The Brook estate in Eltham, south-east London, was the home of four of the five youths suspected of murdering Stephen Lawrence in 1993. Built in the early 1950s, the estate is made up of semi-detached family homes which are generally regarded as good-quality housing. This article provides some historical background on race and housing in Eltham and identifies factors which have contributed to the locality being generally perceived as a 'no-go area' for black people. It is suggested that while structural and ideological processes such as class inequality and media representations are important elements fomenting racism, various national and local institutional factors, many of which can be traced back to the period following the Second World War, together have contributed to the notoriety of the area as a racist enclave. The Brook estate is not unique. Indeed most British cities include areas generally perceived as a hostile environment for black and ethnic minorities. Of course animosity towards minority groups has been a feature of British society throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,1 though 'the intrusion of anti-black racism into domestic politics, prior to 1948, was necessarily limited by the small size of the settled black population'.2 Most of the black communities prior to the Second World War lived in the poorest areas of seaport cities such as London, Liverpool and Cardiff.3 It was during the late 1940s and 1950s that black immigration to Britain increased exponentially. The postwar period of immigration to Britain was also an era of acute housing shortage; little provision was made for incoming immigrants and many of those arriving in Britain resorted to the only available housing option, the furnished private sector within the inner city. In effect this established a pattern of residential segregation which restricted black households to the inner and middle bands of British cities.4 The high levels of immigration coincided with the largest council-house programme undertaken. In the years of the Labour government 1945-51 one million council properties were built, and the programme was continued by the Conservatives. In the twenty-year period 1945-1965, 2.9 million council houses were completed.5 However, in spite of this large investment, the vast majority of black people were excluded from state housing. Research indicates that black people rarely registered for council properties, primarily because of a widespread assumption that their eligibility would be questioned.6 Many local authorities imposed residency requirements which prevented those who had lived in the area less than five years from joining waiting lists. In addition, even when slum-clearance programmes were undertaken, several local authorities