Another redeveloped estate is the Mardyke Estate in Rainham, East London; originally built for the Ford Dagenham Factory workers in the 1960s (Circle Anglia, 2009). It consisted of six high-rises and a number of four-five story blocks. It has gone through urban decay, crime rates rapidly escalated over the years. After the regeneration, there has been a name change to ‘Orchard Village’ to shed negative connotations. According to Alwakeel’s interview with a councillor involved with the redevelopment, the estate “...was appallingly designed - it wasn’t energy-efficient, it had high levels of crime, there were poor-quality living conditions and lots of issues with dumping and graffiti. It wasn’t particularly loved. Nobody wanted to move there. We had a large number of flats we couldn’t let. It was really quite a sad, hostile environment” (2013). Now, the high-rises have been demolished, and complexes with ‘better’ design have taken their place, to the liking of the residents. The original estate has been used as setting for a number of films, including Made in Dagenham (2010) and Fish Tank (2009). The former is set in 1968, and presents the early years of the estate, while the latter takes place in the late 2000s. Through these two films, how the estate was represented in film can be examined and in this unique instance, compared with its altered temporal states.
The 1968 Ford sewing machinist strike, and the demand for equal pay is the subject of Made in Dagenham (2010). It was filmed on location at the Mardyke Estate, which actually served as housing for the Ford workers (Allott, 2010). It depicts the housing scheme as vibrant, safe and cordial environment. The interiors of Rita’s flat (the main character) has boldly painted walls. It has plenty of natural light, vivid wallpapers, and fairly standard sixties decoration. This setting is trying to convey a pleasant family life in the estate. There is no antisocial behaviour to observe. People can wander around at night, returning home after a party; they can share tea with their neighbours in public areas. The lawns are green, the fences painted bright red. Even the ‘streets in the sky’ that lead to the flats seem normal, with laundry drying on lines (Fig. 8). The lighting is always bright, highlighting the fresh exterior of the buildings, and the general vivacity of the characters.
During a scene when Rita goes to talk with the teacher who has been caning her son, the teacher says that children from the estate have difficulty with discipline due to their working class families. It is a snarky comment on the community, uncalled for and insensitive. The film clearly wants to make the point, albeit not related to the main plot, that there is a stigma attached to council estates, even at the initial stages of their conception. Working class people who used to live in London has been expelled to the outskirts of the city. Although this problem is passingly hinted at, nothing more comes of it. In general, the film depicts the estate as charming and livable.
The film Fish Tank (2009) follows fifteen year old Mia, and her unconventional coming of age story. It was also filmed at the Mardyke Estate, in a more contemporary setting. Mia is a problem child, insufficiently parented, talks provocatively, goes to places she should not be in, and engages in illegal behaviour. Despite all this, she is still a child. The film goes on to follow her relationship with her mother’s boyfriend Connor and its consequences, portraying a striking and well-rounded character development. As Newman argues, her actions may be caused by residing in a high-rise estate, which leads to lack of perception of individual privacy and difficulty comprehending territorial signals (1972, p. 13). Ian Christie observes: “...[while other films] offered feel-good takes on what the Conservative leader David Cameron likes to call ‘broken Britain,’ where ‘talent’ of the kind displayed on TV shows can bring fame and fortune—Fish Tank has no such reassuring message. But neither does it wallow in deprivation” (2011).
The first scene shows Mia in an abandoned flat in the estate, practicing her dance moves. She is filmed standing in front of the windows from behind, leaving the interiors and herself dark and shadowy, the outside vivid and fresh (Fig. 9). Immediately, the viewer can glimpse into Mia’s mind, she is feeling confined and a whole world is outside waiting for her. This room she chooses as her private space to practice her passion, dancing, is also worn down; with pieces of wallpaper and flooring borders missing. Similar to Heygate Estate, the Mardyke creates visually satisfying results on camera. There are wonderful snaps of it, especially the ones depicting daily life at the very end of the film. It is not portrayed as overbearing or suffocating, the viewer gets a sense of ordinariness. There are little girls lying on the lawn sunbathing. The lawns are still green. Children are seen playing in the open corridors. People are shouting rudely but playfully across flats. The red painted fences are still there. The most drastic difference might be the tenants, and the general physical deterioration of the estate over the decades. It is always sunny and bright, so the crisp contrast between the sky and the buildings create an intriguing visual. As Cuming recognises; “The estate is poor and rowdy, but it is never a scene of bland conformity and homogeneity. Moreover, Arnold [the director] notably infuses her mise-en-scène with colour, shooting sequences in what seems like a nostalgic prism of the height of summer, off-setting the white tower blocks against a blue sky, and always highlighting the shared –although not necessarily ‘communal’ – spaces of mass housing” (2013, p. 336).
Mia walks down open corridors to reach her flat, similarly shot as Made in Dagenham (Fig. 10). Interestingly, their front door is kept open, probably to increase air circulation. The interiors are messy and cluttered. Paint on the banisters, and the stairs have been worn out. The vibrancy in Made in Dagenham is nonexistent, the walls and windows have fractures and cracks in them, the whole place looks a tad miserable. Lack of maintenance is clearly portrayed. Although many of the same angles have been used as Made in Dagenham, the rooms also look smaller (Fig. 11). It may be intentional, to convey a sense of entrapment. There is natural light though, and lots of it. It is not dark and dangerous, it is bright and everything is visible.
There is a single take, where Mia exits her room, rushes down the stairs inside, pulls the front door open, runs along the open corridor, down the stairwell, and out the main exit to the street. The stairwell is the only dark space through this shot, which could be due to camera settings adapted to the illumination outside. The front door of the block seems to be secure, so strangers are prohibited. The film does not choose to convey Mardyke Estate’s tale of crime and danger in dark corners. In the end, Mia discovers Connor’s house in a suburb, with two-story houses. The house is larger, fashionably decorated by clearly well-earning people, with a good sized backyard. The stark difference between these living quarters emphasises the betrayal and anger Mia feels towards her life. Choosing to portray character development with architectural variations is a very clever use of location. Overall, the film tells a moving story of a young girl who is figuring the world out and trying to change her circumstances.
Council estates still have the stigma attached to them. Examples such as Aylesbury, Heygate, Mardyke, and more recently Robin Hood Gardens, show how the government chooses to handle these estates. The discourse is very complex, with contrasting opinions about the cause of urban decay and social decline. Hopefully, research and discussions will lead to more satisfying solutions in the future, both for the residents and the councils. The common ground on these mentioned films that handle council estates is the social construct, and how the estates are perceived by the public. Either excessively dramatised or realistic, portrayed comedically or neutrally, the interest in council estates by filmmakers is apparent. They certainly bring the discourse to a larger audience, and will help introduce more innovative approaches, rather than “...the state-led gentrification of council estates that are ‘constructed’ as ‘slums’ by local councils and the media in order to impose new programmes of urban renewal, that is gentrification, on them” for the housing problem (Lees and Ferreri, 2015).
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This paper was originally titled “Representation of Council Estates in Fictional Films: The Heygate Estate and The Mardyke Estate as Locations” written for the module Representation of Cities.
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