Save the Sutton Estate

Create Streets has been working for and with Save the Sutton Estate on their campaign to stop the demolition of their estate in Chelsea. Working with Calfordseaden, Gallarati Architetti, and Francis Terry and Associates, and we produced a feasibility study to demonstrate the range of possibilities for improving the Sutton Estate in Chelsea whilst increasing the number of homes on it.

Save The Sutton Estate have been campaigning to prevent the demolition of the estate. This campaign was created in response to a planning application submitted by Affinity Sutton (now Clarion) in 2015 which looked to reduce both the number of social housing homes and the overall number of homes on the estate.

Our work involved organising a co-design workshop, attended by local residents and local councillors, and then, together with an expert team of architects, working up the outcomes into a study that demonstrates that there are several possibilities to improving the Sutton Estate which do not involve wide scale demolition and which could increase both total housing and total affordable or social housing. Our work has been supported by all three parties locally.

Client

Save the Sutton Estate

 Role

Project manager, urban design & co-design facilitator

 Team 

Calford seaden, Francis Terry, Gallarati Architetti

 Testimonials

"Myself and other residents of Sutton Estate are delighted to have worked with Create Streets to draw up this range of exciting alternative plans. These plans are the residents of the Sutton Estate’s: by organising a co-design workshop together, we demonstrated the rich array of options for improving our wonderful estate instead of demolishing it. With minimal resources and budget, our hardy community have rallied round and shown the world that Clarion’s bizarre and nonsensical plans for destruction do not need to be implemented – these fantastic alternatives prove it. Even on their own inconsistent terms, Clarion’s plans do not stack up. London needs more homes, not fewer. Kensington and Chelsea needs more social housing, not less. Communities need more of a say in their future, not less. We hope this visionary and inspiring work can serve as inspiration for other communities across London. We hope that Councils and Housing Associations that do actually care about making London a better place can look at what we have done here in Chelsea with Create Streets and see that genuinely involving local people in their plans for the future is the only way forward."

Estate resident, Chair of Save the Sutton Estate, and local Councillor, Ian Henderson