Episode 25: Sanford

Sanford Walk is a London housing co-operative established in 1974 and recently refurbished to reduce its carbon footprint.

Sanford Walk is a London housing co-operative established in 1974 and recently refurbished to reduce its carbon footprint. Sanford is a fully mutual housing co-operative. It is run entirely by its members who make decisions each month at management meetings and periodically through general meetings.
Located in South East London in the borough of Lewisham and own all of Sanford Walk. The 130 rooms and six flats were purpose built as a single persons co-op in 1971 by a core of founding members.

There are 14 houses which are each shared by eight to 10 people. Each person has their own room with wash basin and shares three toilets, a farmhouse kitchen, a shower room and a bath room. The housing is not appropriate for couples or people with dependant children (or dogs, though there are many cats) nor do we have facilities for people with disabilities.

Sanford has a somewhat bohemian culture with many artists and performers living here. Sanfordians have had a long tradition of an annual party with local musical talent and a tradition of performing an annual play having done Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare) and Wyrd Sisters (Pratchet).

Environmentalism is a priority of many who live at Sanford and we have undertaken a large innovative project to reduce our carbon emissions by 60%. The C60 project uses biomass and solar to reduce our carbon footprint. There are many keen cyclists on the street too and this has been combined with the periodic performances into the Recyclestage project, a combined bike shed and stage from recycled materials. More on http://www.sanford.coop/