28.5 hectares in size and currently accommodates approximately 7,500 people. There are currently around 2,700 properties on the sprawling estate, with the aim to replace them with nearly 4,200 homes.
The estimated cost of the regeneration scheme, which will take fifteen to twenty years to complete, is £2.4billion.

[SE9]

Boost for Aylesbury Estate scheme
September 2009
http://www.southlondon-today.co.uk/t...state%20scheme

AN AUTHORITY has celebrated a critical milestone for a regeneration scheme worth two and a half billion pounds.

Two years have passed since plans for the demolition of the run-down Aylesbury Estate in Walworth were first mooted.

This week a Government-appointed planning inspector visited the estate to review Southwark council’s plans for the regeneration.

Residents’ views on the Aylesbury area action plan – the document that outlines the 20-year project – were also heard by the inspector.

More than 4,000 new homes, a new school and improved transport links to the area will be created.

Southwark hopes to clear more than 7,000 people off the run-down estate early next year prior to the first stages of demolition work being started.

Councillor Paul Noblet, the council’s executive member for regeneration, said: “We’ve worked really hard to meet demanding rules to get to this stage.

“We have cemented excellent relationships with Aylesbury residents by proving that we were really are listening to their ideas and changing the Plan accordingly.”

Following residents’ protests, Southwark agreed to include more family homes in their plans.

Jean Bartlett, chairwoman of the Aylesbury tenants’ and residents’ association, said: “Local people were generally very impressed with the way the new community will look.

“We also know our views were taken into account because the council actually revised the preferred options for the plan.”

Recommendations from the Government inspector are expected later this year.