ABSTRACT
This chapter describes tenants’ experiences of community and neighbourliness on a difficult-to-let estate in London which emerged from ethnographic research for a Home Office funded evaluation of the Priority Estates Project and its impact on crime and community. It begins with a brief history of Riverside, tenants’ recollections of the estate when it opened, the intense neighbouring which occurred at the outset and how the estate rapidly went into decline. In the case of the original Riverside residents, despite their dwindling numbers, a support network survived but was perceived to be increasingly threatened. The networks of more recently arrived tenants tended to have a more diverse base and promoted different perceptions of community and neighbourliness. Although neighbourliness appeared to be common, it existed under considerable pressure because of mistaken impressions of the estate and continuing difficulties in finding common ground.
