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SHOPS CAN ALSO BE HOMES

THE AUGUST RIOTS in English cities may have been predominantly about looting and burning shops, but the consequences were severe for those living over these shops. In Tottenham, London, this imposing modern-classical commercial corner block – built in 1930 as a Co-op – had become a carpet store, so burned easily. The inferno became one of the global images of the riots. However, the building had been an exemplary piece of real urban regeneration, in that previously

unused space above the ground- floor store was converted in 2002 into 26 shared-ownership flats by the Metropolitan Housing Trust. The housing scheme was known as River Heights. The people living there, including young children, were lucky to get out alive and found themselves suddenly homeless, having lost most of their possessions. Lord Harris, the Peckham-born Tory peer who owns the Carpetright chain and who has invested heavily in the City Academies programme in London,

pledged to help them financially. For Harris, the root cause of the riots was economic: youth unemployment, he said, was mostly to blame. Bringing residents back into town centres by making use of redundant space over shops has been one of the quiet successes of recent years. This programme must not be derailed by suddenly reluctant funders and punitive insurance premiums. But concerns over fire need to be addressed: such schemes must above all be safe. HP

RIBA JOURNAL : SEPTEMBER 2011