Heath House

A young girl’s innocent play is interrupted, her attention focused on the clawing away of a neighbouring high rise block of flats . Piece by piece, room by room, memory by memory, it disappears before her eyes, dramatically altering her environment. Heath House was the first of the six residential blocks destined to be destroyed by 2023 to make way for a controversial ‘regeneration’ of the Druids Heath estate. The local authority have housed some of the city’s most vulnerable people in these blocks whilst also proceeding to remove the local senior school, public house and social club. Hugely reduced funding has deprived the community further, leading to unemployment, crime and substance misuse. Negative stereotyping and discrimination plague the residents who endeavour to hold on to their pride and fiercely defend their homes and their right to stay in the area despite the council’s punitive ‘clearance process’. I have been documenting the stories and portraits of Druids Heath residents since 2019. Commissioned by Place Prospectors CIC, ‘A Level Playing Field’ projet. I captured this scene whilst travelling between locations on assignment last year. I gained the mother’s consent and later interviewed the family for the ‘A Level Playing Field’ project.