“There is only a 50/50 chance they’ll be social dwellings”

I don’t live on Clapham Park estate, I live nearby. If you go along Kings Avenue, you find they are building new homes. There is only a 50/50 chance they’ll be social dwellings. I don’t think much of it is going to come out as social dwellings. I don’t know if they’re caring about the people. In ‘97 you had lots of council tenants, we’ve now got private tenants. There’s young people coming through, more young professionals, less families.

I lived in Bermondsey until I was 11. We had a four bed for eight people, six kids. We had a laundry room up four flights. That was in 1963. There were no parks, we played on the London docks by the water. The kids were the roughest you could get. I remember going downstairs seeing the kids kicking a little chick that had fallen from a nest. They were cruel.

— Lesley

Part of a collection of oral histories about regeneration and community change, as told by members of the Clapham Park Over 50s Club to Creative in Residence Stella Barnes.