Description: The story of Lea View House, Hackney made as a sequel to the 1930s film Housing

Problems. Starting from the opening of Lea View House in 1939 presented as part of the new housing replacing the slums of the earlier film, it recounts the pleasure the new tenants found in occupying the flats. By 1969 however, newer tenants moving told a different story and found Lea View to be run down and neglected. Many of the flats were overcrowded, damp, infested with rot and contributing to health problems - a pattern similar to that of the slums thirty years before. A tenants association was formed and moved to convince Hackney Council to modernise the estate according to their needs. A group of architects came up with a plan for modernisation that would allow most of the tenants to stay on site during construction. Believing in tenant participation they held a regular open practice, made a comments book for residents and made a social survey in which half the households were consulted on their wants and needs. The architects also held weekly meeting with the tenants association over a 2-3 month period leading to a formal presentation of their plans to tenants in their community hall. The plan involved altering the flats internal structure, replacing the windows, adding gas central heating and a solar heating system and introducing elevators. While both council and tenants were pleased with the plans, Lea View was not considered a priority. A protest march by tenants led to the council reconsidering, The tenants requested local builders, who they welcomed with a breakfast party on their day of arrival. In July 1983 the first of the renewed blocks opened. The film includes comment from Peter Kahn, the Deputy Leader of Hackney Council; Dolly Pritchard and Brenda Nutley of the Lea View Tenants Association; Architects John Thompson and Ian Chown; Estate Co-ordinator Dick Head; and Construction Manager Bill Davidson.