As a little boy, Kris Lalaj would watch with envy as his big sister ran around Kensal House estate in west London, being trailed by a video camera. From his balcony, he could see her howling with laughter, being chased by other children who were making a film with the well-loved but rundown community theatre that sat at the bottom of the estate.
“I wanted to be like her,” he says. “It’s what got me into acting, really.”
Lalaj now heads a podcast about council negligence, social housing and the performing arts, which will soon be released. He credits SPID theatre as giving him the skills and confidence to take on the project.
“SPID stands for social, progressive, interconnected, diverse,” its founder, Helena Thompson, says. “We make art that advocates for housing justice.” This mission has grown over the 18 years since the theatre group started and has become even more pressing as conditions on the estate deteriorated.
But by the time Lalaj reached his 20s, the theatre had become dilapidated and unsafe. Like many of the homes on the estate, it was filled with mould after random flooding from ancient and broken pipework.
To stand the test of time, it and the 68 surrounding flats in the 1930s Grade II-listed building desperately needed investment. “The location of this place was amazing. But the building was not all right … it needed upgrades to make it better for future kids to come in and explore,” he says.
When the theatre was able to raise £2.6m from donations and grants to renovate the community rooms, Lalaj was ecstatic.
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council (RBKC) agreed to the access and safety works in August 2021, with work planned to start just after. They also agreed to contribute towards the cost of a lift.
Last month – more than a year after the initial planned opening and with more than 70% of the work complete – the theatre was forced to cease its refurbishment.
SPID’s contractors had run out of money. Delays on the council’s part meant renovations did not begin until June 2022, and though the council told SPID it had fixed and prevented the leaks, they persisted.
SPID’s co-chair Naomi Israel says she was not surprised to be failed by RBKC, the landlords of Grenfell Tower. Israel lost two friends to the fire, and people’s pleas for safer conditions at Kensal House were another example of the council’s “system neglect”, she says. “The residents have constantly complained about mould, leaks and condensation on the windows … [RBKC] want to be seen to be listening, but they’re not.”
A few years after Sylvia Akajioyi moved into a flat above the theatre with her family in 2006, sewage water started streaming into their home. “It was just a nightmare … water was coming through the kitchen sink, water was coming from everywhere,” she says.
The council was “very sympathetic” at first, but after someone visited, no further action was taken. Five months later, the flat flooded again. Her husband’s dialysis machine was destroyed, along with their furniture, clothes, shoes, washing machine and oven. “The council sounded as though they were going to be helpful, but they weren’t,” she says. SPID stepped in and Akajioyi and her husband were eventually rehoused.
Caroline Tchikou still lives with the threat of floods in her neighbouring flat. In the five years since she moved there, it has flooded at least three times. “The water was pumping out,” she says, pointing to the kitchen sink. “I’m running out of towels. I’ve even used a mattress protector to soak up some of the water … I’m just not being listened to.”
When the development stalled and it was clear work to repair the flats would not begin, Israel, Thompson and another co-chair, Sophia Ollivierre, united with residents to launch a class-action lawsuit against RBKC in February this year. SPID asked for £700,000 to cover the cost of the delays. Mediation is continuing but no meeting has been set.
Dan Hawthorn, RBKC’s executive director for housing and social investment, said: “Everyone deserves a safe, warm and secure place to live. We’re working at Kensal House to tackle these concerns for residents.
“Kensal House is Grade II-listed and 85 years old. Water pipes are embedded within the concrete floor, which makes finding and repairing leaks particularly hard, and the listed status makes it impossible to replace the pipes across the entire building.
“We’re committed to a course of mediation with SPID and are working to set up our next meeting with them.”
Thompson is optimistic about the theatre’s future. “Our hopes of completing the refurbishment are another way of saying that we hope to continue investing in the community … theatre ought to be of the people.
“We hope that the social housing community we work with in Kensal House, in North Kensington and beyond, continue to thrive and prosper with us as allies, standing up for housing justice, moving people with our art, sharing people’s stories, celebrating the history and the community that is in the DNA of the architecture of these buildings.”
