Homes now demolished

Derelict London - Photography, Social History and Guided Walking Tours

The House Where Judy Garland Died - Belgravia, SW1

Judy Garland, whose successes on stage and screen (including 35 films) were later overshadowed by her personal life, was found dead in her home here in 1969. Her 5th husband whom she married 3 months previously found her dead on the toilet after an accidental overdose of pills.

“I tried my damnedest to believe in that rainbow that I tried to get over and I couldn’t,” she once said. “I just couldn’t.”

The modest little house at 4 Cadogan Lane lay empty in recent years and was demolished in Spring 2016 presumably to be replaced by some swanky newbuild in this very expensive locality (even by London standards).

A fan's penned tribute on some boarding over the old garage doors has been preserved by the builders and stuck onto the security fencing around the small site.

Derelict London Homes from the early days of this website that are long gone

This website started in 2003 and inevitably there has been much change across London's landscape so I am archiving the buildings are long gone into this section. I also have the Dereliction and Beyond page where buildings have been renovated or something interesting has happened. With these lost buildings its now either new build flats or just vacant space.

ACTON - A40 WESTERN AVENUE

In the 1920's this was a tree lined boulevard on the outskirts of London, with farmers fields all around. The houses were large semi-detached villas with tudor features on the gables above the many bay windows. In those days, the roadway was one lane in either direction, and the pavements were wide, the front gardens pretty and traffic was not too busy.

Now the scene is sadder, the pavements are narrow, the roadway is at least 3 lanes in either direction withtraffic mostly ground to a halt and carbon monoxide fumes everywhere. Firstly the gardens were shortened by compulsory purchase as the road was widened. Then in the late 90's was a scheme to widen the road by so much that it would be neccessary to demolish the houses either side.

After compulsory purchase, the old houses are brutally smashed up by bailiffs, and made uninhabitable to stop squatters from taking them over. All internal fittings, toilets and sinks, are smashed to smithereens, and floorboards are ripped up, leaving sharp stakes pointing up and precarious gaping holes below. The irony is that despite failed attempts by residents and owners to hang on to their homes, and most of them being eventually demolished, the road scheme is eventually scrapped and much of the site is now left as vacant open land and the one or two buildings remaining are left to decay in their overgrown (once cared for) gardens.

There is a great book called "Leadville: A Biography of the A40" by Edward Platt. The Times said 'Platt has created a drama that is not only Orwellian in its attention to what you might call the state of the nation ...but almost Dickensian in the recording of the colour and pathos of its inhabitants'

LONDON FIELDS - BAYTON COURT

A sheltered housing scheme for elderly people which has recently been shut down and the residents decanted elsewhere.

An article about Bayton Court in hackneyindependant.org in 2011 said: "Hanover in Hackney – given the responsibility by Hackney Council to run its sheltered housing units - just can’t ignore the fact that prime building space on London Fields is worth a hell of a lot more than the OAPs they are supposed to be caring for. This time they hope that the council will agree with their plans to kick the elderly tenants out of their homes and build sixteen houses.

Last June’s public meeting organised by OPENDalston, and attended by residents and their families and members of Blackstone Estate TRA, shamed HiH into backing down from their transparently greedy plans to make large amounts of cash at the expense of their vulnerable residents. They should be forced to back down this time too; but don’t rely on local Labour Councillors - last year they sat on the fence. Could it be because Cllr Emma Plouviez is a member of HiH???"

Looks like HiH won this one.... Also, the security guards here don't seem to grasp the concept that jumping over a wall and taking photographs of the building is not a criminal offence ;-)

These pics were taken in 2013. As of late 2014 the scheme has been demolished and is a building site

PECKHAM - WOOD DENE ESTATE

Many of the more brutal concrete monstrosities constructed throughout London since the Second World War are now disappearing before the bulldozer. The 1960s Wood Dene Estate, which was designed in large, concrete, six-storey blocks with long walkways, is just one of those scheduled for destruction. Once demolition had been decided upon, whole floors of the flats were covered with metal shutters and tenants gradually moved elsewhere – a process that took five years.

