Commendation for best best social housing development
Limehouse yellows
Overcrowding, poor-quality housing, infestation, ill health and years of neglect were the main challenges that had to be met by the regeneration of the former Limehouse Fields estate in Stepney. When the London Borough of Tower Hamlets made its successful bid in 1994 for funding from the SRB (Single Regeneration Budget), it started a £100-million investment programme that was delivered to the Bethnal Green & Victoria Park Housing Association (BGVPHA), Circle 33 Housing Group and two other housing associations through Stepney Housing & Development Agency (SHADA). Regeneration is a world full of acronyms.
John Laing Partnership (which at the time was called Laing Partnership Housing) was the specialist homebuilder that undertook the wholesale demolition and rebuilding of unfit council housing, mostly in post-war blocks when misguided public housing projects hit a new low after all the euphoria generated by the 1951 Festival of Britain. By the time the ten-year regeneration was completed in March 2004, John Laing Partnership had built 445 new homes, most of which involved a return to using Smeed Dean yellow stock bricks in keeping with the neighbouring high-value private housing in the area.
PRP Architects worked with local residents, the housing associations, Laing and the Free Form Arts Trust to develop the master plan and new housing designs that would remedy the post-war failings in publicly funded housing. In doing so, PRP returned to the early 19th-century traditional terraced street layout with townhouses that provide private space for residents while achieving relatively high densities of around 240 habitable rooms per hectare, or up to 30 houses per acre. Durable high-quality materials were used, not only to resist vandalism but also to achieve acoustic and thermal insulation ratings higher than required at the time by Building Regulations, resulting in an EcoHomes rating of “Good.”
A crescent of new homes along the Regents Canal and a pedestrian zone leading to Central Circus, a community garden at the heart of the development, opened up the canal as a visual amenity that adds quality to the environment and brings real benefits to the residents. Surveys have shown that residents are overwhelmingly in favour of the changes.
HomeBuilder: JOHN LAING PARTNERSHIP LIMITED
Caspian House,The Waterfront, Elstree, Hertfordshire WD6 3BS
Tel 020 8236 8792 Fax 020 8236 8701
Contact: Sally Ingham, Business Development Manager
Email: sally.ingham@jlaingpartnership.co.uk
Website: www.jlaingpartnership.co.uk
in partnership with:
BETHNAL GREEN & VICTORIA PARK HOUSING ASSOCIATION
401 Mile End Road, London E3 4PB
Tel 020 8709 4300 Fax 020 8709 4400
Website: www.bgvpha.org.uk
and
CIRCLE 33 HOUSING GROUP
1-7 Corsica Street, London N5 1JG
Tel 020 7288 4000 Fax 020 7288 4001
Website: www.circle33.org
Architects: PRP ARCHITECTS
1 Lindsey Street, Smithfield, London EC1A 9HP
Tel 020 7653 1200 Fax 020 7248 3315
Contact: Simon Wood, Project Architect
Email: lon.prp@prparchitects.co.uk
Website: www.prparchitects.co.uk
Photography: JOHN WALTER (01273 480525)