North Kensington: The Aftermath
Vasiliki of Bramley House W10
35 years resident of North Kensington
I remember a young lady who died with her mother in Grenfell, and was persecuted with eviction for her efforts to prove that the cladding was unsafe. Apparently she saw through the window when somebody else tried to put out a cigarette, and the surface just melted. It didn’t catch fire, but she was concerned that it was not fire-resistant - and she was trying to make a case of it.
We also know that the correspondence of nearly three hundred complaints about fire safety was raised and communicated to the Tenant Management Organization (TMO) of Grenfell, and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), via a local councilor representing the interests of the residents in this matter.
Nevertheless, despite the seriousness of the issue concerning health and safety, no form of action or even threat of action was taken place against the TMO or the RBKC.
Bramley House, where I have lived for 35 years, was one of the blocks significantly impacted during the fire of June 14th 2017.
Witnessing the fire has caused emotional trauma in the community, which has had severe consequences on both our physical and mental health. We have been directly affected by the events that took place, as well as the response of central government in the days immediately following the fire.
We still face the future with uncertainty, and no one knows what the long-term effects might be.
I’ve lived in North Kensington for three decades and we have always worried a lot about the regeneration schemes laid out in 2015. We personally didn’t agree to them. Unfortunately, our building and the neighboring estates were marked for demolition in all three different plans. These plans were made up until a year ago, talking about demolishing and rebuilding the community […] Many people decided to move out. Of course, their lives were very much disrupted. This meant that all of the residents had to move out from their flats and live somewhere else.
Lynda of Silchester Road,
38 years resident of North Kensington
That cladding they put on Grenfell to make it look more glamorous, that’s all they put it on for... because what good is it to anyone? It’s not good, is it?
Thank God they didn’t put it on the others.
We had letters come through that said the council was going to pull down the other estates - but since Grenfell happened, it’s all backfired. That’s why they didn’t want to spend any money doing work on them.
They gave us all the plans and they put them through the letterbox, telling us what they were going to the area. They wanted to do it up like a little village, build little houses, make it all nice and that. And where were we supposed to go? Out in Mongolia, I suppose. They don’t care, do they? As long as they get what they want.
And now, they’ve had to put it off. They’ve got no money because of Grenfell. It’s all gotten away.
I’ve paid into the system all my life.
My mom was born in Penzance Place, not far from here, in North Kensington. She was born just up the road where all the posh people live now. It’s all very rich there. But I can only remember growing up in Whitstable Tower next to Grenfell. We moved from there when I was seventeen. It’s weird. The council never did nothing for those flats back then. Even here, they’re useless.
... Unless you own it, you’ll never get anything out of it.
Tarek Gotti, Henry Dickens Court W11,
Resident of North Kensington for 26 years
I moved here to Henry Dickens Court estate on the 23rd of September 2006. I was living in the States before that, but I had also lived in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea back in early 1992 on the border of Westminster. It has always been a lovely borough to live in, even when I lived in Westminster and Kensington Gardens.
When I came back in 2006, the Borough wasn’t the same anymore. The diversity had gone, and most of the people I knew before - whether they were Portuguese, Lebanese, Moroccan, and Jamaican – had all gone. After so many years, we were still being treated like third-class citizens.
We lost lots of the local coffee shops, pubs and restaurants. My pub was demolished and turned into a co-operative shop and another pub just round the corner was turned into private flats. I miss all those good things about this place that we used to have. I miss the generation that used to live here and the people who actually made this what it was for me. They’ve all been moved far away now because of the council and the changes to the area. We’ve never been included with anything.
And what’s amazing is I can point to five religious sites that are all friends. There’s the Portuguese Jewish synagogue, there’s the Iranian Shia mosque, then there is the Catholic Church, there is the Church of England, and then there is the Hindu Sikhs; they’re all in one street and each one facing the other. They all come together as a community.
That’s what we’ve always had before, and we still have it. That’s the only thing that is still beautiful about this Borough; that those five religious groups are there.
When I think about being offered a flat on the 24th floor of Grenfell Tower, before the fire, and how the council claimed they didn’t know I was disabled and mentally ill - I realize now what could have happened to me had I gone through with it by force. Because it was forced – they said ‘take it or leave it’ when I was looking for housing.
... I lost a lot of friends in the fire. I lost a total of thirteen friends, including one family member. My kids lost most of their friends from the nurseries, and from the primary and secondary schools next door.
