The art of property development…

A photography competition for students at LCC aimed to tie a new residential building in Elephant and Castle to the area’s rich culture and history.

Standing tall on Southwark Bridge Road at 41 storeys, Two Fifty One is a building which can be said to encapsulate the current debate over gentrification in London.

For critics, it is evidence of an unwelcome trend which is turning certain central districts of the city into enclaves for the wealthy. For others, it is a bold architectural statement which symbolises its constantly-evolving nature.

Nowhere is this change more evident than in Elephant and Castle, where the demolition of blighted social housing estates and arrival of several shiny new residential schemes and mixed-use developments has undoubtedly altered the area’s former character.

The developers of Two Fifty One approached this potentially thorny issue from two directions. The first, more obvious one was to incorporate a number of shared ownership properties into the new building, meaning people can get onto the property ladder there by purchasing a minimum 25% share of an apartment.

The second, more subtle method was to incorporate Elephant & Castle’s rich culture and history into the development – which also includes an adjoining eight-storey commercial building – through the medium of art.

A competition was devised in which BA and MA Photography students at London College of Communication collaborated with Two Fifty One on creating art to be exhibited in the building’s communal areas. LCC’s programme director for photography Dr Christopher Stewart, tutor Harry Hardie, a former picture editor at The Times, and Paula Lent, director of Artmasters Design Solutions all helped to organise the competition.

Paula Lent said the aim was to achieve “the integration of art with the building and its occupants, having a cultural and social link with the surrounding areas”.

A total of 27 students took part, commissioned to create fine art photographs to be displayed in Two Fifty One and working to brief which asked them to: ‘Produce an unusual and thought provoking art exhibition and photography installation to support and promote Elephant and Castle as an arts hub in Central London’. 

They created an exciting array of work, ranging from Briony Mitchell’s documentation of Elephant & Castle’s pubs and Ruby Steele’s humorous shots of elephants roaming the streets of South London, to more abstract offerings from Jekatarina Ignatijeva, consisting of vibrant multi-layered photographs of the area’s architecture. 

After their completion, the students’ work was exhibited at Elephant and Castle’s lively food court and entertainment space, Mercato Metropolitano, as part of a launch event for Two Fifty One, with promotional postcards of their photographs produced to give to attendees.

The winners of the competition were announced during the event, with William Scheepers’ series of film noir stills, which captured the building’s construction by moonlight, coming out on top. This earned him the grand prize of his photos being used to decorate the penthouse apartments, along with four runner-ups including Dorota Beau-Ingle’s melancholia photographs, created using dying flower displays collected from local flower sellers.

All 27 students were offered placements for their work within the building, decorating the hallways, entrances and communal spaces.

The competition’s judging panel included the editor of Bonhams Magazine Lucinda Bredin, the director of the Contemporary Art Society, Caroline Douglas and the chair of the Ethics Advisory Group of the Royal Academy, Brendan Finucane.

Along with the students’ work, local street artist Pegasus was also commissioned to create art for the building, namely his well-known graffiti art of silent movie star Charlie Chaplain, who grew up in the area.

According to Artmasters Design Solutions, there has been an overwhelming response from the residents of Two Fifty One to the work displayed, with them being “very loyal fans of the artwork of their own floors”.

Prints of the photos by LCC students are available to via the Artmasters Design Solutions website.