Report - Cane Hill Chapel, Coulsdon - July 2020

[RXQueen]

Apologies if in the wrong forum...as we passed by on our way home today I nipped up to the old Cane Hill site which is now one of the worst housing estates i’ve seen for a while. row after row of boring identical looking houses and blocks with absolutely no character. still, only went to see the chapel, talking to a resident it’s being restored as is the water tower by the looks of the scaffolding around it. thought i’d share.

 

[Olkka]

It's a vile housing estate isn't it

 

[RXQueen]

It's a vile housing estate isn't it

certainly is, lacks personality. i’d not seen it before today. when you see what they did with west park it has a bit of character but this place is dire

 

[clebby]

certainly is, lacks personality. i’d not seen it before today. when you see what they did with west park it has a bit of character but this place is dire

I personally think that it's an okay estate. The houses aren't to my taste, but at least they don't look like your typical Bovis/Barratt homes, and there's plenty of green space etc. Admittedly what they did with West Park is nicer, but that's because the buildings at West Park lent themselves to refurbishment. Whilst Cane Hill was undoubtedly a cool building, from an architectural standpoint it was utterly awful and hopelessly austere, and so it was always going to be torn down.

Nice work anyway - try and get up the tower if the scaffolding is still there!

 

[tumbles]

I personally think that it's an okay estate. The houses aren't to my taste, but at least they don't look like your typical Bovis/Barratt homes, and there's plenty of green space etc. Admittedly what they did with West Park is nicer, but that's because the buildings at West Park lent themselves to refurbishment. Whilst Cane Hill was undoubtedly a cool building, from an architectural standpoint it was utterly awful and hopelessly austere, and so it was always going to be torn down.

Nice work anyway - try and get up the tower if the scaffolding is still there!

I agree I don't actually dislike what they've done. They were never going to do a WP job on it, the area isn't as valuable and yep as interesting as CH was in its decayed form it was almost prison like and completely fucked. It'd not converted well.