‘I Am Convinced I Shall Achieve Something Valuable If I Can Brighten the Lives of the People Here’: Bombsites, Housing and Art in Lambeth

Rosamund Lily West

doi:10.1080/03058034.2019.1706952

Abstract

After the Second World War, artist Peter Laszlo Peri approached the London County Council with the idea of creating sculptural reliefs with a family theme in coloured concrete on two of Lambeth’s new housing estates. The results were three reliefs: ‘Following the Leader (Memorial to the Children Killed in the Blitz)’, 1949, on the Vauxhall Gardens estate and ‘Boys Playing Football’, 1951–52, and ‘Mother with Children Playing’, 1951–52, on the nearby South Lambeth estate. After the war, the reconstruction and improvement of housing were crucial. The London County Council planned for large areas of London to be rebuilt: including an ambitious programme of housing. This paper looks at these artworks within the context of the housing they sit amongst. I read these sculptural reliefs, created between 1949 and 1952, within the LCC’s post-war housing and community policies and as symbols of Lambeth’s renewal. This paper places these reliefs, and their settings, within the wider context of debates surrounding the post-war renewal of London, community participation and placemaking.

Highlights

After discussing the London County Council (LCC)’s treatment of communities within their replanning of London, I shall examine the three artwork’s physical setting within the reconstruction of the immediate area: the two estates they were installed upon, as well as the wider context of the LCC’s housing and public art policies in the post-war years
Peri produced Following the Leader (Memorial to the Children Killed in the Blitz), installed on the Vauxhall Gardens estate, as well as Boys Playing Football and Mother and children playing on the nearby South Lambeth estate
The Vauxhall Gardens estate Whilst the South Lambeth estate is notable due to the amount of bomb damage on that land, in contrast, the Vauxhall Gardens estate, the site of Following the Leader (Memorial to the Children Killed in the Blitz), seen in figure 3, was subject to attacks in the area but did not suffer any direct damage on that site

Summary

Introduction

After discussing the LCC’s treatment of communities within their replanning of London, I shall examine the three artwork’s physical setting within the reconstruction of the immediate area: the two estates they were installed upon, as well as the wider context of the LCC’s housing and public art policies in the post-war years. “I am convinced I shall achieve something valuable if I can brighten the lives of the people here”: bombsites, housing and art in Lambeth Introduction This paper discusses three sculptural reliefs by the artist Peter Laszlo Peri installed upon two state-built social housing estates in Lambeth after the Second World War. Both estates were built by the London County Council (LCC).

Results

Conclusion