On a blustery June afternoon, a group of residents in an East London tower block pry open the door to a sealed-off room. Inside, the air hangs heavy and sour. An inch of stagnant water slicks the broken floor. Bullet-shaped craters line the nearby halls, remnants of the council’s decision to rip out the tower’s cladding and replace it with nothing.
This, I’m told without irony, used to be the cleaning office in the north tower of Fellows Court — a space that flooded six months ago, just as the concierge office did in late 2023, along with many of the flats above. In a futile attempt to contain the deluge, one council worker has placed a few small food-waste bins beneath the still-dripping ceiling.
Welcome to the frontline of a brewing revolt in the borough of Hackney, where beleaguered residents of council properties are striking, protesting and trying to take management of their buildings into their own hands. With me are Dave, a 44-year-old ex-serviceman; Catharine, an 82-year-old Catholic missionary; and Kane, a community organiser for Acorn, a group that encourages social housing tenants to take direct action against their landlords.
Catharine is a member of the Little Sisters of Jesus, a religious community that promotes living peacefully within impoverished neighbourhoods to spread God’s love. As one might expect, for most of the 40 years she has lived in Fellows Court, she has raised issues through official channels. “But that’s not really the way forward, is it?” she muses. “I think we have to start getting a bit angry.”
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