As people left, Wood Dene became a magnet for drug dealers, vandalism and shootings. It acquired national notoriety in 2005 when Zainab Kalokoh was shot in the head at her niece’s christening party in the community centre on the estate. The council says it has plans to build more than 300 homes for sale and rent on the cleared site though its been a while now since demolition and the land remains vacant...

The pics below were taken in 2007. The site remained vacant following demolition until around 2017 when construction of a new development commenced.

KIDBROOKE - FERRIER ESTATE

Kidbrooke takes its name from the Kyd Brook, a watercourse which runs from Orpington to Lewisham, by which point it is part of the River Quaggy. It is a tributary to the River Ravensbourne.

The huge Ferrier Estate in has had a fairly unsavoury reputation ever since its construction on a disused military site by the Greater London Council in 1972. Built out of forbidding pre-fabricated blocks, it became notorious for crime, neglect and vandalism.

Over the last few years households have been moved out as the council prepares to demolish the estate to make way for a new housing development planned for 2018. Some homeowners, however, have refused to leave as they feel the money that they are being offered to move is insufficient to buy a property on the open market.

Blocks became derelict, with dark metal steel sheets covering landing windows and stairwells. Outward-facing windows have been ripped out to make them uninhabitable. While I was there, one remaining resident told me that the estate is infested with ants and rats.

In 1999, Prince Michael of Kent and the British Security Industry Association started a property-marking initiative at the Ferrier Estate, due to its notoriety as a 'burglary blackspot'. In 2001, a large terror cell and terrorist training facility was found on the Ferrier Estate. Gary Oldman's Nil By Mouth 1997 film starring Ray Winstone & Kathy Burke was filmed on the Ferrier as was 2009's The Firm directed by Nick Love who actually grew up around the estate himself.

The Kidbrooke Regeneration is a £1billion scheme to demolish the Ferrier Estate, and replace it with 4,398 new homes plus commercial and retail space.

The pics below were taken in 2007. As of late 2014 all the old flats have been demolished and the regeneration of new builds is well underway

d scoffer writes to the local New Shopper paper:
...oh yes, da ferrier... we installed a lot of c.c.t.v. in cambert way when da gangz started moving in there - and we used to meet-up with some of the regulars after work in the old tigers head boozer - dunno if that's still there - but what a shame that perfectly good housing blocks have to levelled coz da hoods moved in and ripped the heart out of the decent majority of residents making in a no-go-area eh ? seem to remember they did the same to the north peckham estate dahn sarf london innit - and also da heygate estate eh ?? at da old elephant 'n' castle - they blamed 'da walkways' that criminals used to escape after mugging decent people on there... whereas, the truth is - the minority wreck it for the majority - then the think tanks at downing street tell us it needs 'regeneration' instead of grasping the nettle and launch an iron-fist war against the muggers and criminal filth using these estates as their own criminal yard to operate as they please... perhaps 'nice-but-dim' 'dave' should take up the challenge of moving into a typical sarf london estate for a week to see what the real 'problems' are instead of asking his think-tank university silver-spoon chums to come up with 'fresh' ideas how working-class families blighted by minority gangz and criminals on these estates should tackle the problems, instead of knocking estates dahn - or, seeing as he hasn't been able to tackle the 'illegal immigrant/asylum' issue... move out all the residents out and turn these estates into secure 'asylum detention blocks' instead of keep releasing illegal immigrants back onto the streets only for them to vanish into thin air!! all those agree... raise yer hands ? good!!, motion carried!! - now do it 'nice-but-dim' 'dave' or get out of office!! rofl!! ...see how long this lasts eh ???

