A Bad Sunday… sometimes I despair

Leigh Park, near Havant, in Hampshire  has a terrible reputation. The website chavtowns.co.uk starts off

Once the largest council estate in Europe, Leigh Park has a long tradition of chavness and could well be the origin of all Chavs upon this Earth. (were there any evidence that anyone’s moved out since 1959)

I don’t like the term “Chav” and the website goes on and becomes much nastier.

Leigh Park is the result of re housing families from the WW11 bombing of Portsmouth. 27,500 people live there and the reputation would have you believe that all 27,000 are out setting fire to vagrants on benches as happened a few years ago.

My 14 year old was playing a match against a local Leigh Park team and during his pre match training / warm up  I went on a run to explore Leigh Park. Yes the shopping parades are tad bleak in parts, and there is far too much litter, but there has clearly been significant investment in community facilities and there is no excuse for kids to be bored, with  great  facilities, play areas and wonderful wooded areas with streams to play in and den building opportunities a plenty. Yet the youth of Leigh Park have a terrible reputation amongst those that don’t live there.

Leigh Park

Anyhow I came back from my run, thinking that Leigh Park’s reputation as a “hell hole” was not deserved at all. Yes the 50s, 60s and 70s flats and  houses are mostly unattractive (with lots of grim pebbledash), but it certainly wasn’t threatening nor did it feel like it needed raising to the ground as so many people from outside the area often comment it should be!

However the football match clouded my view. In 19 years of watching my kids play football I have never seen anything like it. If some of the local kids’ foul language on the pitch wasn’t enough then the latent violence exuded from the parents and the blatant cheating from the local referee and linesman ( who cheered and clenched their fists when their team scored!) was very sad indeed. At times it felt like watching another species. All human decency and morals seemed to have been replaced by aggression, nastiness and a revelling in getting one over “the opposition” at all costs. It seemed sub human behaviour and left me numb and sad and wondering if there was any hope. What had made these these people become so disenfranchised? Whether it’s the equality gap, or just a breakdown in human values, as a society we had better sort it out!

I am not going to elaborate other than to say that I left thinking it may not matter how much money is invested by a council and support agencies in a deprived area, if the parents lead by bad example, the kids are likely to grow into equally nasty people.

Sad sad Sunday indeed.

Wayne mouths off about how big corporate can lead us to a more sustainable future

For three decades now I have been know as part of a design team that has been known as questioning, independent, and over the past decade or so, champions of social and sustainable thinking.

Over the last few years we have begun to work with large corporate organisations, not to feed turnover, but because it has become increasingly clear that because of the scale and investment available, bold initiatives can be undertaken.

The likes of Greenpeace and WWF (and the legions of small activists) have done wonderful jobs in hounding and naming and shaming corporations who have failed to take the environment, sustainability and ethical trading seriously. Their tireless campaigning has made a significant section of the public aware and helped to build a business environment where it makes business sense to “care”.

Whatever the tipping point has been, my overwhelming experience is of corporate who now hold sustainability, the environment and ethical thinking at their core. They have set up corporate responsibility departments and whole segments of the business who are dedicated to this thinking. They have employed directors who are zealous and “dedicated to the cause”, directors who have significant budgets at their disposal. They now have the economies of scale to really start to make a difference.

Benidorm took me by surprise.

Benidorm Postcard

I have just returned from a conference in Benidorm and am still in a state of shock. I was last in Benidorm in 1977 as a post O level, first foray aboard with my school mates. Even back then it had a reputation for English Pubs selling full English Breakfast and English beer (which as 16 year olds on our first holiday without parents we gorged on!).

I have great respect for Mary Portas, but…

I have great respect for Mary Portas, she has a good eye for retail, understands fashion and style. But maybe she doesn’t have a grasp on successful town planning, and liveability. To give up on the notion of successful, vibrant Town Centres and High Streets is to give up on the sociability of mankind. 2008 was the year that a significant tipping point was reached whereby more people lived in towns and cities than in rural locations. For the overwhelming majority this is a lifestyle choice. One of the reasons that mankind has moved out of caves and developed a sophisticated society is because, on the whole, we get on with each other. Towns and cities give us easy access to being able to “get on”, access to employment, culture, services, shopping and in well planned places, well maintained and useable green space.

Good on ya Kraft for taking Cadbury home

There are a number of historical social housing estates, built philanthropically that I have had the pleasure to visit, Lever’s (as in soap) Port Sunlight, Joseph Rowntree’s (as in sweets) New Earswick Estate in York and Bournville (as in chocolate) in Birmingham.

