Hackney People
Alice Burke
From the day Alice Burke first walked into her home more than three decades ago, she’s loved and fought for her estate.
“I get calls at two in the morning: ‘Alice I’m locked out, Alice I’ve got no water, Alice there’s water pouring into the flat’. Sometimes I don’t even know who they are, but it’s always ‘my neighbour told me you might be able to help’. I can’t refuse, if someone is in trouble I want to help,” said the chair of Nightingale estate’s Tenant Residents’ Association (TRA).
“I remember when I first came here in 1975, it was snowing and most of the estate hadn’t been built yet.
My husband and I were shown our home and it was so warm, so beautiful. I whispered to him ‘quick, sign up, do it before they change their minds’,” she recalled.
Previously Alice, her husband and children lived in private housing in Chingford, Essex, but became tired of outside toilets, zinc baths in front of a fire, and property so damp mushrooms grew on the walls. After wrangling with the now defunct Greater London Council (GLC) – ‘I threatened to leave my children with them’ – the family were placed in social housing in Stamford Hill and later Clapton.
“When I saw an upstairs bathroom, two toilets and a kitchen three times the size of our old one, I couldn’t believe it. The kids had so many baths the bills went through the roof,” Alice laughed.
The early years in their new home passed with evenings of community entertainment and youth clubs and Alice joined the TRA to give something back. “Then came the muggings and the smashing in of doors. There was an old lady who lived on the first floor. They kicked her door in and held a knife to her throat to get her money,” she said.
Things got worse in 1986 when the GLC was disbanded.
Alice said: “The estate became a slum. There were refuse strikes, rubbish all over the roads and when our own TRA disbanded, it was open season on the estate: squatters, prostitutes, sexual assaults, everything.”
In the 1990s, several estates in Hackney were in line for Government funding. Nightingale was one, but needed a stronger TRA. With Alice as chair, the Nightingale Residents Association (NRA) was reformed.
“We worked with the police and Council to clear out the crime,” she said.
The community started to rise again. “On Christmas Eve 1993, I got a call: “Alice, we got it!” I said got what?
“The money, we got the money!” The Government had approved Nightingale estate to receive £60million.
The NRA continued to work with the Council to make further improvements to the estate, such as a new playground. Affordable housing for families in nearby flats and estates was also built – incorporating design ideas from the NRA.
“The tower blocks (blown up by Alice on BBC’s ‘Top Gear’) were replaced with one and two bedroom flats, not above five floors; three, four and five bedroom houses called ‘lifetime homes’ to make allowances for if you become disabled in later life.”
All these achievements are even more admirable after suffering personal tragedies, including five strokes and losing both her husband and daughter within a year.
“I threw myself into the community – it was my way of grieving,” she said.
And her efforts have not gone unnoticed: last December she won the Ron Devoti award at the Hackney Homes Active Residents Awards 2009.
“It’s nice to get thanks for the work you do, but the most important thing is that it has helped.
“You can walk around the flats at night now; it’s a nice estate, a quiet estate.
People smile and say hello, people you don’t even know – that’s when you know you’ve got a good community.”
Curriculum vitae
- 1937 Born in Camden, London
- 1975 Moves into Nightingale estate, Clapton
- 1993 Nightingale estate earmarked to receive £60million funding
- 2003 Blows up two tower blocks on BBC’s ‘Top Gear’
- 2009 Wins Ron Devoti accolade at Hackney Homes Active Residents Awards
Page updated: 15 Jun 2010
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