Golden Lane Estate was shortlisted for an Urbanism Award 2018 in the Great Neighbourhood category alongside Byker in Newcastle and Smithfields in Dublin. Sadly we didn't win, but we did come away with a framed commendation and a very fitting poem from poet in residence, Ian McMillan. Byker were the deserving winners.

Watch Ian deliver his poems for all three finalists.

Golden Lane Estate

All you need, anywhere, are streets paved with gold:
The gold of community, the gold of mutual benefit,
The gold of allotments in the early evening sun
That reflects on the windows of places built for living.
All you need anywhere is an island in the city
Connected to everywhere, central to the world
And looking out and in at the very same time
And so I give you the gleaming Golden Lane estate!
All you need is this: a place to live and breathe,
Gold spun from ideas, a Golden Lane of people
Because the people are what makes this place.
There I said it. Now let's get on with living.

We don't know who nominated us, so a thank you to them and a very big thank you to Ian Dowsett in the Estate Office, who enthusiastically supplied the Academy of Urbanism with all the info they needed and organised the jury visit.

See the Assessors' report here describing how we came a close second...

Image credit: David Rudlin / The Academy of Urbanism