CHARLTON - BRAMHOPE LANE FLATS

Kate Williams writes to Derelict London: "Thank you for inadvertently acknowledging 20 years of my past - seeing that picture is a great reminder of how far I've come in life. I was a 4yr old living with my parents and younger sister in a cramped 1st floor, 3-bedroom flat in Matthews House, Bramhope Lane, Charlton. 20 years all in all. In the early 1990s, there was talk of demolition/modernisation and a long consultation stage ensued between residents and the Council. The options were to either modernise the properties (because the internal walls were of concrete construction, they needed new roofs, cast iron guttering etc), or to demolish them and build new, more energy efficient, cost-effective housing in their place.

To cut a long story short, the latter was chosen, and Greenwich Council signed over the properties a housing association: Charlton Triangle. That association then assisted in the decanting of us residents. Mum and I were the only ones who remained in Matthews House.

As residents moved out when properties became available, the likes of Matthews House and other neighbouring blocks became a mecca for all that is horrid, and the police were constantly called out to our lane to shoo off the undesirables who'd hang out in gangs in the stairways (the communal halls/entrance ways were never secure with entry phones etc - just open) and it was something that we just had to put up with. We lived in fear constantly. Salvage came in the winter of 2002, when the housing association gave Mum and I the opportunity to move to a place in New Eltham. Mum chose not to move back to Charlton.

The image of Matthews House, especially, haunts me. And though it no longer exists, the picture of it on your website serves as a stark reminder of what my life and my family's life used to be like. That "Council Estate Girl" is still inside my head somewhere, in the memory banks of a bygone era. It was cathartic to show my husband where I lived, just before Matthews House etc got ripped down. It was like that acknowledgement needed to be made in order to justify my existence. 20 years of one's life just bulldozed down in the space of ... however long.

I do hope that we can give our children-to-be a better start in life than I had, but I am grateful for the experiences life taught me, including my time spent in Charlton."

The pics of Bramhope Lane Flats below were taken in 2004/5. As of late 2014 all the old flats are long gone and replaced by new build flats.

ROTHERHITHE SE16 - SILWOOD ESTATE

The Silwood used to cover a very large area off the Rotherhithe New Road. The estate was originally built in the early 1960s on a site of bomb-damaged terraced housing. A demolition scheme took several years. Pictured here in 2012 its the turn of Gillam House in Silwood Street to be demolished. Named after Samuel Gillam (JP) who, in April 1764, sentenced the murderer William Corbett to death. The block had been empty since 2006 after the residents were decanted and any squatters were evicted earlier in 2012.

An £80m scheme involved demolition of existing stock plus construction of new build housing, whilst supporting educational, social, economic and environmental improvements. Large scale decanting and demolition of over 500 properties including four 11-storey tower blocks has added to the complexity.

"The overall design, conditions and location of the Silwood Estate were poor. It was 'sandwiched' between two railway lines and 'bad neighbour' development along railway arches. The original buildings on the Silwood Estate were predominantly precast concrete in nature and the majority of properties suffered from a number of problems that are generally inherent in this type of construction, including lack of security (both internally and externally), noise transmission between the dwellings, poor insulation levels, dampness and condensation. Windows were generally single glazed timber and difficult to maintain. There was poor estate lighting, lack of ownership of open areas and lack of identity within the larger blocks. This was demonstrated by the fact that in an independent survey carried out by PPCR Associates in March 1999 on the Silwood Estate, the majority of the residents stated that they would like to see the Silwood Estate totally demolished and rebuilt. Official statistics at the time of the SRB bid show that unemployment in the Scheme area was 23%, with 21% of Silwood Estate residents being unemployed and 70% in receipt of some form of benefit. A Silwood Estate survey at the time showed that 49% of Silwood Estate residents felt that security and personal safety were the top priority and 33% of residents wanted to move because of the unsuitability for children, anti-social residents and crime." From UK HOUSING WIKI

Further down the street the wasteground was used for filming scenes of the film "The Football Factory"

The pics of below were taken in 2011. Its now full of new builds.