The Becontree Estate in East London is the UK’s largest social housing estate. Constructed by the London County Council (LCC) from 1921, it comprised approximately 26,000 to 27,000 homes and housed an estimated 100,000 to 120,000 residents at its official completion in 1935–1936. At the time, it was recognised as the largest public housing estate in the world.
Brilliant Trees is an ongoing archive that will document every council-owned street tree on the estate. Through close observation, the work considers these trees as silent witnesses to the socio-political, economic and globalised forces that have shaped the estate over its century-long history. Often overlooked, they function as living archives—rooted markers of continuity amid cycles of municipal development, policy and social change.
