Becontree Forever

Becontree Forever was a radical programme of art, architecture and new infrastructure which the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) launched in 2021 in collaboration with residents and local partners.  It marks 100 years of the innovative Becontree Estate: the most ambitious interwar housing estate and the UK’s biggest council housing estate – housing around 85,000 people (around 40% of the Borough’s population).

Becontree Forever celebrated the estate’s bold beginnings, but also reimagined its future as the population continues to evolve and change.  The project acknowledged the importance of the place and the aspirations it was built with a century ago, while increasing the level of social and cultural engagement within the diverse community who call it home now. 

This ambitious programme ran throughout 2021, in collaboration with local people, to bring arts and culture into the everyday life of the estate and had extra resonance in bringing the community together after the period of isolation brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.