Ultraviolence in Representation: The
Enduring Myth of the Thamesmead Estate
▻https://www.failedarchitecture.com/ultraviolence-in-representation-the-enduring-myth-of-the-thamesm
Rarely has a film affected the public’s opinion of a building as much as A Clockwork Orange has affected that of the Thamesmead estate, and potentially British modernist housing in general. Ever since the estate’s depiction on screen, its ultraviolent reputation has been exploited to suit the ends of those who have no interest in keeping it as social housing: first, as a justification for the reactionary attack on post-war social housing; and now as a way to package the place as a part of the area’s edgy history in order to sell it off as private housing.
From utopia to urban monstrosity
The situation was very different in the period just after the estate’s construction. Thamesmead was named “Town of the 21st Century” and hailed as a true utopia of affordable housing, with plenty of green spaces and artificial lakes, and hopes for providing a permanent solution to London’s post-war housing shortage.
Building started in the 1960s. The construction replaced the polluted bogs of the Erith and Plumstead Marshes that had previously only been used for ammunitions testing and storage.
Three years after A Clockwork Orange, the Greater London Council released Living at Thamesmead, a 25-minute promotional film for Thamesmead that shows the estate in a completely different light. The sun shines while children play on the concrete platforms and people of various colours and creeds go about their day. A young woman meets her friend on the steps next to Southmere Lake. A cheerful tune plays as they start walking along the lakeside, at exactly the same spot where Alex violently beat up his Droogs. The film actively combats the stereotypes that were created by Kubrick’s film by showing an upbeat image of the estate, where children and young people are offered new chances by being provided with housing, jobs and plenty of other occupations.
From the ’secret city’ of the Royal Arsenal to the pioneering new town of the 1960s, Thamesmead’s history is fascinating.
▻https://www.thamesmeadnow.org.uk/about-thamesmead/history