editor
hiraethified
Yes, the area has high rates of mental illness, but why this one particular block which is in fact a really well designed block, with some apartments (sadly) now sadly going for £400,000?
Brixton's Barrier Block (Southwyck House) - history, news and chat
- Thread starter editor
- Start date
editor
hiraethified
I'll be the first to admit that it's not to everyone's tastes, but that's due to their historic legacy. Inside the block is very well built, and it's impact could be considerably softened by landscaping over the vile car wash business, with its hideous metal fencing and cheap signage.
I still think the block has more worth than most of the bland shite going up around Brixton now though, most of which looks like cheaply-built Milton Keynes office blocks.
editor
hiraethified
Much of the stuff in that article seems to have come from the articles on urban75, btw.
A short history of the Barrier Block, Southwyck House, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London SW9 with photos, panoramas and general information.
A short history of the Barrier Block, Southwyck House, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London SW9 with photos, panoramas and general information.
The singular beauty of Southwyck House, aka the Brixton Barrier Block
A short history of the Barrier Block, Southwyck House, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London SW9 with photos, panoramas and general information.
A short history of the Barrier Block, Southwyck House, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London SW9 with photos, panoramas and general information.
The singular beauty of Southwyck House, aka the Brixton Barrier Block
purenarcotic
Conveniently Pocket Sized
There is much better and more interesting reference to how our local geography and environment can affect our mental health in Lynsey Hanley's 'Estates'.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
I can't agree with this.
First of all "in the same ward" had me thinking of the charmingly named "Eden Ward" low security intensive care unit at Lambeth Hospital - for this is the first resort for those in Coldharbour requiring in-house care and assistance in the psychiatric department.
Second of all I disagree with your high-handed write-off of the New Loughbroough blocks.
It is amply clear from your picture that the New Loughborough Estate was designed with aesthetics in mind - pleasing to the eye as a 1950s architect might find, one who was accustomed to the ideas of Le Corbusier. The estate was system built by the LCC as part of a massive housing programme, such as we need today. It turns out that the construction methods had some serious defects leading to millions of pounds worth of concrete repairs over the years. It seems that there may have been high alumina cement used in the blocks, but more importantly the external panels, concrete and glazed, are bolted onto the structure. Some of these bolts were not properly tightened and also rusted, which again attacked the concrete and rusted iron expands fracturing the concrete. No doubt if these maintenance problems had arisen now the council would be inviting Lend Lease in to do a 100% demolition job like on the Heygate.
Other than that I would say the flat designs are a good compromise - they are mainly maisonettes, design to replicate the feel of living in a house (this is also the case with Southwyck House by the way).
Unfortunately the 1994 Brixton Challenge alterations seriously compromised the aesthetic qualities of New Loughborough in the interests of security - adding manic entrance porches and concierge systems by local architect Greenhill Jenner (sadly recently liquidated).
In my opinion (though no doubt editor may not agree) the Greenhill Jenner alterations to the Barrier Block carried out at the same time, and also funded by Brixton Challenge, actually improve the situation there. Aesthetically the red and metal textures of the added in concierge and stairwell structural cladding relieve the tendency to bleakness of the original design [in my opinion].
I still can't see that the actual flat designs could cause schizophrenia - though possibly living in flats with much more anonymity than say cobbled streets in Lancashire might mean loneliness, isolation etc leading to mental disorder.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Art, religion - cultural activities. Culture in the broadest sense is a product of society as a whole. Marxist Aesthetics would relate culture to the underlying way society is run economically.
Under Capitalism- the system we live under now people are alienated from there full potential. The mass of people have to sell there labour to live. They do not have full freedom. Capitalism can produce an abundance of goods and the technology to free people from work ( selling there labour). Its only with Capitalism being superseded that alienation can be ended.
Then all can partake of making culture on an equal basis.
The article does not address the issue that recent urbanisation has been done under Capitalism.
It does not have to be this way.
Its not that cities cause madness so much as the Capitalist system we live under may lead to certain types of mental disorders. In the article the first idea that this may happen comes from the 1900s in America. Which at that time was becoming an advanced Capitalist society. So its urbanisation under Capitalism that’s the problem.
There is a debate in Marxist (influenced) circles that Capitalism is like schizophrenia. I really don’t know enough about this.
( This is going similar to Marxist idea that as individuals under Capitalism we are alienated from our labour and the products of our labour. So do not live in Marxist terms our full human potential. Which is true human freedom. )
Going about a city like London the culture one is bombarded by is consumer culture. Even if one cannot partake of it. Its not urbanisation as such but the form it takes. The pressures on individuals living in cities like ours is immense.
Talking to a Chinese friend- she is the generation that has grown up as China "modernises". She says there is a social rootlessness in her generation. The urbanisation plus capitalism post Mao has taken place at an incredible pace. Her city did not exist 30 years ago.
Last edited:
Mr Retro
Beware hedgehogs
The first time I walked down Coldharbour Lane in about 2000, fairly fresh off the boat from Ireland I thought the Barrier Block was Brixton prison.
bimble
floofy
If we're going to get all macro and historical about it.. a part of the story has to be that (outside of communist style vast scale urban planning) the rapid growth of cities usually happens when great floods of young-ish people leave their families and villages behind to come and look for work on their own, which is a recipe for alienation of a whole nother kind and nothing to do with how big your windows are.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
My allusion to a Marxist perspective was a naïve comment about the role of income and or poverty in mental health diagnosis.
