Campaigning for John Griffiths in Tower Hamlets Mayor election

This morning I was off helping John Griffiths, Liberal Democrat candidate in the Tower Hamlets Mayor election.

I was campaigning near where I used to live off the Roman Road and, as when I was in Hackney recently for a by-election there, one of the council blocks used to be considered an architectural cut above the rest.

In Hackney’s case, as I wrote,

When originally built, the estate’s curving Art Deco style brickwork made it an attractive and distinctive piece of architecture, full of optimism about how good the future could be (though the construction was not without its controversies). The Daily Star in 1949 called it an “estate of the future”. That optimism of the past has turned into the failure of the present, with residents badly treated by Hackney Council as they are kept largely in the dark over changing plans to demolish or not different blocks.

Reynolds House in Tower Hamlets was built slightly later (in 1951) but still part of the same post-war generation of optimistic municipal building work. Like many other blocks built around the same time it was named after a radical or left-wing politician. George W M Reynolds was a nineteenth century author and journalist, one of the key members of the then urban mystery genre and a leading Chartist.

Unlike the Hackney example, this block is not stuck in the same demolish, repair or ignore limbo and is overall in a much better state. However, it too has faded along way from when it was praised for the quality and detail of the work.

Some architecture has faded from its previous glories because, due to flaws, changing tastes or shifting needs, the buildings no longer suit or appeal. What both of these cases illustrate, however, is that far too often properties which started out providing some of the very best council housing – and could still do so if they had been looked after properly – have declined.

That’s not purely a question of what the state did or didn’t do – the variation between neighbouring flats and the pride, or not, that different people have in their home is marked – but it is a collective failure.

For the immediate future, if you can help John Griffiths’s campaign for Mayor of Tower Hamlets in any way do get in touch with him. The election is being held on 21 October.