Context | Leader
07
RIOTOUS ASSEMBLIES
Editor Hugh Pearman Executive editor Eleanor Young Assistant editor Jan-Carlos Kucharek Sub editor Alysoun Coles Web editor Sara Loane Design Patrick Myles Telephone +44 20 7490 5595 Fax +44 20 7490 4957
firstname@atompublishing.co.uk
Advertisement manager Richard Tomlin +44 20 7490 5638
richard@atompublishing.co.uk Production manager Peter Songi
Publishing director Emma Tilley
Managing director Stephen Quirke
RIBA Journal
www.ribajournal.com Published for the Royal Institute of British Architects by Atom Publishing Clerkenwell House 45/47 Clerkenwell Green London EC1R 0EB
Subscriptions Tower Publishing, Tower House, Sovereign Park, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough LE16 9EF UK £70 Europe €196 Rest of the world US$201 Student and digital edition rates available on request
BACK IN 1985, after the Broadwater Farm riots in Tottenham, RIBA Journal responded to the knee-jerk criticism of the time that it was somehow the physical environment – the design of the council estate itself – which was to blame. Well, it wasn’t the best design but it was competent work by a borough architects’ department when Haringey had such a thing, it proved capable of absorbing change, and it’s still there today. As we pointed out back then, ‘The trouble is that it has been scantily managed and subjected to a disastrous venture in social planning. Only 10 per cent of the mostly problem families who occupy the building pay a full rent. Unemployment among residents runs at a dangerous level.’ Over a quarter of a century later, it was not the council estates that were targeted, but as we know only too well, mostly high streets and shopping centres. Nobody blamed the design of our town centres - though the manufacturers of steel ‘security’ shutters might perhaps care to review their product lines. Instead, everybody pointed this time to social problems, the ‘underclass’, dependency culture, and so forth. Well, they can’t say they weren’t warned. After the 1980s riots, the Tories quickly understood the economic basis of civil unrest and took steps, led by Michael Heseltine, to address them. The post-1997 New Labour government invested a great deal of effort and money into tackling ‘social exclusion’ – remember ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’? – until that administration ran out of steam. At the time of writing the coalition government, its hands tied by its austerity programme, is taking a moral position: these deeds are bad and wrong, therefore they must stop. Quite right, but pious words and generalities need an investment underpinning. Meanwhile, London’s East End has seen its biggest transformation
RIBA Journal is published monthly by Atom Publishing. The contents of this journal are copyright. Reproduction in part or in full is forbidden without permission of the editor. The opinions expressed by writers of signed articles (even with pseudonyms) and letters appearing in the magazine are those of their respective authors, and neither the RIBA, Atom Publishing nor RIBAJ is responsible for these opinions or statements. The editor will give careful consideration to material submitted – articles, photographs, drawings and so on – but does not undertake responsibility for damage or their safe return. Printed by Headley Brothers Ltd.
ISSN 1463-9505 © RIBA 2009 HUGH PEARMAN | EDITOR RIBA JOURNAL RIBA JOURNAL : SEPTEMBER 2011
in years but this is largely confined to the Olympic Park. In this issue we take a thorough look at the buildings of the XXX Olympiad. They amount to a very considerable achievement. Many of those living in the neighbouring boroughs, however, will still feel that they are considered, literally, beyond the pale.
PHOTOGRAPHER | HÉLOÏSE ACHER
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