Heygate Estate

Created 18-Sep-12

39 photos

Photographs of the Heygate Estate, Elephant & Castle, Walworth, Southwark, South London. Soon to be demolished, it is a stark view of urban decay. It was built in the 1970's and is a good example of post-war, neo-brutalist architecture. Designed by Tim Tinker, it had an optimistic beginning, but soon had a reputation for crime and violence.

It has featured in several feature films including "Attack The Block", "Harry Brown" (with Michael Caine), "Shank" and scenes in "Hereafter" by Clint Eastwood. It was also a regular location for TV police drama "The Bill".

I could see comparisons with other 1970's architecture in London, like the Barbican Centre, so it was a little sad that the place had dilapidated and had also failed it's residents. A strange beauty lies in its decay.

Categories & Keywords

Category:Architecture and Structures

Subcategory:Residential

Subcategory Detail:

Keywords:1970's, Attack The Block, Britain, British, Elephant & Castle, England, English, Estate, Great, Harry Brown, Heygate, London, Shank, South, Southwark, The Bill, Tim Tinker, UK, Walworth, architecture, blocks, bridge, broken, building, city, cityscape, community, concrete, council, demolish, demolition, dilapidated, dilapidation, disrepair, empty, flats, grey, housing, minimal, modern living environment, neo-brutalist, post-war, regeneration, run-down, stark, tower block, urban, urban decay, windows

Guestbook for Heygate Estate

Sally(non-registered)

Wow, I went to Victory School just across the road and watched this estate being built. It was 1974/75. The estate went up very fast and one day our teacher took us for a wander around on the construction site. Imagine how that would be viewed today!

Even back then when it was new it felt very cold and unsafe, I hated those long walkways. I remember a girl from our class climbing over the walkway across Rodney Road and threatening to jump off! The best part was the spiral end of the walkway on the other side of New Kent Road, we'd all run around that for hours.

My first job was at the hairdressers on the estate which I'm pretty sure was called Pinups.

Great to see these photos, gives me an uneasy nostalgia!

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