The Twentieth Century Society

Campaigning for outstanding buildings

love these Kidbrooke estate photos

Photographer Anna Bachelor has pasted up large scale photographs of the few residents still remaining,  on the walls of the access balconies of Kidbrooke estate in south-eat London. She says her exhibition is about “what it’s like to be the last few people in a place that was once home and full of life”, so it’s not exactly fair to claim this as a celebration of the architecture of post war housing estates, but the images do seem to show light suffused and nicely furnished rooms, and have a very positive mood. Demolition is already underway at Kidbrooke, and we have certainly not fought for its retention (it’s a 1968-72 system built estate by Greenwich Borough Council), but the exhibition is another reminder that these estates were not all bad, and that many people who lived there really enjoyed them, at least until poor management and maintenance set in. Wholesale demolition cannot be the best answer.

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