Angell Town

In 1987 residents of the crime-ridden deck access estate, built with connecting bridges and unsurveilled pedestrian spaces, set up the Angell Town Community Project (ATCP) as a charitable company to press Lambeth Council to solve problems which got worse when bridges were removed shortly afterwards.

In 1991 ATCP won £5m of European Regional Development Funding to start regeneration and, led by the effective Dora Boatemah (who died in 2001), residents took an active role in changing their unsatisfactory conditions.

With continuing urban design support from Oxford Polytechnic, ATCP ensured that residents' views contributed to the redevelopment proposals which won £67m of Estate Action programme funds in 1998. Working to John Thompson Associates' masterplan, they participated in selecting architects for all the regeneration’s stages, to deliver both new housing and refurbished older blocks. They demanded stylish, light, low rise modern designs unlike typical social housing, which would reflect the character of surrounding Victorian dwellings and have entrances at street level.

Designing with residents was often demanding for architects, who were required to produce drawings that were easily understood, attend many meetings, produce models and even construct a full sized pilot project in the case of the New Pym House site, so that residents could give direct feedback to designers. Demolitions and redesign reduced units from 878 to the 632 now operated by Lambeth and 3 RSLs, due to be completed in late 2006.