‘No footpath at ground level’: Paintings and prints of the Heygate Estate

Reuben Powell has lived and worked in Elephant and Castle for more than 40 years. 

As an artist, his work is often focused on the fast-changing landscape of his local neighbourhood, the disappearance of the old and emergence of the new. 

And a lot has changed.

Mr Powell has produced a series of large scale drawings of the area as well as a series of paintings and prints on tin plate steel. 

No Footpath at Ground Level will be shown at an exhibition space in Elephant and Park until June 16.

The Heygate Estate – which once stood at the top of the Walworth Road – features in many of these pieces.

Heygate was built in the early 1970’s and together with its neighbour the Aylesbury Estate provided homes for thousands of people – many of them council tenants. 

The estate comprised half a dozen huge, grey, monolithic blocks confronting the busy roads around the Elephant.

The tenants were to be elevated above the then decaying Victorian streets of Elephant and Castle to homes interconnected by arial concrete walkways. The suggested intention was that residents would be able to walk to Camberwell without touching the ground.

A sign once stood by a locked gate on Heygate Street, “no footpath at ground level”.

The Heygate Estate was demolished in 2014. After 10 years of Southwark council claiming it would regenerate the Heygate it spent four emptying it of residents – or “decanting” as the developers described it.

The tight knit community of council tenants and leaseholders were displaced and scattered to distant parts of the borough. 

Mr Powell looks closer at these changes through his work, revisiting the golden age of the Heygate Estate and its skyhigh walkways.

Paintings and prints will be on show at Little Louie in Ash Avenue, Elephant Park until June 16.

Pictured top: Drawing of the Heygate Estate by Reuben Powell (Picture: Reuben Powell)