Heygate Estate, Heygate Street (6)

Image: © Stephen Richards Taken: 13 Feb 2011

Pretty much the reverse of this view: Image Either another monument to 1960s idealism doomed by modern tastes (now everything must glitter, concrete's just too grey - boring) and/or a mercenary council, or another concrete hell-hole past its sell-by date. Take your pick. Although planned during the previous decade, the Heygate's 1,200 flats were built in 1970-74. The four vast concrete blocks forming the perimeter are certainly forbidding ("impressive from a distance" wrote Pevsner), but the inside is surprisingly green and the spacious flats meant that for a time it was not an unpopular place to live. Later it fell victim to the usual blights and Southwark Council are, perhaps unnecessarily, demolishing the whole lot. They started earlier this year but it will take several years to finish the job. Old communities will vanish and it seems likely that most of the old occupants will be priced out of the new development. On the left is the Strata building and on the right is Hannibal House.

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