Heygate Estate Resurrected by Artist
Reuben Powell has lived and worked in Elephant and Castle for more than 40 years. His work has often focused on the fast-changing landscape of his local neighbourhood, the disappearance of the old and emergence of the new.
He has produced many large scale drawings of the local area as well as a series of paintings and prints on to tin plate steel.
The Heygate Estate was built in the early 1970s and together with its neighbour the Aylesbury Estate provided homes for thousands of people. The inhabitants were to be elevated above the then decaying Victorian streets of Elephant and Castle to homes interconnected by arial concrete walkways; the rumoured intention was they would be able to walk to Camberwell without touching the ground.
A sign once stood by a locked gate on Heygate Street; “no footpath at ground level” and those words have now become the title for Reuben’s latest art exhibition, paintings and prints on tin of the old Heygate Estate that once stood at the top of the Walworth Road.
The estate was demolished in 2014 to make way for Elephant Park but the images live on.
“no footpath at ground level” can be seen at Little Louie, 14 Ash Avenue, SE17 1GO from 12th April – 16th June.