The council was never there for us; we told them about these buildings. We saw they had lots of major works that needed to be done. And if you’re going to do some kind of work, try to relocate people first and then start doing major works. We told them about this cladding, ‘What is it? Is it necessary to do one tall building and leave four behind?’ If you look at Grenfell, there are still four buildings left. And we know it was done because of the rich gym and the rich school next door. You can’t put an ugly building next to two rich, fabulous buildings.
As a resident, I feel I’ve been failed. They failed me.
I don’t trust them, I don’t trust their leaders and I don’t have hope in them anymore. The Government has failed me in every way. They see us as third class citizens, and then ignore us.
All we want is to live in peace and harmony together as one community - not as one religion or one colour or one nationality - we live as one. It’s called Britannia; we’re British. Why call this place home if you’re not allowed to be part of it?
It shouldn’t have taken Grenfell to happen for every ward, or every country, or every community to come together. It should have been happening from before Grenfell. Grenfell wouldn’t have happened if they had listened before about what the community wanted.
You should think a million times before you make one decision. You should get quotes before you hire one person, you should get estimates and you should make reviews of who’s done what perfect job on what. You need to start investigating. You need to start getting the backlogs that you have, your old blueprints, and start checking what buildings need proper work.
Because one life is all it takes for the entire community to break apart, but you’ve taken 72.
Teresa Griffin of Bramley House W10,
28 years resident North Kensington
I love this block. I really do. It is a really tight community. We go out of our way for people. If people move in, we bring something round to them at the tenants’ association, and let them know that there are people here that care.
The night of Grenfell, I really wish I’d stayed in bed and not seen anything. I really wished and prayed to God that I hadn’t heard (my daughter Amelia), and I’d just stayed in bed. I wish I’d been spared the memory – and I wish my daughter had been too.
She saw everything; she never budged. She never went to the toilet, she never got a drink, she did not budge - and we had the debris coming in on the balcony. It was everywhere… black. If you touched it, it would just disintegrate.
Amelia, my daughter, she’s always been a bit hypersensitive....
See that step there [points to porch facing Grenfell], she never budged from that step for a solid four and a half hours, and she was on the phone - texting her friend Jessie.
We could see them, one minute they were there, but then the black smoke came next and then the flames. It was the smoke that happened first. Nobody could understand why, but we know now that it was because the windows weren’t sealed. There were gaps in every window and that’s why the smoke came in. It was horrendous. It was absolutely horrendous. You really couldn’t believe it.
Bramley House would’ve been in the prize line for it (Grenfell), had the building fallen. There are people living here that should’ve been evacuated. The council didn’t value our lives enough to do that.
... When we got a letter from the council about three years ago, talking about refurbishments and ‘upping’ the area, and knocking down these flats in order to get the area looking ‘nice’ - I just couldn’t believe it. They wanted to knock it all down and build new homes.
We had the choice that if we wanted to come back [after the refurbishment], we could come back, but we wouldn’t be able to afford the rent and they knew that.
They were going to put us in temporary accommodation, but if we wanted to stay we could stay outside London. Most people are in Greenford and other areas.
When the council says, ‘You haven’t got an option, we’re knocking them down and that’s that.’ They can do it; it’s called a compulsory purchase.
I went to a couple of these meetings where they’d show us the plans for Notting Hill. It would knock us out in every way. Every working class person would be put out of the field - people who have been here a lifetime.
It was like class cleansing. They assured us it would be completely different. A large percentage of these private homes would be put for “affordable housing” and the rest would be privately owned. They were going to put us out and we had no choice in it - nothing - we didn’t have a say in it. They were doing it and that was that.
.... A lot of people had sleepless nights because of it.
Singh Minder, Goodrich Court W10,
Resident of north Kensington for 50 years
Ultimately the council made a mistake. I wouldn’t have moved here. I didn’t like it in the first place. I refused to take this place because I was staying on Kensington High Street. I had everything nearby - everything. I had Knightsbridge and the museums, so I didn’t want to move here (to Goodrich Court).
I’ve settled down now and I think I’d miss this place if I were to go away. Now I love it. I prefer it to South Kensington. It’s like a community here.
