London housing talk can be more than just conversations about soaring property prices. It’s always fascinating to discover more about your particular neck of the woods, and east Londoners are in for a treat at this exhibition about the history of the former Warner properties and estates in Waltham Forest.
Artists Katherine Green and Lucy Harrison collaborated with local writer and researcher Kirstin Sibley and the Walthamstow Historical Society, as well as talking to local residents, to identify how these nineteenth- and early twentieth-century properties are being used today as the area experiences a boom that echoes the growth triggered by the advent of the railway. Along with archive material, there are photographs of and interviews with older residents, council tenants and first-time buyers. There’s also an accompanying publication, plus a programme of free activities including a Warner residents’ tea party (Sunday June 1, 2.30pm-5pm), an artists’ talk at St Michael and All Angels Church Hall, Northcote Road, E17 6PQ (Friday June 6, 7.30pm) and a Warner walk led by David Boote from the Leyton & Leytonstone Historical Society that will wind up at the Hare & Hounds pub (Wednesday June 11, 6.30pm). To attend any of the events email info@exwarnerproject.co.uk or ring 07964 878315.
The quality of the Warner buildings (many of them red-brick, self-contained flats) was matched by the estate’s reputation as a good landlord offering affordable homes for the working classes. Which, given the capital’s current housing shortage, makes the model interesting whatever patch of London you currently call your own.