Sunday 9 January 2011

Excaliber estate

Deptford-based illustrator Sarah McIntyre has posted some great photographs of the Excaliber prefab estate in Catford, which is threatened with demolition by Lewisham Council. She's also done a short video interview with local campaigner Jim Blackender.

This follows just a few days after (perhaps prompted by?) a comment piece by Simon Jenkins in the Guardian demanding that the estate be saved.

When I first moved to London I had friends who rented a prefab right in the middle of Greenwich's posh streets - it was one of three on a scrap of land on the corner of Royal Place and George Street. Hardly conceivable these days, and in fact it wasn't too long before the council demolished them and built the modern houses that are there to this day.

2 comments:

Marmoset said...

I didn't realise what the estate's name was but I rode around it a few months back. It's a surprisingly extensive estate and very much an architectural curiosity. More importantly, just about every house and every garden looked cared for. With people so evidently happy about living there on an estate that has more character than any other area in Catford, I'm really not surprised the council want to get rid of it. It's evidence of quite how badly the council's failed since the 60s.

madame butterfly said...

I am a resident of the excalibur estate and i cannot wait for the new houses to be built, I am sick to death of forever wiping the walls and window frames down due to mould,it's a nightmare to try and keep the place warm in the winter, so if Mr Blackender loves his home so much fine,i just want a home that i can actually keep warm and that is mould free is that too much to ask for?!!