Open Estate celebrated 18 months of community-led conversations, creativity and social research with the Open Estate Festival. As part of the Open House London Weekend in September 2016, we invited residents, local businesses and urban design enthusiasts to discover our collection of photos, stories, objects and soundsdonated by residents, or found on the Gascoigne Estate during the project. We are incredibly grateful to our invited guests who made the weekend so special, including young spoken word artists, John Akinde and Dauda Ladejobi on the Saturday, and historical talks with Eric Feasy, and residents Ronald Wylde and Gary Peacock.
The Open Estate Festival closed with a superbly-attended symposium debating the role of artists and heritage professionals in urban regeneration schemes such as at the Gascoigne right now. We would like to thank our guests Dubravka Polic, of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham regeneration department, Hadrian Garrard, Director of Create London, Judith Garfield MBE, Executive Director of Eastside Community Heritage, and local resident and artist, John Akinde. You can hear his wonderful soundscape on this page, a wonderful fusion of resident interviews applied over local beats and sounds.
Over the course of the next decade, the Gascoigne estate will be rebuilt, in one London’s largest social housing regeneration programmes. The Open Estate project has creatively documented, archived and celebrated its history and residents during this period of transition and much of it is here on this website as a research for those interested in our process. Please get in touch on our contact page with any comments. We would love to hear fromyou.