Heygate Was Home!

Los bloques de Heygate, ya vaciados de gente y listos para demolir

How is it to lose your home? What does it mean to be ‘regenerated’ and  be asked to leave your home where there is no alternative presented to  you but to lose your home. What does ‘home’ mean to people in this  instance – isn’t it a vast collection of memories, events, experiences  and also connections to others around you? How do you ‘regenerate’ those  very personal aspects of people’s home lives and their community?”

The Heygate Was Home Digital Archive collects the testimony of several former residents of Heygate, the social housing estate in Elephant & Castle, London, whose demolition began some months ago. It was in the wrong place at the wrong time; less than 1 km from Buckingham Palace, in the years of the Olympic Games. Suddenly, its inhabitants found themselves inserted into the typical narrative of demonization, cheated by the local authorities, and finally pushed towards the extreme fringes of the metropolitan area. And all with the aim of being ‘regenerated’…