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Location: Rising Grove, Laindon Photographer: Year of photo: June 1977 Copyright: Basildon History Online Comments: Rising Grove street party held to mark Her Majesty the Queen's Silver Jubilee. |
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Location: Rising Grove, Laindon Photographer: Year of photo: August 1978 Copyright: Basildon History Online Comments: Housing and playing green at Rising Grove. |
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Location: Bluehouse, Laindon Photographer: Year of photo: June 1990 Copyright: Comments: |
| Bluehouse Housing Estate |
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The former Laindon 1, 2 and 3 housing estate, often remembered as the 'Siporex' estate,
(named after a new building material developed in Sweden), or the 'Bluehouse' estate,
(the former farm called Bluehouse which stood close to the site now occupied by the Bluehouse Farm Community Centre).
The estate was constructed to Basildon Development Corporation approved designs in the early to mid 1960s by contractors French and Costain, using new building methods - but proved over time to be problematic with various structure defects requiring expensive renovation work. By 1966 new tenants were already in occupation in street names called Spurriers, Rising Grove, The Lynge, Northey and Danacre with the corporation being their landlord. In the late 1970s and into the 1980s the development corporation built a new housing estate, (Laindon 8 and 9) adjacent to an extended Durham Road in Laindon. Many of the first tenants in these new homes were from the 'Bluehouse' estate, vacating properties which were then subject to remedial work in the form of a strengthening ceiling support beam and new window frames. This proved to be a temporary solution and the estate began to suffer general neglect with some parts, particularly the areas below the decks, becoming prone to crime. The decision was taken to demolish and start again and in doing so this also meant 'buying back' properties sold following the 'right to buy', introduced in the 1970s. The estate was demolished in stages from the mid 1990s onwards and replaced with new conventional housing. Four blocks of 4 storey flats, 2 in Northey and 2 in Danacre, were retained during the redevelopment programme, which also included new street names, with Danacre being the only name retained from the former estate. The housing estate is now known as Church View. Text written 2001 with revisions 2002-2007. Copyright © 2001-2007, Basildon History Online. All rights reserved. |
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