Tower Hamlets estate residents face ‘horror’ mould and dangerous conditions. Now they’re fighting back
By Isabella McRae Big Issue Social Justice Reporter
SPECIAL REPORT
Lorraine Byrne scrubs and scrubs the walls, but the black mould keeps coming back. She lives in a damp and cold two-bed council flat with her husband and four children on the Nags Head estate in East London.
Last winter she moved the chest of drawers in the bedroom where her three eldest children sleep, and mould covered in fluff stretched up the unit. “I just want to know that my kids aren’t suffering from breathing in those damp spores,” Byrne, 38, says. “There’s only so much you can do. We can mask it but it’s still there. It’s in the air. It’s in the walls. It’s like one of those horror movies.”
Byrne’s neighbours face similarly dangerous living conditions – black mould causing respiratory problems, slugs coming through the floors, crumbling staircases and mice. Their housing association Peabody, a non-profit claiming to “create affordable homes and inclusive communities where people can flourish”, has failed to provide long-term solutions. Residents on the Tower Hamlets estate have had enough of feeling ignored and blamed. They are grouping together to fight back and demand better living conditions.
Supported by the London Renters Union, Disability Rights UK and Medact, the residents have been connected to lawyers and journalists putting pressure on the housing association, and they are hopeful they will finally see change and inspire other estates to rise up against their landlords.
“I want to get my placard out and go marching,” Byrne says. “We were made to feel like we were alone and it was our fault, but we’re not on our own. We’re not going to suffer in silence.”
The group was started by residents Kevin Birdeman and his partner Helena Walsh, who both have experience in activism. There has always been old-fashioned neighbourliness on the estate, which grew during the pandemic. They hosted gardening activities and a Jubilee party.
As they met more people, they realised the severity of problems. They began leafleting and started a WhatsApp group and now have a newsletter and meet regularly in a local pub where they are referred to as “the mould people”.
“We wouldn’t have thought mould would bring people together, but it’s also been really lovely,” Birdeman says. “Individually we
