Housing activists urge London mayor to save Clockwork Orange estate

Social housing provider Peabody wants to raze 1960s Lesnes estate used in Kubrick film but residents say homes could be refitted

Residents of a brutalist 1960s estate in south-east London featured by Stanley Kubrick in his dystopian film A Clockwork Orange are resisting plans to demolish their homes, warning it will result in homelessness, debt and carbon pollution.

Peabody, one of Britain’s biggest providers of social housing, is asking the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, for permission to raze the Lesnes estate in Thamesmead. The development was called “a town of tomorrow” by its Greater London Council architects before disrepair and unemployment blighted the area. Land values in the area have since increased with the arrival of the Elizabeth line railway in 2022, which has connected the area to the West End of London in 23 minutes.