About the project

The 14th Floor project has been conceived to celebrate the history of social housing in Tower Hamlets, a borough which hosts some of the oldest and most architecturally and historically significant council housing in the capital. The borough is also home to a groundbreaking collaboration between arts charity Bow Arts Trust and the housing association Poplar HARCA which enables use of vacant flats awaiting renovation for local artists as live/work and exhibition space. The summer-long project is a partnership between Bow Arts Trust and Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives, and is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Volunteers will be recruited by the Project Co-ordinator, a visual artist, from among the residents of the borough. Together they will research, investigate and discuss the historical development of the estates and buildings, and consider their impact on residents' lives using the archive collections at Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives. Participants will interview each other about their experience of the borough's housing estates and developments, and undertake research to trace their history. Images and testimony generated from the volunteers' research and interviews will be pulled together in a publication to be disseminated during the GLA's Story of London festival in October this year.

Participants will then work with the artist, using their learnings to create new artwork to be installed and exhibited in situ on one of the estates during the Story of London festival. Depending on the artist to be recruited and the volunteers' interests, this could take a variety of forms, perhaps a performance, film, painting or photography. Walking tours of selected estates will also be held for the public during the festival, developed and led by the partnership and volunteers. Finally, a launch event is planned to involve a debate on social housing with authors, architects, residents and council members/officers.

For more information, contact towerhamletssocialhousing@gmail.com and check out the historical background info provided.

We are currently recruiting the Project Co-ordinator - see below!

VACANCY: Project Co-ordinator

We are currently recruiting for a Project Co-ordinator!

Short term contract: 12 weeks (August 2010 – mid October 2010)

Fixed fee: £2800 (estimate 28 days FTE)

Overview

A visual artist with an interest in the history of Tower Hamlets and skills in community engagement is sought to co-ordinate and deliver a 12 week project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of the Story of London 2010. The project is a partnership between Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives and Bow Arts Trust and aims to inspire local volunteers to create a collaborative artwork for the Story of London festival in response to a summer-long programme of research, visits and discussions about the history of social housing in the East End.

Purpose of the role

The post holder will recruit and manage a team of approx. 15 residents of Tower Hamlets and will be supported by a project board comprising members of the Local History Library & Archive and Bow Arts Trust staff.

You will lead the volunteers in researching, investigating and discussing the development of the estates and buildings, in particular those with historical and architectural significance, and consider their impact on residents' lives. You will facilitate visits, meetings and oral history interviews for the volunteers and provide a forum for structured discussion and debate about their lives on these estates, and with them undertake research using the council's extensive and rich archive collections to trace the history of social housing developments in the borough. You will then pull together, with the volunteers, images and testimony generated from their research and interviews, and produce a publication to be disseminated to the public during the Story of London Festival which runs from 1-10 October 2010.

You will finally lead the volunteers in a creative collaboration in response to the heritage, using their learnings to develop a new artwork to be installed and exhibited in situ on one of the estates during the Story of London festival. Depending on the artist’s specialism and the volunteers' interests, this could take a variety of forms (eg a performance, film, painting or photography).

You will also facilitate the volunteers in developing walking tours of the featured estates to take place during the festival, and programming a launch event.

Throughout the project term you will be responsible for keeping accurate records about the project, including receipts for expenditure and volunteers’ expenses.

Duties

• Recruiting and managing 15 volunteers from housing estates in Tower Hamlets
• Taking responsibility for the successful delivery of three project outputs: production of a publication, a collaborative artwork and walking tours
• Arranging reminiscence / oral history sessions with the volunteers and other residents, recording them to an acceptable audio quality standard and providing copies to the Archives
• Contributing to programming and delivery of launch event
• Convening weekly volunteers’ meetings, visits and discussions
• Keeping records of expenditure, including volunteers’ expenses
• Reporting to the project board at meetings every 2-3 weeks
• Evaluating the project’s success and producing final report
  

Please note, project activity is concentrated across the 12 week term and the postholder will be required to be available to work on the project consistently between the beginning of August and mid-October.

Person specification

• A fine art graduate, or equivalent experience
• Experience of community engagement
• Experience of managing volunteers
• Experience of collaborative working
• Experience of producing publications and events
• Strong interest in the history of the East End
• Excellent record-keeping
• Upholds principles of equal opportunities at all times

Fee and payment

A fixed fee of £2800 exclusive of VAT is available. Payment will be made in four instalments.

