To ask about life on London council estates?

[zatarontoast]

I've been watching Council House Britain, featuring council estates in Southwark. They appear to be the complete antithesis of estates in my city, which are run down, full of antisocial behaviour and not particularly pleasant on the eye. On the programme everyone seems to be so happy, takes a look of pride in their home and the outside balconies always have lovely window boxes. They just look really clean and generally nice places to be. Is this just editing or is this a true representation?

The estate I live on is just like the one you describe, others in my borough are definitely not and the majority of them, unlike where I live, are high-rise. I don’t know whether this is a factor or not.

I have a feeling the programme-makers may have done a bit of cherry-picking.

We live on a London 'council estate', a mix of local authority tenants and privately owned. It's great and a lovely community. Literally haven't witnessed any antisocial behaviour in 5 years. It isn't high rise though and everyone has a garden. The council do keep it really clean.

Council estates in London vary a lot more. Some of my friends rented private flats/houses on council estates in London and they were exactly how you described, there as others you are warned not to walk through.

I live on the edge of a Council estate in central London, though a lot of it is privately owned now. It is really well maintained, and people have grown lovely gardens etc. There are however some shady corners where drug dealers occasionally congregate. I feel very safe living here. There are other estates not far away which seem less nice though

The one my dad grew up on is rife with gang violence now. My friend's childhood estate (different part of London) is the same. Lots of postcode lottery (i.e. someone comes from a rival estate) stabbings, and sometimes shootings.

Completely depends on what borough. Parts of Tottenham would be the same as your experience. All you have to do is google Broadwater Farm. But then some of the council estates in Chingford are lovely. It really depends on the area.

Thanks for all of the replies, I'm happy that for the most part they do actually seem nice.

I grew up in south east London council estates and loved it ! We had a nice looking home and yes there was some trouble and a lot of gang crime 12 years ago ( more than there was now despite people thinking times are worse ) but overall we didn’t live in a dump. I always had nicely decorated room etc and loved that for the most part it was w community.

I should add my estate was defo one you are warned not to walk through 😂

I grew up on estates like that, people took pride in their homes and there was a real community spirit. Most of my memories come from the children I grew up with on the estates. There are some bad families that ruin it for others and give the stereotype of London estates, but you can get there anywhere. Crime can be high in some parts, but for the ‘outsiders’ it looks and sounds worse than it is to live there in most cases.

I grew up on a Southwark council estate, it was ok, but now I’m living out of London I realise how little community there was, I lived in a big block and knew one neighbour, there was none of that “we look out for each other” attitude, there was lots of drug use, petty crime, and the odd murder but it looked nice they did maintain the estate well. I wouldn’t say everyone was happy, I’d say everyone kept themselves to themselves. I’m having to adjust to community spirit and people being nice for no reason and wanting to help for no reason here, it’s strange haha.

Must be a mixture. I worked in loads of London schools and generally found the inner city deprived ones v rough. There’s one school I worked at in middle of a large estate in zone 5 and the kids were by and large polite and well-behaved. I always thought local schools are a good reflection of the local population.

I live in an ex-council flat in high rise block (so what the UK regards as the worst type of housing) in Central London. I moved in over 15 years ago expecting for what I thought would just be a couple of years. I'm still here as it's so easy to live here. The estate is really well looked after. It's is completely multi-cultural and socially mixed (professional, academics, people on benefits etc etc) and everyone rubs along together well. We have a TMO (Tenant's Management Organisation) which is run by the residents and gets money from the council to use as we wish. With that, we've installed bike sheds, put in a lovely new garden, upgraded a children's play area and put in allotment boxes. Any tenant can come along and make suggestions for what they want to do on the estate. We have a concierge (most in our area do), and a full-time manager on site. Any problems e.g. anti-social behaviour of any kind (which is rare), you just go to them and they sort it. If you have large items to get rid of, you just leave them downstairs and the council collect them every week. Oh, and I get my own, off-road parking space for about £20 a month inside the congestion zone and a storage unit for all my clutter for about the same price. I don't like the look of the outside of the building so the kerb appeal is zero, but apart from that it's such an easy place to live in, I can't see myself leaving.

My aunt bought hers in Covent Garden in the 90's and it's worth over a million now

Hotdrop1 your estate sounds lovely and well run. I live in a rural village.. mostly sheep and fields and sometimes I wish for more of what you have especially in the winter when snowed in!

My heart was warmed by the Irish couple who left suburban Dublin to retire in a high rise flat. Think I might do the same!

@Hotdrop1

Do you own/rent privately? How did you get the flat if you don’t mind me asking?

Southwark is probably a poster boy for better council/social housing, since they knocked down the notorious Heygate

Varies. I live in E London and most of the estates round here are nice (they are small too which helps). Worked in Tottenham and Camden (in estates) and some were grim due to being where anti social families ended up and being a hotspot for fly tipping etc. However, with a bit of money and effort from all involved they can be spruced up and become great places to live.

I live on an estate in Tottenham, I bought an ex council flat. The flat is great and has a little garden but the estate is a drag. Drug dealers, fly tipping, always shouting and aggression, fights, I've had the police hammering on my door in the middle of the night. One new year I left the house to find the whole estate taped off and blood all over the street. I've had to step over homeless people sleeping in my (supposedly securely locked) lobby which was awful - obviously I feel dreadful for these people but I don't want them breaking into my lobby. There is also a lot of antisocial behaviour, several neighbours compete daily with their ear shatteringly loud music. I have lain in my bed crying because I can't get any peace. And there are a few families in the centre of the estate that hold an all-welcome party almost every night outside their houses, playing loud music and shouting until past midnight, rain or shine. Oh and there is a corrupt parking attendant who everyone bribes so one neighbour keeps multiple wrecked cars in the residents parking and there is never any room for us. Our car has been broken into three times in the last couple of years.

We do have a few neighbours who are absolutely lovely but also a few scary ones with mental health issues. I apologise I don't want to offend, mental health issues is a very broad term and I don't want to stigmatise anyone. But sometimes when people behave erratically and aggressively along with mh issues it can be scary.

I dream of leafy subhurbs!

The London ones I know are like Shameless on steroids. So were the Coventry ones by my work back home. Paramedics had to have Police escort when visiting them.

I live on a purposed built low rise in zone 1 with a mix of social tenants and privately owned flats.
It’s fab! Our kids go to private school and only mix with a certain type of kid. There are three playgrounds on our estate and the kids all play with each other. We’re the only place I know where kids knock on doors and ask if their friends can come out to play!

We are meant to move as we need more space but we can’t bring ourselves to leave as it’s so lovely!

The only issue we had was with parking. But the council have done a good job of almost sorting it out (it’s taken over a year!)

I’ve never felt unsafe. I know all my neighbours (which is rare for London). I don’t know of one flat that isn’t loved and taken care of- someone is even trying to build a pond in their garden!

In my experience the zone 1 estates aren't as bad as those further out, or even zone 2.

I have to say the London ones where I am are all decent , which directly correlates with the behaviour , littering , crime rates etc

The labour decent homes initiative paid for itself

Editing. And not being given permission to film in shitholes.