George Downing Estate. An urban community site.
Estate website
This website has been created as a result of our residents meetings. It can be used to share information, local knowledge and resources, helping us care for our estate and connecting and empowering our community. It’s a work in progress and we hope it will continue to evolve to meet residents needs.
The main issues residents are experiencing have been compiled in a list. We’re adding updates as they come in.
Get in touch if you’d like to share any thoughts or feedback.
Resident meetings
Residents gather once a season in the Boiler House to discuss issues and share thoughts and ideas.
The next meeting will be Summer 2024. More details on the meetings page.
We are also having estate walk-arounds with Southern Housing on a fairly regular basis.
Estate management
The estate residents group formed in 2021 due to growing frustrations and a serious lack of presence, engagement and action from Southern Housing and their contractors.
During the course of 2023, we have seen some improvements, although many issues continue to go unaddressed. Residents have been communicating with one another, raising complaints with Southern Housing and the Housing Ombudsman and collaborating with our local Councillors and the Mayors office.
When these complaints begun to be processed we saw a marked increase in engagement, presence and action on the issues in our homes and on the estate.
We’ve also been in communication with Southern Housings Director of repairs and estate transformation who recently attended a meeting with residents to hear more about our issues. A series of monthly walk-arounds with Southern Housing representatives was recommended, which are currently underway. Over the past few months we have seen some improvement in unaddressed issues.
Topup Truck
The TOPUP TRUCK - a zero waste / refill shop on a repurposed milk float, has been visiting the estate. We’re not currently on the trucks regular scheduled route, although they do occasional visits and can be booked for deliveries. You can join the Topup Trucks George Downing Estate WhatsApp group to stay updated. Join group
Boiler House development resident consultation
JULY 2024
The Boiler House charity’s planned development of the space at the Cazenove end of the estate is back in motion. A new plan is being drawn up and they’re keen to hear from residents of the estate.
The charity’s interim CEO, Mark, dropped into our May residents meeting to give an update and hear peoples thoughts.
Following this the charity hosted a community open event where amongst other activities, there was a chance to learn more about the Boiler House’s proposed development, tour the space and give feedback.
On July 10th a group of residents joined Mark to look at plans, share ideas and discuss different variations along with pros and cons.
The main points covered included the position of the sports pitch, the position of garden, the nature of the Boiler House extension which is replacing the extra building from the previous plan and how these might connect.
All residents present were keen on the garden plan and a lot of ideas were generated.
The next step for the charity is to meet with Southern Housing to update them on the progress of the plans, before meeting with the architects, Sanchez Benton.
We will share any further updates here.
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Our landscaping is managed by Southern Housings garden maintenance team.
The condition of greenery on the estate is important to residents. There’s been concern about the amount of plants and shrubs that have died off over the past few years, leaving empty areas in beds across the estate.
The residents association has begun a dialogue with the head of the gardening maintenance team and the estate home services manager. We recently had a walkabout meeting to raise residents concerns and see where improvements might be made.
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There’s been a wave of resident gardening activity on the estate, with mini wildflower meadows and other growing projects.
The gardening maintenance team are keen to hear residents thoughts and are open to various forms of resident involvement. They would especially appreciate residents giving extra care to the greenery during hot, dry spells.
If you have thoughts or ideas you’d like to share, come along to a meeting or get in touch.
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The campaigns section of this website could help residents wishing to collaborate - share ideas and plans, explore funding opportunities, or promote any potential groups or projects.
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Research is being done into the possibility of creating a community forest garden on the estate, as part of the Boiler House community space development. The space could create opportunities for community connection and wellbeing while improving our estate environment.
What’s a forest garden?
A forest garden is a sustainable and diverse agricultural system that mimics a natural woodland ecosystem. It combines trees, shrubs, and other plants to create a self-sustaining environment with the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems.
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Recycling facilities on the estate include general recycling, food waste, garden waste and a clothing and textiles bin.
We currently have a fortnightly visit from the Topup Truck to help reduce packaging waste.
Does anyone have ideas or suggestions to make our estate more environmentally friendly?
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As well as helping our greenery flourish, spaces that attract wildlife create a healthier ecosystem.
Our estate is home to a range of animals, birds, bugs and bees - we even have a resident beekeeper working to increase our bee population.
What else could we do to make our estate a more wildlife friendly place?
Green George Downing🌿
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Southern Housing walk-around with residents
MONDAY 1st JULY 2024
Generally the walk-around went well. Both residents and Southern Housing representatives commented on the benefits of being able to communicate in person about problems, which can be directly looked at and better understood. The estate surveyor was able to raise some jobs to be actioned while on location.
We were glad to be seeing an increase in estate issues being actioned and resolved.
That said we would like to see more progress going forward. As we walk around it’s clear how many of the estates reported issues are still going unaddressed.
We heard from the landscaping department about some upcoming improvements planned for late July / early August. These will include planting the empty bed in front of block 67, new hedging where it’s died back in front of the low 1960s block and making a start on filling in some of the empty gaps elsewhere. There’s also possibly some funding coming up for raised planters that residents will be able to take over to grow things for themselves.
After reviewing communal areas we visited the garden space behind the low 1960s block, where a number of residents have been reporting issues for years. The patchwork of gardens were created by dividing a communal space and allocating areas to individual residences some years ago. This was done on the grounds that they would be responsible for the maintenance, which would not be part of Southern Housings remit. Some of the gardens are chronically overgrown and there are disputes about responsibility for cutting them back. If anyone has anything they would like to communicate on this please get in touch with the residents association.
We were also joined by a resident - Elena - from Stamford Hill estate (also managed by Southern Housing) We’ve started forming connections with residents there who are hoping to start their own residents association. Elena also interviewed some George Downing residents for a PhD research product she’s undertaking on communities.
More info and summaries of the walk-arounds here.