Co-operation street

CO-OPERATION STREET

London’s housing crisis in figures*:

• 400,000 people on social housing waiting lists in London
• Just over 10,000 affordable housing starts in the Capital
• Average property prices are already 22% higher this year.

Is there another way?

Sanford Housing Co-operative is Europe's oldest purpose built housing co-operative, built in 1975 by a group of students from the London School of Economics. It was an innovative form of housing ownership at that time, and officially opened by Prince Philip.

Since then, we've fallen behind in co-operative housing provision. Co-opertively owned housing is just 0.1% of the UK housing stock, compared with 17% in Sweden. As London faces an ever-worsening housing crisis, and home ownership gets further and further from the grasp of most, could it be time to look again at co-operative ownership?

Situated in New Cross, South East London, the members of Sanford Co-op have turned a derelict waste land into a beautiful oasis and thriving housing co-op. It is fully mutually managed and democratically run by its members. As many struggle to keep up with the rising cost of living, Sanford is bucking the trend and running at a significant financial surplus.

Demand for places at the Sanford Housing Co-op massively outstrips supply - in 2013 there were 187 applications for just 17 available rooms. The appetite for co-operative housing and co-operative ways of living is here - we think it's time we started looking at our woefully inadequate provision.

Adrian Nettleship invites people to take a look around Sanford Walk, with his virtual tour and website. Stroll down the street, take look at how Sanford's members have shaped their living environment, and listen to interviews with current residents.

Take a stroll down Sanford Walk

Adrian Nettleship

Adrian Nettleship is a photographer based in East London. He has a special interest in sound recording and has been building interactive photography projects since 2009. Past projects include Occupy and Explore, based on a residential squat in South London, and Phlight, an interactive visit to artist Simon Tyszko's flat and the wing of a Dakota Aircraft he has installed there.

ontrary to this, he feels a strange affinity for modernist concrete architecture.

07931272402

[email protected] www.adriannettleship.com