browseMeadow Well: An English Estate
Steve Conlan (Photographer)
From the original Side Gallery exhibition text, 1991:
In 1988 Steve Conlan was commissioned by Side to work alongside filmmakers from within our group during the preparation and making of the feature film Dream On. Steve was given the freedom to explore his own themes and establish his own relationships on the housing estate that was to be the central location for Dream On. The result is a remarkable series of powerful images that document, over 3 years, the forgotten losers of the eighties, and their will to fight back in the nineties.
The estate has had to live down something of a bad reputation seemingly since the day it was built. After decades of problems, North Tyneside Council thought they had the answer. Its name was changed from The Ridges to the Meadow Well Estate. The problems have escalated. 80 - 90% unemployment, 20% single parents, increased crime, violence, and a deterioration in council housing stock, high inflation, and so on. You tell somebody living on one-tenth the national average earnings that they pay the same rate of poll tax as somebody working in the City.
Of course, the estate is a symptom of the system. Too many estates with similar problems exist throughout the country. So what makes the Meadow Well so different? Its people. They have gathered themselves together to form a network of self-help groups to make life a little bit easier in the short term and a campaigning group determined to do something about the future. The fact that women dominate these groups is no surprise; on the domestic front women have always been the people with the greatest strength and determination for change. The fight is not yet over. It probably never will be, but the successes are great.