Deptford tower blocks

'The Secret History of Our Streets' by Joseph Bullman, Neil Hegarty, and Brian Hill

"The intention was to sweep away most of the existing housing of this part of southeast London and replace it with the modernist dream of cities in the sky: large tower blocks equipped with lifts and the latest modern conveniences which, together with an efficient infrastructure, would lift old cities like London from the ruins of the war and into a bright future.

"One such 'city' was created in the heart of Deptford itself: the Pepys Estate - consisting of three monumental residential towers, flanked by a range of smaller units - was completed by 1966 on the site of the Navy's former Victualling Yard on the Thames.

"It became a truism that decent and respectable people could not possibly wish to live amid the decay of old Deptford: instead, they would naturally want to move into such modern towers - or alternatively relocate to outer suburbia....

"This was planning from the top down: planning that assumed the consent of the community - but made no attempt to seek it out. The political and administrative elite did not ask people what they wanted....

"By the early 1970s, it was becoming clear that the high-rises of Deptford were not offering the new modern lives that had been promised: fewer and fewer people were willing to live there.

"Nicholas Taylor [Lewisham Council] remembers 'a lot of my older council colleagues couldn't understand why people were so ungrateful. I remember one of them saying to me, "but they've got wonderful, lovely kitchens, lovely bathrooms - what are they complaining about? And why are these people so ungrateful when we've given them these wonderful places to live in?"

"Lacking a supply of Deptford people willing to live in the sky, housing staff were obliged to track further and further down the waiting lists to secure tenants. These new Deptford residents were among the poorest and most disadvantaged in society; they included large numbers of immigrants - and soon Deptford had become a distinctly multi-ethnic society.

"At the same time, it became evident that the new flats were intrinsically flawed: there were limits to the improvements that could be made to their fabric - and limits, therefore, to their desirability. They remained plagued by poverty and crime...."