Adam Patterson on Heygate Estate

The Heygate Estate is the high-water mark of a place doomed to fall. Once a sixties design of utopian excitement, this South London area of Elephant and Castle is facing regeneration once more. As the long-term residents of the towering estates are retired to peripheral housing, a hunt begins. An on-going battle between the Southwark Council closing up shop and multi-cultural squatters fighting London’s high cost of living. The council employs a company of welders to seal up each individual apartment with sheet metal within 24 hours of them being emptied. They do this at great speed in an attempt to keep squatters of all descriptions from gaining access - many times they fail. Demolition is scheduled to begin imminently, when these massive structures, once full of life, stories and routine will be washed away and forgotten. Basic legal rights mean a court order is required to evict the unwanted lodgers, and while council types grow increasingly frustrated, groups of friends form, reform and rejoice at the reality of another night of relative sanctuary. These images are lifted from a corner of time I was able to share through the good grace of human exchange, with talk and reason and honest expression. Visit Adam Patterson website: http://www.adampatterson.net/portfolio/squatters/