De Beauvoir Estate

Phase 1

Around 189 new homes at 5 sites across the De Beauvoir Estate:

• the depot located at the corner of Downham Road and Southgate Road
• 81 Downham Road (formerly the temporary site of Hackney New Primary School) and the adjacent ball court and Tenants and Residents Association building
• Balmes Road podium garages
• the depot located at the corner of Downham Road and De Beauvoir Road
• the car parking spaces on the corner of Downham Road and Hertford Road

Phase 2

Around 120 homes across 4 new buildings at sites around the Queensbridge and De Beauvoir neighbourhood housing offices.

This would include demolishing:

• the Queensbridge and De Beauvoir neighbourhood housing office at 31 De Beauvoir Road
• the Hackney Council depot on Balmes Road
• Trinity Court
• commercial units at 19, 21, 23, 25, 27 and 29 De Beauvoir Road and 57, 59, 61, 63 and 65 Downham Road

At least 50% of these homes will be available for social rent and shared ownership, with the rest available for outright sale – this would help to pay for them with little government funding for social housing.

The social rent homes will be allocated to families on our housing waiting list, with priority for residents in priority need living on the De Beauvoir Estate.

The shared ownership and outright sale homes will be sold by our in-house sales team, Hackney Sales, in accordance with our sales and marketing principles.

They are prioritised for people living and working in Hackney who are unable to afford to buy a home outright but are unlikely to be prioritised for social housing.

As part of the plans for phase 2, we’ve been holding more detailed discussions with Trinity Court residents about incorporating the 6 homes here into the redevelopment plans – helping us to increase the number of genuinely affordable new homes that we build, but crucially also allowing the Council tenants living there to move directly to a purpose-built, high-quality new Council home on the estate.

In June 2021 we began the process of balloting the residents of Trinity Court on the proposals. The results for this ballot came back with the majority of residents voting in favour of the redevelopment of the building.

All Council tenants at Trinity Court will be guaranteed the right to move into a new, modern Council home at De Beauvoir at a genuinely affordable social rent, alongside compensation for the cost and disruption of moving.

The plans for new homes are part of a coordinated investment in the estate, which includes:

• hundreds of new kitchens and bathrooms installed for existing residents
• better public spaces, drainage and security
  refurbishment of Fermain Court and the Rose Lipman Building
• a new home for the De Beauvoir Estate tenants and residents association

We’ve appointed award-winning architects Henley Halebrown, Stephen Taylor and Vogt Landscape to develop designs for both phases.

Using the same team means that there is a joined-up design approach which considers the estate as a whole, prioritising new routes and public space on the estate.

We’ll soon appoint an architect team to progress ideas for the second phase of new homes.
We’ve set up a dedicated steering group made up of local residents, chaired by Councillor James Peters, which works independently with the architects to ensure residents’ ambitions are at the heart of the design process.

If you could be directly affected by redevelopment plans, please speak to your independent tenant and leaseholder advisors, PPCR.

Throughout the design process, we’re hosting lots of opportunities for you to have your say and ensure your views and knowledge feed into the plans.

We’ve also spoken directly to residents and businesses who could be affected by any redevelopment plans to reassure them and explain the guarantees we would offer them if any proposals did go ahead.

Since 2018 the Council, the design team and the resident steering group have been developing the proposals for new homes and other changes across both phases.

A planning application for phase 1 was submitted in Autumn 2021.

We’ll continue to develop the proposals for phase 2, with a planning application expected to be submitted in 2022.