In a small team of six, I created a piece of work about Custom House, a part of East London that has historically been overlooked and purposefully left to degrade. This was reflected in our initial analysis where by examining the wider processes of regeneration it became evident that there was an existence of disconnected, unambiguous spaces and fractured opportunities for existing residents to build social connections.
However, through our exploration of the neighborhood there is similarly a prevalence of strong community networks that remain mostly hidden.
Building on from this, we have learnt that Custom House is home to a series of unique, grassroots initiatives which have the skills, knowledge and expertise to address pertinent local issues discussed above. In turn, we have strategically recommended these groups to devise and regulate a program of tactical uses for the shopfronts on Freemasons Road, aided by local signposting and rebranding of spaces of heritage and care, in tandem with spatial/morphological improvements to enhance activation and mobility.
Our tactic to visibilise and involve these invisible networks stem from our belief as a group of development practitioners that sustainable urban development is contingent upon building existing potentialities within the community to avoid triggering the same practice that we are working against. We believe that close-knit active communities have the potential to anticipate neighborhood transformations and through collective re)imagination, they can adhere to counter-gentrified responses. Reflecting on the future, we ultimately aspire for the responsibility of regeneration in the Custom House area, to be devolved to these community groups, creating a spatially and socially connected urban environment amidst processes of transition. We hope that our response acts as a model for other local neighborhoods encountering similar transitions.
