page_title: Broadwater Farm
section_title: Utopia on Trial
hierarchical_section_title: Broadwater Farm / History / Deterioration / Utopia on Trial
caption_attribution_description: Hawkinge, Broadwater Farm, London N17
context_page_description: Broadwater Farm, often referred to simply as "The Farm", is an area in Tottenham, north London, straddling the River Moselle. The eastern half of the area is dominated by the Broadwater Farm Estate, a Corbusian experiment in high-density social housing, dominated by concrete towers connected by walkways, built in the late 1960s using cheap but fire-vulnerable pre-fabricated concrete panels. The western half of the area is taken up by Lordship Recreation Ground, one of north London's largest parks. Broadwater Farm in 2011 had a population of 4,844. The estate is owned by Haringey London Borough Council.
  Following the publication of Alice Coleman's Utopia on Trial in 1985, the area acquired a reputation as one of the worst places to live in the United Kingdom. This perception was exacerbated when serious rioting erupted later that year.
  However, following a major redevelopment programme, crime rates dropped dramatically, and the burglary rate was virtually zero percent in 2005. Well known for its large Afro-Caribbean heritage, it is one of the most ethnically diverse locations in London; in 2005 its official population of 3,800 included residents of 39 different nationalities.
context_section_description: By the time Alice Coleman's critique of 1960s planned housing, Utopia on Trial (1985), was published, the estate was regarded as being representative of unsuccessful large-scale social housing projects. When a major exhibition by Le Corbusier in the mid-1980s was unable to attract sponsorship, the refusal of sponsors to be associated with his name was attributed to the "Broadwater Farm factor".
  The book's criticism of alleged "lapses of civilised behaviour" on Le Corbusier-inspired estates, claiming that residents of such buildings were far more likely to commit and to be victims of anti-social behaviour, were highly influential on the Thatcher government. Although the book focused on Tower Hamlets and Southwark and did not discuss Broadwater Farm, by the time it was published, the estate was becoming synonymous with this type of housing. The government began to put pressure on Haringey London Borough Council to improve the area.
caption: Hawkinge block, showing the building constructed on a deck of stilts above the floodplain, and the remnants of the deck-level walkway running along the first floor.
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