Jim Blackender · Sets

sunset over excalibur prefabs

sunset over excalibur prefabs excalibur prefab estate catford a new built prefab 2004 excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford excalibur prefab estate catford

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Jim Blackender says:

It is time you heard from someone who actually lives on the Excalibur prefab estate. I hear allsorts of rumours, how they are hot in the summer and cold in the winter? Of course they are ,you show me a place in England that isn’t, that’s the nature of the weather.
I have lived on the prefab estate for 18 years they have been the happiest years of my life, the prefabs are worth saving for their historic value, the tenants don’t use this as a tool to try to save the estate they use it because it is a fact.

The Excalibur prefab estate has been featured on countless TV programs including, legacy of war, disappearing London, London tonight, and many more, over 20 articles appearing in local and national press. All because this is a very special Historical place to live.

The 187 prefabs on the Excalibur Estate in North Downham were erected in 1946-47 by German and Italian prisoners of war as an interim solution to the housing shortage after the Second World War.
All the roads on the estate were named after the Knights of the Round Table, as were many of the roads on the north Downham estate.

The Excalibur estate is unique and has a sea-side quality and a village estate appeal about it,
If you walk the estate you will find the resident cheerful and proud of their estate.

Some of the prefabs are in need of repair but the vast majority are in surprisingly good condition, and on the surface would need little funds to make them fit the decent homes standards.
The problem is the prefabs tend to occupy large sites and are easy pickings for greedy developers.
The land on which the prefabs are sited is a gold mine for the developers, the prefabs would be easily demolished and the site is already laid out for all the services i.e. gas electricity etc.

Sites like the Excalibur prefab estate should be preserved for the wider community as a living museum and as a memorial to all who lost their lives during the Second World War.
The education of today’s generation could benefit from seeing our historic legacy.

Jim Blackender
Tenant of the Historical prefab estate
Posted 52 months ago. ( permalink )

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Jim Blackender says:

My name is Jim Blackender I am a tenant on the Excalibur Prefab Estate Catford SE6 1RP, a very unique Historic Estate,
As tenants we are trying to highlight the difficulties we are having trying to save our historic estate
from the bulldozers
The Decent Homes Standard has given councils the golden opportunity to write off vast amounts of housing stock as non decent and transfer their stocks to housing associations who build in its place high density housing estates.

The Excalibur Prefab Estate is the largest of its kind now left in Europe.
Europe values its war time history, we on the estate think it’s time we did too.

Stock Transfer. Whether stock transfer will go ahead on the Excalibur prefab estate will depend on a ballot of the tenants of this estate.

The Ballot is due in April 2008. But we have been told by Lewisham council (in writing) if we vote yes, the stock will be transferred to London & Quadrant, and the estate will be demolished, and if we vote no to stock transfer, the estate will be put forward for a regeneration scheme, Lewisham council will select a housing association of its choice, and the estate will be demolished, so not really a choice at all is it?
Just a greedy grab for land, what happened to democracy?


A grab for land and a multi- million pound deal will be done -at the expense of our history.

English Heritage has submitted an application to the Department of culture media and sports recommending a grade two listing of the Excalibur estate.
But things seem to take so long, I worry this estate will be demolished before the DCMS makes it decision.
Also there is no guarantee that the DCMS will list the estate, could be a conflict of interests; after all they are part of the same government that introduced this so called opportunity, we will have to see how independent they really are.
If the London borough of Lewisham has it way this Historic estate will no longer exist, and in its place will be another inner city housing estate, and another piece of history gone forever.
Posted 52 months ago. ( permalink )

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