Time to quit : Ladywell pop-up apartment block set for demolition
By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Service
A mum says she will miss her ‘dream’ home in a crumbling pop-up apartment block, where she had to dodge a human poo in the stairwell.
Rebecca Hall, 28, said she loved her two-bed flat in Place Ladywell, a housing and retail complex in Lewisham High Street, made of portable buildings, despite the estate’s problems with antisocial behaviour.
Lewisham council is due to dismantle the pop-up village – made up of 24 two-bedroom flats for homeless families, as well as premises for businesses – around eight years since the building was finished back in 2016.
Mum-of-two Ms Hall, said as she was packing up to leave last Friday: “I will miss this place. It’s so lovely. I’m going to miss the massive windows and the massive doors.
“I loved this flat. I’ve only been here for a year. I was in a hostel for four years with two kids [before]. We shared a bathroom. Going to this was a dream really. It’s sad the building is going.
“The living room is massive and there’s a huge storage room. The bad thing is that a lot of my letters are stolen and at the moment there’s a human poo in the stairwell.”
Ms Hall paid £1,240 per month for her two-bed flat in the building, which she acknowledged was ‘very expensive’. She secured her new home, a council property in Downham, after the council gave her and other residents in Place Ladywell the highest priority for rehousing as it prepares to dismantle the complex.
The portable village was due to be moved to another location in the borough by 2021 to allow for a permanent development on the site on Lewisham High Street. But the buildings have remained in place.
Despite the fact the structures were meant to last 60 years, the council said the buildings had now reached the end of their lifespan and would not be relocated to another part of Lewisham.
Lucesse Samuel, 54, who has run a dressmaking and clothing shop out of a ground floor unit in the village since 2016 said the building had given her a space to build her business despite ongoing issues with the structure itself.
She said: “There were challenges with the building. There was a leak and the ceiling fell through. Water on clothes does not work. It really affected the business. It took a toll on my health.
“Otherwise it gave me a platform and it gave me a start: it introduced me to the world out there. I believe I have got what I need to move on now.”
But mum-of-two Gemma, who has lived in the building for six years, was less fond of her time in the pop-up village, branding it ‘absolute hell.’
The 40-year-old, who declined to give her surname, said: “I have got a floor to ceiling door that has not closed for the last four years. It’s boiling in the summer and freezing in the winter. It has been absolute hell.
“We have had issues with drug use, asbo neighbours. Earlier I found a plastic thing. It was a narcotics pen. It’s just horrible sometimes. The door [to the building] is not secure. It’s dire.”
Gemma added that despite her rent being classed as ‘affordable’, her two-bed flat cost her £1,426 per month, which she said was more than her sister’s mortgage.
A council spokesman said: “Place Ladywell was created as a temporary building on the former site of Ladywell Leisure Centre, while long term plans were developed for new homes. We have carried out repairs to extend its lifespan, but recent surveys have indicated it is not economically viable to maintain it for the long term.”
Pictured top: Place Ladywell has been on the site on Lewisham High Street since 2016 (Picture: Robert Firth)