So people have come and said to me, ‘Why don’t you buy this place?’ I’m not going to buy this place. When I die, I want them to give it to somebody unfortunate, a person who needs it.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to be greedy, I have got enough. I am happy. When anything happens to me, it will go back to them and good luck to the next person who comes in here.’
The media has always stirred things. Do you think they’re really worried about what’s happened here (at Grenfell)? They’re not going to solve anything. They’re here to discuss it. They’ll discuss about how Syria has been bombed, Russia and America... so that people can ring up and offer their opinions. It’s a ‘whisk in the water’. Nothing is produced except bubbles.
I’m becoming so fed up. You give a news outlet enough discussion but never enough to make a solution?
Here at Goodrich Court, we’ve heard about the Housing Trust, which runs the estate, but they’re like gods - invisible. I said to myself ‘It’s easier to say a prayer to God, but it’s very hard to contact these people.’ I don’t know where they are.
They used to have an office where I could visit and see them directly to pay my rent, and if anything went wrong, I could tell them. Then they moved to Victoria and now they’ve disappeared.
Joseph Alfred of Hurstway Walk Lancaster Estate W10,
Resident for over 40 years
There were councellors at the beginning of the situation - of course - they were there. I went to them, but I wasn’t ready. I didn’t need any medical attention, but emotionally I was stressed.
I had to talk to some people to relieve my stress. I suppose I’m still stressed, but it hasn’t affected me mentally enough to send me to a madhouse.
But I’m strong enough to bounce back from that. Don’t forget, I’m looking at the building (Grenfell) everyday wherever I’m walking.
The emotions I hold today aren’t as strong as before from the early stages... the smell, the fumes...
... The local authority and central government showed very little interest in this half of the borough. To this present day, when compared to the south, the north is at a disadvantage in all aspects, such as employment, crime, investment and education.
My concern about the future of North Kensington and its residents pre-Grenfell fire, is that the council proposed the regeneration project that would demolish the houses surrounding Grenfell tower. My fear is that it will be disastrous if that occurs; a break up of a close-knit community, relocating residents to far-away places, and then having to adapt to a new environment.
I have lived in North Kensington for 54 long years. What brought me here was to join my parents. I was born in the paradise island of St Lucia.
The changes I have noticed in this location of the borough, the once famous Portobello Market, is declining. Most of the store vendors who made the market vibrant have left. Portobello Road used to have pubs for the working class, but they turned them into wine bars.
... The changes have been bad, because we in this community are worse off due to the loss of libraries, schools, police stations and community centres - due to underfunding by the local authority.
This building was erected in the ‘70s and there hasn’t been many repairs done.
What I have experienced living in social housing is that the houses are badly designed, with little consideration for health and safety. People live in high-rise buildings and they are detached from one another. Most of the tenants who live in council houses have no access to a lift. Repairs efficiency is terrible, and there’s not even a playing area for children.
I’ve lost a friend in the fire, and there were some people living around here that I knew. They’ve moved now. Some friends moved because they were more affected than me.
They move, and then friends are lost.
Elizabeth Stravoravdis of Kensal House W10,
Resident for 26 years in North Kensington
Since the fire, I have seen survivors more than survive. I have seen them become warriors. These are the people who are still in temporary housing, who are still in hotels.
I’ve seen the bereaved become conquerors. Because this is not normal to be crushed to such a point, where you turn into Hercules.
Despite knowing how powerless we are, we are still carrying on for our children and our grandchildren.
I like to think that even if they [the council] succeed in doing their social cleansing in this area, our children and grandchildren would’ve seen a heroism in us.
Noreen King, Trellick Tower W10,
30 years resident North Kensington
Whatever effort they (the council) makes, it will never be enough. The horror that everybody had to visually see, the horror that they had to physically feel, and those that literally put themselves out there to help and support the victims - will never be forgotten in any shape or form.
I think if I didn’t feel responsible for so many around me, children-wise or what-have-you, maybe I could have been selfish and been single-minded and just aim for something more. In my mind, I’ve always been at home. I need to make the home; I need to keep the home, for those who may need it. Apart from my own three children, I’ve helped to raise two others, who are my godchildren. I give them somewhere they’ll know I’ll always be. I haven’t moved on.
People say to me, ‘You’re still in Trellick?’ I say, ‘Yes, I’m still there. Most of you have moved on, but if you want to find me, I’m still here.’
It’s just my home. I’ve made it my home. Once I’ve put my roots in, I make sure that those of you who are around me, if you need somewhere to rest, you know where I am.
