Plot 10 and Tessa Jowell Court

AFTER a social building in Somers Town was nominated for the most prestigious award in architecture, the community projects inside have reflected on how much their new space has helped disadvantaged children.

The pioneering play centre Plot 10 and the adjacent social homes Tessa Jowell Court have been shortlisted alongside five other schemes across the UK for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling prize.

They will find out this evening (Thursday) if they have won. Plot 10 has a wheelchair accessible adventure playground with a drop slide, a rooftop football pitch, a garden and ample space for children to play and shout – a rarity in built-up Somers Town where 50 per cent of children grew up in poverty.

But it wasn’t always operating from the roomy space. Plot 10 was opened in the summer of 1973 by a group of like-minded parents in a log cabin on a former bombsite. Staff ate lunch on top of each other in a box-like, windowless staffroom.

After 10 years of planning, with kids working alongside Adam Khan architects, the new space opened in Chalton Street in September 2020.

Councillor Danny Beales with Sally Warren and Zoe Bishop, and, below, the cabin where Plot 10 began

Children from local schools – Our Lady’s, Edith Neville, Richard Cobden and St Mary’s – are picked up via a walking bus, given home-cooked hot snacks, do homework and play across the massive site. Staff also operate a dis­crete food bank service for parents and chill-out zones for kids with mental health challenges.

ooking around the huge playroom, centre manager Sally Warren said: “It was so exciting coming from the log cabin. The reason I’m so proud of this is because, 50 years on, we’re still here. We’re still the hub of the community and this place was built with the community and the children in mind. Some of the kids get to Year 6 and they don’t want to leave. So they come back as young volunteers.”

Zoe Bishop, vice chair and parent who lives in the area, said: “We live in a very small flat. I’m very conscious about noise because my son can be loud. You can’t kick a football. And there’s signs up everywhere that say ‘no ball games’. Where are they supposed to play?

“My son is football crazy. It’s hard. We’ve got a Somers Town youth club around the corner but apart from that there’s not a lot to do around here. There are not a lot of open spaces.  “Predominantly, most of us live in flats with no gardens. So the football pitch is such an asset. They love it.”

New play facilities

Theatre mentoring charity Scene and Heard was also given a home at the site after operating remotely in Somers Town for 24 years.

The organisation, whose patrons include Damian Lewis and Bill Nighy, work with small numbers of children from local schools who are individually mentored for free to write their own mini plays, which are then performed by professional actors at Theatro Technis. There are no rules, except that there are no human characters.

Chief executive Roz Paul MBE said: “The plays are all animals, objects and objects in nature. So you’ll have a play between a hurricane and a piece of cake. We had a tango-dancing murderous ketchup sachet. These characters are given real gravitas by professional actors who are elevating the children’s words, so we don’t change or edit the words in any way.”

Cabinet councillor Danny Beales said: “For a local authority to be competing against developments in the private sector makes an important statement politically about what councils can do if they are given the proper resources. There were people who didn’t want it to happen. It’s only when everything is complete that it feels like it’s universally obvious that this would happen. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t be challenged, but when you think of the West Kentish Town estate or other projects we’re doing – there were similar voices around for this project.”