IN-PERSON ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

The Stonebridge Park estate in north-west London has always been a place of heritage, popular culture and change. An original inn called the ‘Stone Bridge’ dated to 1770 and Stonebridge’s development by the mid-1800s was influenced by the railway, accelerating its rural to urban shift. By the 1920s the new built environment was highly planned and driven by political ideologies, with early state funded ‘cottages’ influenced by garden city principles. Around this time the Ace Café opened, serving a growing population of car and motorbike owners, taking a historic place in teen culture by the 1950s and 60s. By the 1960 and 70s public policy favoured complete area clearance and redevelopment and saw a modernist informed wrap around provision of tower blocks and amenities in a new ‘utopic’ estate. This latter top-down approach was not successful and despite multiple policy interventions over many years seeking to mitigate some of the negative effects of the new architecture and its community, a more recent decision to completely regenerate the estate once again was delivered. This latter regeneration was based on public-private partnership and community involvement. By 1995 Britain’s first authentic Hindu temple, the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, was completed, recognising the increasingly diverse community. However, many of the original Victorian buildings have been demolished, with another Italianate villa currently under threat, representing a further loss of heritage. This paper uses archived material, lived experience and the arts to reflect on the nature and challenges of this unique place over a century of change.