Before Grenfell: A Hidden History, BBC2, review: Potent, deeply saddening, and essential viewing
The original plans for Lancaster West Estate, which included Grenfell Tower, included a library, swimming pool and gardens. "I could […]
By Elisa Bray
Updated July 5, 2020 9:53 am
Jacqui Haynes, head of the residents' association for Lancaster West Estate, which includes Grenfell Tower, in Before Grenfell: A Hidden History on BBC2. (Photograph: BBC/Blast Films/Ryan McNamara)
The original plans for Lancaster West Estate, which included Grenfell Tower, included a library, swimming pool and gardens. "I could never see any reason why poor people shouldn't have good-quality housing just as much as rich people," said architect Peter Deakins in Before Grenfell: A Hidden History. But Kensington and Chelsea Council weren't convinced. The version that went ahead fell far short of his aims.
"Essentially people don't want to spend their tax money helping other people. It's a betrayal really, isn't it?"
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It wasn't the "neat and tidy, cheap little council estate that they were expecting", recalled Deakins. "Essentially people don't want to spend their tax money helping other people. If you think we're all in it together like we were during the war, it's a betrayal really, isn't it?"
That kind of summed up this potent and deeply saddening film that told the rich history of the area surrounding Grenfell Tower – an area with the UK's widest gap between its richest and poorest residents who were, ultimately, betrayed when the heart of their community was engulfed in flames.
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Instead of focusing on the aftermath of the disaster – it wasn't until near the end that we saw the tower burning – Before Grenfell… explained how it came to that, with the social inequality that went back to the Victorians. Back in 1864, a wall was built, separating the affluent community of Kensington and the poorest living in slums on the other side, in Notting Dale.
Inequality had been built into the streets. "It was a 19th-century Berlin Wall," a North Kensington resident, whose garden ended at the wall, told us. Old plans revealed a road intended to link rich and poor. But it was never built. Again, the word betrayal came to mind.
We travelled the streets of Notting Hill, admiring its majestic stucco-fronted, Farrow & Ball-painted houses, with the stark contrast of Victorian slums and council estates
This illuminating one-hour journey took us through the Depression, when wealthier families fled to the suburbs, their houses converted into cheap flats rented by working-class families; Second World War bombings; unscrupulous landlords; the arrival of people from the Caribbean in the 1950s; the Right to Buy; the property boom. We travelled the streets of Notting Hill, admiring its majestic stucco-fronted, Farrow & Ball-painted houses, with the stark contrast of Victorian slums and council estates. Homes worth millions on one side, child poverty on the other.
Members of the North Kensington community evocatively shared what Grenfell meant to them. "It was a symbol of hope for a better life." But that hope was scuppered when the cracks began to show. "It was them and us," one resident said of the council, recalling the cockroaches and ants infesting council buildings.
Residents felt like second-class citizens. They witnessed gentrification as shops became delis, pubs became bars, and Waitroses popped up
By 2010, Kensington was the most expensive place to live and residents felt like second-class citizens. Why wasn't money being ploughed into social buildings? They witnessed gentrification as shops became delis, pubs became bars, and Waitroses popped up around them. "Everything was becoming not for us any more, but the people who'd moved in." In 2015 a two-bed flat in Grenfell was bought for £250,000. By 2016 the gap between the incomes of the richest and the poorest was the same as it had been in 1850.
In heartbreaking final scenes, angry residents recalled losing friends, the breaking-up of their community, and being ignored. "Grenfell is the combination of the disrespect, the neglect and the way that we were never listened to, and our voice was never important."
There was an overwhelming sense of strength in these people who had lost loved ones, but defiant words could not disguise that terrible trembling in one resident's voice: "Things must change for us…. if the local authority is going to do all this, they have to do it right. Grenfell has to be a symbol of hope for everyone." This was essential viewing.
Twitter: @elisabray
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