Rant: An Imperfect City, Part 1

Fix up London. You’ve been a shabby shabbler for too long now. We all found it endearing throughout the 90s and at the turn of the millennium but it’s time to shape up or ship out. The Britpop boom (which wasn’t really that long ago) celebrated that distinct ‘wonkiness’ that made Britain unique but it also gave the country the perfect excuse to sullenly defend it’s many and varied failings. Failings? Yes, London, you may be have a population busting at the seams but they’re all saying it [monocle.com]… you’re a bit shit these days. If anything, the pre-Olypmic grab for gold is only highlighting the intelligence meltdown which is inhabiting this once great capital. This once brilliant and brainy city is experiencing a cultural deficit disorder that is going to run and run. So how to improve a big, stroppy, spoilt child of a city that prefers to react rather than plan. There’s a gabillion and one ideas out there at the moment, here’s our two pence worth…

As Lawrence of Demin once sang, ‘Council Houses, Inner City, Urban Squaller, ooo I won’t pay the rent on this concrete slum, imprisonment’… actually I only included that bit of lyrical majesty cause the track is called ‘Council Houses’ (and cause Demin [wikipedia] are ace). Council Housing needs to work harder. It seems blindingly obvious that it you improve inhabitants environments then you move them closer to he point of optimum happiness. When people are happy they don’t need to rob, maim or kill each other. When people have a space where they feel safe and comfortable they can focus on other issues and make a larger contribution to the community. It’s common logic. The other issue is while us non-council tentants squabble over the tiniest, mankiest, dodgily managed (can we somehow force all buy-to-let property owners take some sort of course in property management and how to be a decent landlord… please!) crappy, baggy, over-inflated, sub-standard, badly decorated properties… many council tenants perch aloft spacious, ‘mid-century modernist’, potentially iconic buildings without the slightest appreciation of the amount of space afforded to this select group of inhabitants, squinting at the world through their ridiculous net curtains and tudor style lead-lighting. Sure the many incompetent city councils seem to do their best to make these places feel uninhabitable but great things can happen with a bit of respect and imagination. Already there is a bright ring of community housing projects drawing more and more attention from æstheticians and sensible types simply looking for cheaper, better housing. Estates such as The Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury [nothingtoseehere.net], Rowley Way in St. John’s Wood [greatbuildings.com] and, the place Boicozine currently calls home, the Golden Lane Estate [goldenlane.co.uk] in the City of London are all example of mid-century ideals of community living that have endured and even prospered. It’s time council and decision-makers changed their half-century old attitudes to the ’spectre’ of council housing. They are an integral, interwoven part of the city’s fabric whether we like it or not and just waiting to be enhanced for use by the community at large.

Further Reading / Viewing:
[flickr.com/groups/londonsocialhousing]
[bbc.co.uk/cheaphomesfor sale]
[emptyhomes.com]
[philobiblon.co.uk/TheRealHistoryofCouncilEstates]
[bdonline.co.uk/RobinHoodGradens]
[c20society.org.uk]

The thing about seriously criticising London’s many flaws, something becoming more and more popular in the run up to the inevitable Olympics debacle, it that it’s such a juicy topic to attempt to tackle. In coming posts I’ll be bashing on about subjects such as London’s architecturphobia, the weird sense of ‘disconnect’ (if you can think of a more perfect buzzword for our modern times let me know) that has pervaded the city since Tony Blair made rather his dubious mark on modern Britain and more domestic issues such as how shitty cinemas has become in London and what a waste of space the Houses of Parliament are (think ‘barricaded play pen for poshos’). If you’ve got a topic on the state of London town or if you’d like to defend the city for what it is leave a comment or post something yourself and let us know.

Even Further Reading:
[monocle.com/Failing State 01—United Kingdom]
[cityofsound.com/london_hasnt_ch]
[channel4.com/london_sucks]