Recruitment and selection

Please submit a CV and covering letter via email to Anna Sexton (asexton@bowarts.com) by 12 noon Friday 30th July 2010. You must be available for interview on Tuesday 3rd August. The post is subject to CRB and ISA vetting.

The covering letter should outline your interest in, experience and suitability for the post, and your proposed methodology for recruiting the volunteers and producing the project outputs in no more than two pages. Please include two references stating if we can contact them pre- or post-interview. For further information please read the posts below.

The history of social housing in Tower Hamlets

Nineteenth-century philanthropists

The first attempts to react to the crisis of overcrowding and insanitary housing in the mid-nineteenth century were by philanthropists who set up housing organisations. The Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Poor opened a lodging house for 300 men in Spicer Street in 1850. The philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts had Columbia Square built in Bethnal Green. In 1864 the Peabody Trust opened flats in Commercial Street. Many blocks in what is now Tower Hamlets were built by the East End Dwellings Company. The Four Per-Cent Industrial Dwellings Company was founded by Sir Nathaniel Rothschild in 1885 to provide homes for Jewish refugees fleeing from persecution in eastern Europe.

Peabody Square, Shadwell, 1867. Copyright Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives

The beginnings of local authority housing

Under the Artisans’ and Labourers’ Dwellings Act of 1875, the Metropolitan Board of Works was empowered to clear houses from areas unfit for human habitation and replace them with improved dwellings. Many schemes under this act were carried out locally including several in Whitechapel as well as in Cable Street and Tench Street in Wapping. The Metropolitan Board of Works was succeeded by the London County Council. The first major project of slum clearance and rebuilding undertaken by the LCC was in an infamous area of Bethnal Green known as “the Nichol”. The LCC built the Boundary Estate on the 15 acre site: 23 blocks containing a total of 1,069 flats. The estate is now a conservation area.

Plan of the Boundary Estate, Bethnal Green, c 1900

The three borough councils of Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney also started to provide housing schemes in the early twentieth century. One of the most innovative was Poplar Council’s Chapel House Estate on the Isle of Dogs, a cottage estate in the “Garden City” spirit. Poplar was also responsible for strikingly modern flats such as Providence House in Limehouse Hole, with its almost unbroken series of concrete balconies wrapping around the building. Stepney Borough Council’s schemes included the prestigious Riverside Mansions in Wapping and the ultra-modern John Scurr House in Ratcliff. Bethnal Green’s first scheme was the Bethnal Green Estate of 1922-24, four neo-Georgian blocks around a central courtyard.

Providence House, Poplar, 1935. Copyright Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives

For more historic images of social housing in Tower Hamlets visit the Digital Gallery at the Idea Store website: http://www.ideastore.co.uk/en/articles/information_digital_gallery

The post-war period

The terrible bombing of the Second World War had the effect of rendering many areas uninhabitable that otherwise might not have been dealt with for decades. The Comprehensive Development Areas in Stepney, Poplar and Bethnal Green brought many new homes into existence, mostly flats. Some such as the Cranbrook Estate in Bethnal Green and Lansbury Estate in Poplar have been widely acclaimed.

The Cranbrook Estate, Bethnal Green, c 1969. Copyright Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives

In the 1960s, high-rise flats became a conspicuous feature of the skyline of East London. Certain of these such as the Balfron Tower in Poplar and Keeling House in Bethnal Green are now listed buildings while others have already been demolished as social failures. Recent attempts to have Robin Hood Gardens in Poplar statutorily listed having failed, it seems likely that this architecturally-admired estate will join them.

Balfron Tower, c 1969 (from East London Papers vol 12)

For more historic images of social housing in Tower Hamlets visit the Digital Gallery at the Idea Store website: http://www.ideastore.co.uk/en/articles/information_digital_gallery

The future of social housing?

Towards the end of the twentieth century, private developers entered the market to develop social housing in Tower Hamlets. Now common in the borough are mixed-use newbuild developments in which an agreed proportion of residences are sold to private owners as well as allocated for social renting, shared ownership and/or for ‘affordable housing’ for key workers. Some of these are architecturally significant and in future seem likely to be considered part of the borough’s built heritage.

The award-winning Donnybrook Quarter, Bow, shortlisted for the RIBA Building of the Year. A mixed use scheme consisting of living units as well as community, work and retail spaces, completed in 2006.

The Donnybrook Quarter, Bow. Photo: Peter Barber Architects