All are wonderfully liveable estates that have stood the test of time, been well maintained and are without doubt desirable.

They show how it is possible to do “social housing” and to avoid the pitfalls that result in vast sums being spent on regeneration. Housing providers and planners need to regularly visit these precedents to remind themselves to stop delivering the dross that has become commonplace over the past few decades.

It was heartening to hear that Kraft (the new American owners of Cadbury) have understood Cadbury’s heritage an decided to make its “global chocolate centre” at its historical home, Bournville.

Great decision and I am sure that the Cadbury employees are going to enjoy working in this environment that the founders of the brand left as a wonderful housing legacy…

For more information on Bournville click here
And here are some pics…

I went to Southport for the first time in almost 30 years ……

As a kid and then when Gerardine and I were courting, I loved going to Southport for its beach that never seemed to end (its often a mile and half walk out to the sea), for its pier that never seems to end (it’s the second longest pier in the UK), for those views across  to Blackpool Tower and for its shopping street, Lord Street, that again just seems to go on forever.

Like many British seaside resorts, Southport’s fortunes waned during the 80s and 90s. However a few years ago when I started to see pictures of the modern pavilion that had been built on the pier I felt this was the sign of a forward thinking council that understood the role that great design could play in regeneration. So Gerra and I took a detour and went to visit Southport. The new pier pavilion does in fact look cool

In our Land of Lost Content collection of 20^th century British memorabilia we have some great images showing Southport in its heyday .

This pic below shows the old pier pavilion

And this one shows the prom in the 30s

So imagine our horror when at the other end of the pier this carbuncle had been built on the prom …the last buildings before the lovely beach

I have nothing against a cinema, restaurant chains and a bowling alley being on the prom, BUT  having them housed in god-awful industrial boxes, surrounded by crap landscaping and totally turning their back on the prom (the entrances face inland with blank walls facing the sea… it creates an ugly, uninteresting face to the sea)  is just downright stupid and goes against common sense never mind good planning practice.

What were the planners thinking ?

They have just consigned Southport’s sea front to needing substantial regen money needing to be spent on it in the not too distant future and for what it’s worth, this family won’t be going back in a hurry !

I am sick of writing moans about bad planning… so I am going to end this on  a good note… enjoy this movie I took on our way back to the car… it cheered me up anyway!

Will House Prices & Mortgage Difficulties for First Time Buyers change London’s “pull”?

In 1982 after an “experiment” of living in London, Mrs H and myself came across an old, unmodernized 3 bed Victorian terraced house in Wembley for sale at £22,500. We were close to the 10 per cent deposit needed to get a mortgage and with some help from our parents and grandparents we cobbled together enough and then sold some of the furniture that was being left to pay the conveyance fees.

Like many young couples owning a property was something that we felt was a must. We saw home ownership as a way to “stop wasting money” on renting, as a cheaper alternative to renting, and as a way to enjoy a bit creative home improvement.

I didn’t predict a riot, but…

Any right minded person is saddened by the events of the last week. The mindless violence and wanton destruction is totally abhorrent and inexcusable. The immediate response from the government to promptly bring the perpetrators to justice is welcome but it’s the long term that we should all start to think about and act on quickly.

We should celebrate Britain’s role in clubbing.

See full article in The Independent here

Club culture in the UK is now a multi-million-pound industry, with the likes of once-underground club Ministry of Sound appearing all over our tellies selling the distinctly non underground Running Trax CDs to the fitness community, while DJs and dance producers who have grown out of a clubbing background contribute to the UK’s balance of payments by performing and producing internationally.

As we enter the final decade of the first 100 years of British club culture, I thought we should celebrate the contribution that this culture has made to our lives, at the Vintage at Southbank Centre festival at the end of this month, and attempt to assemble the most complete collection of seminal DJs ever.

Habitat

At Vintage we really hope that Habitat as a brand gets through its current sad woes. They deserve the support of the creative community for flying the flag of design since 1964. The new owners only seem to be keeping 3 London shops open and then taking the brand online….

I for one hope that Habitat rises like a phoenix from the ashes. Here’s a taster of classic Habitat…

Habitat Scoop chair & plastic coffee tables

1974 Stun seating Habitat

1974 Habitat pendant lamps

1973 Habitat flop chair sofaHabitat Stop in Sofa and Sturs chair 1974