We Love Camden

The £65 million environmentally sustainable improvement project carried out on the Chalcots Estate, which sits between Chalk Farm and Swiss Cottage, is due to be completed by spring, Camden Council has announced.

The estate was built in the late 1960s and was in poor condition when work began in June 2006, but the work over the past four years has culminated in changes including a new playground.

The estate has been completely transformed, both inside and out, with a refurbishment designed to improve the estate’s carbon footprint as well as residents’ living conditions. 

Camden Council has refurbished the 711 homes on the estate, and the investment formed part of a £144 million private finance initiative (PFI) that the council established with a consortium of businesses. PFI will also ensure essential maintenance works are carried out for the next 15 years.

In line with residents’ wishes, the council refurbished the estate rather than completing a demolishing and rebuilding project, to ensure the project was environmentally sustainable. According to the council, demolishing just one of the towers would have created more than 7,000 tonnes of waste and rebuilding a similar block would have produced 7,500 tonnes of CO2.