the heart - 1997
A film commissioned by Independent Photography

The Heart is a 21 min long film charting the cycles of decay and renewal as they are experienced in the life of communities and individuals, and the architecture they inhabit, through the experiences of a diverse group of people living in a council estate in South London. It was the final outcome of a an arts project created by the artist with the participation of residents of Walpole Estate.

Walpole Estate was built in the 60s, and by the early 90’s was riddled with crime, extraordinarily high numbers of robberies and burglaries, and drunks and drug users regularly congregating in the communal areas. Faced with these problems, Greenwich Council earmarked the Estate for demolition but tenants campaigned and won the right to transfer the Estate from Council management to a resident managed Estate Management Board. The newly constituted EMB applied for government funding, and a 4.9 million grant paid for a new roof, the refurbishment of flat interiors and a security system comprising 39 CCTV cameras, manned reception, and electronic keys that control entrance and movement throughout the building.

14 years on the Estate boasts of a complete reduction in crime and anti-social behaviour. However, there is a sense that both the building and the community are experiencing a new cycle of decay marked by neglect to the building, lack of residents’ participation, and disillusionment with the current management structure. In recent years, the settlement of large immigrant communities in the area have added new tensions with increased competition for scarce resources in an area listed as one of the most deprived in the UK.

Walpole is at the heart of an urban area embarking on an intense programme of regeneration, which in the next three years will see all other neighbouring Estates being demolished, a new super-store and transport links coming to the area. The film explores the views of residents as to what the future holds for them, whilst painting a vivid image of the history of Woolwich and of the building.