Over here (in Trellick Tower), there are so many nationalities. We all live together. We’re all in it together. There’s no one who’s higher or lower. Yes, we’re all from somewhere, struggling with something. But as a community I can guarantee you, we will come together.
But this country’s doing it all wrong, everything is all wrong.
From the time Margaret Thatcher came into power and her in stupidity, she allowed the selling off of council houses and not replacing them - what did she think was going to happen?
At the end of the day, people still need to be housed. And no, we can’t all afford what you (the council) have. We are at the bottom. But being at the bottom doesn’t mean we can’t be happy. It doesn’t mean you can’t help us out in the simplest of things.
Right now, the government has changed everything. If I wanted to downgrade and give a family my three-bedroom, they’d house me and leave my two young-adult children floating around to do something that they can’t afford. Well then... you’re not getting your three-bedroom, you’re not getting it.
And no, we’re not going to Manchester, we’re not going to Nottingham - because that’s what one council officer tried to make me do. I said, ‘Get lost. Born and raised in London, and you want to send me somewhere? why?’
My hope would be for the government and those that have the power to make decisions, to just look after those that are below your pay grade. Put the housing out there. Put enough out there for those who have got their children that need to move on, and can’t move on, or become independent.
Stop segregating our communities. Stop clumping people in as a majority and making others feel uncomfortable in their own skin, or in their own area. No one’s coming together as a community unless the community tries their best to do it. Stop spending your money in the wrong places.
Fix your country.
Judith Blakeman, W10,
North Kensington Resident 29 years
I lived in Ladbroke Grove from ‘71, and then I moved here next door to Lancaster West in ‘89. The area was very diverse then, but it was very rundown. It didn’t have the gentrification it’s got now. All the houses were falling apart and we had a lot of rapacious landlords, like Peter Rachman and Nicholas van Hoogstraten. The Victorian houses around here were falling apart, so the council built the Lancaster West Estate. It was a slum clearance programme and the leader of the council in those days was a chap called Sir Malby Crofton, whom we all disliked intensely.
You know, one of the reasons why the population of Kensington and Chelsea is falling, unlike the rest of London, is because these people buy up these flats as investments and live there only two weeks of the year. We’re constantly being told that’s really good for the borough’s economy, because when they’re here they’ll spend £2 million or £3 million… but of course not on local shops in North Kensington, but maybe Harrods. I mean, the Russians joke that they own most of Chelsea. I don’t think they own most of Chelsea, but they own quite large chunks of it.
Soon, council residents were told - before the Grenfell fire - that basically “this land is now very high value, and you’ve enjoyed living on it for long enough, but if you can’t afford to stay here then you’ll have to move. We (the council) will redevelop it and regenerate it, and only those of you with completely secure tenancies will get the opportunity to come back.”
It was social cleansing. Every time we mentioned social cleansing in council chamber we were told we mustn’t use that term. So, of course, we used it more and more frequently, because it was a proposal for social cleansing.
The original proposal for this area was far vaster. There was something called the Latimer Masterplan, and that involved knocking down the whole of Lancaster West, the whole of Silchester - and wider. All they would have had to do is just bought us out, or they would’ve taken us to court under compulsory purchase orders. But then they decided it was too complicated, so they fixed on Silchester Estate in the first instance.
That would’ve gone ahead had Grenfell Tower not happened.
I think that there are loads of lessons to be learned from Grenfell Tower, and I think one of the lessons is that social housing - that is genuinely affordable - should be part of the infrastructure of every large city and town; because otherwise they’re going to atrophy. Police officers, nurses, doctors, bus drivers, cannot afford to live here any longer.
It couldn’t have happened anywhere else, because it was a unique combination of circumstances.We’ll find out more about that in the inquiry. People keep saying, ‘Oh, it could’ve happened anywhere.’ No, it couldn’t.
The very, very small children, both those who escaped and those who were evacuated - they’re going to tell their grandchildren about this. That’s going to be three generations after us.
After the fire, I have been affected emotionally. I’ve been diagnosed with mild PTSD. It made me very angry. I want justice for Grenfell. I mean, it’s a slogan, but I want justice for Grenfell. Really nice people just died, they were burned to death for no reason, and it couldn’t have happened anywhere else. There were too many different things that all came together, and nobody listened to them.
