#23 Acme Houses on the Lincoln Estate
50 stories from The Acme Archive
Acme’s short life houses were acquired due to the properties being earmarked for future demolition under GLC property development schemes. The scheme under which each house was acquired can be seen in the documentation about each house which is held in the Acme Archive. One of these development schemes was the Devons Road Primary School (located on Knapp Road) scheme, which covered houses on four streets - Swaton Road, Spanby Road, Knapp Road and Fairfoot Road. These houses are now located within the Lincoln Estate in Bow.
In April 2023, William Raban discussed the Acme houses on these streets in an online talk as part of the public programme for Tower Hamlets Archives current exhibition, Living in Fear of Quicksand, a solo exhibition for Maria Amidu, an artist who grew up on the Lincoln estate. The talk covered his own artistic practice, but also the early history of Acme artists living in this area of the estate, and the conditions of the homes that they moved into and improved. A video of this talk is being acquired for the Acme Archive.
In the end, this group of houses were not demolished for the development scheme. The four roads now form the Swaton Road conservation area.