It is also notoriously the case that whereas white middle class individuals tend to be bipolar or depressed, poor and black service users are disproportionately schizophrenic - which to me raises issue of cultural prejudice in the clinical diagnostic system.
I tried to locate the diagnostic system currently used by SLAM - and it is here. This is DSM-5 originated and maintained by the American Psychiatric Association. Unlike the article you cite - about post-Freudian and Lacanian ideas (Lacan has been described as a cult figure by some) this DSM-5 document is the business. These are the classifications used in letters NHS psychiatrists send to GPs/DWP about their patients. It has no bearing on Marx of course - only classification of patients by symptoms - as perceived by the psychiatrist.
Whereas the signs and symptoms of bipolar are relatively well defined in terms of how many episodes of this that or the other, when it comes to schizophrenia the clinician has a relatively free hand.
Basically DSM-5 is a masterpiece of elaboration. In American Psychiatric terms it serves rich customers by serving up definitions which have limited negative consequences, whereas poorer people are liable to be written off by the system without any particular attempt to resolve their issues - except large doses of major tranquillisers to keep them quiet.
Back to what I was saying money is the main factor in both living environment and access to suitable treatment. I guess such a comment is hardly Marxist analysis. Just a commonplace.
bimble
floofy
Also very relevant to the figures locally must be the fact that people of Carribbean decent living in the UK are apparently 9 times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than white people. This is a huge number, and nobody has a simple answer as to why it is happening although money and misdiagnosis definitely major factors.
Schizophrenia in black Caribbeans living in the UK: an exploration of underlying causes of the high incidence rate
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
The play Blue/Orange is good on this. Recently revived - worth a look if it's still on.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
This was a topic of great interest 10-20 years ago - when some researchers claimed that 2nd generation Caribbean people were much more prone to psychiatric disturbance than their immigrating parents. This was deemed to be due to loss of identity due to lack of firm roots in the Caribbean or the host community.
Not sure if there is any recent research on this.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Not necessarily. Coming to a city can be a freedom from a restrictive social life in rural areas/ small towns. Nor is the concept of a city inevitable. Something the article does not question.
Not all communist ideas were about vast urban planning. Some saw breaking down the city/ rural divide.
One of the problems with the article is that it takes the city as a given.
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
Read one one of the pieces linked into the article.
Living well in the Neuropolis
By a sociologist who is looking at crossing disciplines - neuroscience and urban sociology. Its possible now to monitor the brain as its encountering different environments.
Starts with short history of mental health and urban sociology. Since the emergence of modern cities in 1850s there has been concern rising mental illness. This was mixed in with fears of the race "degenerating", how city life is to be contrasted with a rural idyll and how sociology as a discipline started dealing with city life at its inception.
So they argue that mental health and modern city life have always been concerns.
Over the last 150 years a body of work has dealt with life in the city. Seems to me they are trying to put together a way of looking at the city that puts together the most personal experiences with the city itself. Breaking down the barriers between the individual body and the material city.
The city affects the brain but people can choose to alter the city (if they have the power to do that of course).
Living well in the Neuropolis
By a sociologist who is looking at crossing disciplines - neuroscience and urban sociology. Its possible now to monitor the brain as its encountering different environments.
Starts with short history of mental health and urban sociology. Since the emergence of modern cities in 1850s there has been concern rising mental illness. This was mixed in with fears of the race "degenerating", how city life is to be contrasted with a rural idyll and how sociology as a discipline started dealing with city life at its inception.
So they argue that mental health and modern city life have always been concerns.
Over the last 150 years a body of work has dealt with life in the city. Seems to me they are trying to put together a way of looking at the city that puts together the most personal experiences with the city itself. Breaking down the barriers between the individual body and the material city.
The city affects the brain but people can choose to alter the city (if they have the power to do that of course).
Last edited:
Puddy_Tat
🐈⬛
something of a bump, but i've found that someone has published a book on the ringway schemes.
Rings Around London by Wayne Asher | Waterstones
might have to indulge in that...
Rings Around London by Wayne Asher | Waterstones
might have to indulge in that...
Gramsci
Well-Known Member
He has a few articles online.
Silvertown Tunnel plans show we don't learn from history
This does sound interesting book. I always assumed it was lack of funding that stopped road scheme.
It was local opposition and change in policy of London Labour party that scuppered road plans. London Labour party has been for road building.
Along with slow realisation that more roads led to more traffic. More congestion.
Puddy_Tat
🐈⬛
The Ringway community centre in Grove Park has a bit about it (the name is intentional - the Grove Park Community Group formed in the aftermath of the anti ringway campaign, and the centre is on the route of the bit of Ringway 2 (that itself was a 1930s scheme - Southend Lane and Whitefoot Lane were built as dual carriageway, and I have a 1939 A-Z equivalent that shows it as complete. Map I've done here. )
editor
hiraethified
Some fluff on MyLondon today
www.mylondon.news
Brixton's Southwyck House so 'ugly' it's often mistaken for a prison
There's even a rumour the building is the 'wrong way round'
