Hackney launches skyscraper contest

This week Hackney has launched a competition, in the Architects Journal, to design two skyscrapers for the re-development of Colville Estate, Hoxton.

Nightingale Estate, Hackney 1983 - Photo copyright of Alan Denney

The advertisement refers to a £25million project, featuring two towers of 14 and 20 storeys opposite Shoreditch Park, to "create interest in the skyline" and "drive the area's regeneration programme" (subject to planning permission).

Will it be a return to the good old days? Just look at how that ended up.

Demolition at Trowbridge Estate, Hackney 1987 - Photo copyright of Alan Denney

This photo is of the first of many tower blocks demolished by Hackney in the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to the Council's Trowbridge Estate, towerblocks were also demolished on Kingshold Estate, Nightingale Estate, Holly Street Estate and other estates.

The Council found it impossible to maintain them as decent homes and the Holly Street towers acquired a reputation nationally as cockroach infested high-rise slums.Towerblocks were declared at the time to be undesirable for social family housing.

The demolitions were widely supported by local Tenants Associations, many of whom campaigned for demolition, and high-density low rise family homes were constructed in their place.

You can see more of Alan Denney's brilliant photo archive here.