There is so much fascinating stuff there. Pegleg - I was interested to see the "before" pictures of Ash Street at the Elephant and Castle as that was where my parents had their first flat on becoming married in 1956. That road would have had to have come down - the homes were damp and as I have said before still had gas light. The poverty was extraordinary. At that time, my Mum and Dad were the only English people, pretty unusual in those days, and very possibly the only couple there in full time work. A Cypriot woman used to be catching pigeons to cook and eat when they came home each evening. It seems incredible now.
Yes, there was a lot of irony about architects on the programme. Now I come to think of it, I believe that another aunt and uncle were on the Luscome Estate in the mid-1980s. According to the programme, that was close to the Grove. By that time I was at university and on the one or two occasions I visited, I must have approached it from the main road. It didn't feel leafy. While comparatively low rise, it was far from the way presented. Problems with anti-social behaviour and drugs were rife. My aunt nearly had a breakdown and they moved heaven and earth to get out. But the designs of the Aylesbury, the Heygate and the Ferrier Estates were like little else. Le Corbusier-style, streamlined liners for the remote; a muggers' paradise for everyone else.
I guess we could call those who actually owned more modest houses in the area lower middle class. That is how we became but was not as we were then. In my more irritable moments, I count up the money that has been stolen from me by policy makers. Leaving work on an average salary ten years earlier than expected, that is getting on for £300,000. Pension losses if I live to say 75. That could be another £50,000. The change of legislation to reduce redundancy payments just ahead of the cuts - another £100,000. Money lost through permitted misleading selling of a mortgage endowment - say £50,000. My Nan had four children but only two grandchildren. Had she actually owned her house, what would she have been pushed out of? Now about £800,000?
I'm grateful that she was my Nan - she was worth far more than any money - but in the event that she had been the owner and the house had been kept in the family, policy makers would have effectively thieved from me another £400,000. That's nearly one million pounds in total and all before the age of 50. How efficient they can be when they want to be. God knows what comes next. The main point here isn't me. My position isn't too bad or so I tell myself. At least in the short term. However, losing significant sums of relatively newly acquired property value must have happened to thousands upon thousands of ordinary families. It is one of the stories the media never tell and arguably many people just don't realise. I find it hard not to see there as having been a concerted effort to turn as many people as possible back towards poverty and to contain them as if they were caged animals.
Yes, there was a lot of irony about architects on the programme. Now I come to think of it, I believe that another aunt and uncle were on the Luscome Estate in the mid-1980s. According to the programme, that was close to the Grove. By that time I was at university and on the one or two occasions I visited, I must have approached it from the main road. It didn't feel leafy. While comparatively low rise, it was far from the way presented. Problems with anti-social behaviour and drugs were rife. My aunt nearly had a breakdown and they moved heaven and earth to get out. But the designs of the Aylesbury, the Heygate and the Ferrier Estates were like little else. Le Corbusier-style, streamlined liners for the remote; a muggers' paradise for everyone else.
I guess we could call those who actually owned more modest houses in the area lower middle class. That is how we became but was not as we were then. In my more irritable moments, I count up the money that has been stolen from me by policy makers. Leaving work on an average salary ten years earlier than expected, that is getting on for £300,000. Pension losses if I live to say 75. That could be another £50,000. The change of legislation to reduce redundancy payments just ahead of the cuts - another £100,000. Money lost through permitted misleading selling of a mortgage endowment - say £50,000. My Nan had four children but only two grandchildren. Had she actually owned her house, what would she have been pushed out of? Now about £800,000?
I'm grateful that she was my Nan - she was worth far more than any money - but in the event that she had been the owner and the house had been kept in the family, policy makers would have effectively thieved from me another £400,000. That's nearly one million pounds in total and all before the age of 50. How efficient they can be when they want to be. God knows what comes next. The main point here isn't me. My position isn't too bad or so I tell myself. At least in the short term. However, losing significant sums of relatively newly acquired property value must have happened to thousands upon thousands of ordinary families. It is one of the stories the media never tell and arguably many people just don't realise. I find it hard not to see there as having been a concerted effort to turn as many people as possible back towards poverty and to contain them as if they were caged animals.
) made in the early 1980s, and shown from time to time on ITV4 evenings.
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