Location: London
Lifespan: 1973-
The 12 blocks that make up the Broadwater Farm estate took six years to complete and are named after Battle of Britain airfields. They sit on top of the River Moselle and occupy a former allotment site. One of the external walls of Debden block is the canvas for a huge waterfall mural, completed in 1991 in the midst of efforts to transform the estate after it was gripped by unrest in 1985. The regeneration of Broadwater Farm since the mid-80s stemmed what had become an outward tide of residents. Tenants, who had been actively organised on the estate since the early 1980s, were central to this regeneration, carving out a space for grassroots influence over the management and design of housing that would be mirrored in later years on a number of other estates.
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