Capturing the imagination

Built in the 1960s, Hillington Square in King’s Lynn epitomises the damaging social legacy of the era’s architecture, but Freebridge Community Housing has scored a coup with the commission of Wayne Hemingway to turn the estate into a living place fit for the 21st Century

In its day, the Hillington Square estate in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, offered residents the very latest in modern living – but it came with a downside that is all too familiar in this day and age.

The legacy of the 1960s is something of a cruel cliché – of bland, brutal, faceless structures utterly inimical to nurturing a sense of community. Over time, what were once seen as daring – even perhaps liberating – designs proved to be anything but.

Many such developments were isolating and inhuman, with their open spaces that were neither private nor quite public, the walkways and the ‘bridges in the sky’ that combined to become intimidating places associated with crime and anti-social behaviour.

So while the flats themselves offered residents more living space and what were then the very latest in mod cons, such as inside toilets and central heating, it came at the cost of a certain ‘disconnect’ from the wider urban and social tapestry.

Cliché or caricature this may be, as it aggregates the mistakes of the past; Hillington Square is very much a real place that has suffered from the inadequacies of its original design, but all of that is set to change with the birth of a far-reaching project to transform the estate.

“If you go back to some of the old photographs from before H illington Square was built, it was the site of the bus terminus and there were lots of what we’d call ‘Coronation Street’ houses – small terraced houses that nowadays we’d probably be looking at saving and putting the facilities into them,” said Tony Hall, Freebridge Community Housing’s chief executive. “At the time, Hillington Square was a huge improvement; central heating, higher space standards, fully serviced modern kitchens, indoor toilets, these were all the things that people aspired to, but life has moved on.

“While the flats themselves were a huge improvement, the design was not harmonious with the existing community at all. We’ve got some properties that date back to Medieval times less than 30 yards away, for example. The estate itself is quite brutal. It’s big square blocks, it looks in on itself and almost closes itself off from the rest of the community. When it was built, it was done in isolation and almost imposed on the surrounding area, so we have got to try and make it link back and blend into the surrounding community. So it is quite a challenge we are looking forward to.”

The idea is to render the estate to a “more human scale” and “knit” Hillington Square back into the wider community. To help do this, Freebridge, which owns the site, has commissioned designer Wayne Hemmingway to help the RSL, its partners and – crucially – the residents themselves to “re-imagine” the estate.

“Hemmingway Design has established a national reputation in this field and takes on very few projects so King’s Lynn is fortunate to have secured his services,” said Hall. “This is an important project, not just for those living at Hillington Square, but for King’s Lynn as a whole, because the square is so central to the town. Creating a place where people are happy living and working will tackle some of the negative perceptions which have been associated with the development, and enhance the liveability not just of the square but of the wider area.”

The estate consists of 15 flat-roofed four- and five-storey blocks which together provide 320 homes in a mix of bedsits, one- and two bedroom flats and three-bedroom maisonettes. Originally, Freebridge was considering the likely benefits of demolishing the estate and starting again from the ground up, but given the number of units on the site, which is of a “fairly high” density, it was felt that it would be difficult to make up, let alone exceed, the number of demolished units. So began the collaborative efforts to give Hillington Square a new lease of life. Unlike the approach taken in the 1960s, where the design was effectively imposed with little regard to the surrounding urban environmental, or indeed local sensibilities, Freebridge is determined to take a holistic approach to the ‘re-imagination’ of the estate and to work with residents and other partners. The process has already begun, with a recent meeting of some 200 partners and residents to discuss the initial ideas with Hemmingway.

“We’ve invited the creative community, education, the police, the council, community representatives – everybody we need to play a role in this. We can’t do it on our own,” Hemmingway told the audience. “We are not going to come riding in here on our white horse; it’s got to be solved locally. This has to be delivered by a team of 50-plus from Freebridge, the council, highways, play officers, police, artists, the college – and the people who live there.”

That’s exactly the kind of attitude that attracted Freebridge in the first place, as Hall said: “One of the reasons that we like Wayne’s style is that he doesn’t have a blueprint: he very much wants to work with the community and with local partners to see what we can achieve together.”

Freebridge, its residents, and other partners will adopt a measured approach to the project; they want to get it absolutely right. There’s no grant-imposed rush, since the project is funded entirely from the organisation’s business plan, so the intention is to take it steady and really go to town, as it were, in recreating the estate.

Early days though it may be, the excitement the project has inspired is palpable. As Hall said: “It’s really capturing people’s imagination.”