Raffles, Cumbria

The minor road from the Raffles Estate and new housing areas meet the A595. Looking north-east towards Carlisle centre.

Raffles or the Raffles Estate is a suburb of Carlisle, Cumbria, United Kingdom. The estate consists mainly of council built and Housing association properties, and in 1994 had a population of 5,800. Nearby areas include Belle Vue, Newtown, Sandsfield Park and Morton West.

History

Raffles was built during the 1920s and 1930s and was highly sought after as a place to live by council tenants of the time.[1] However, by 1994 things had changed. A report from April 1994 which appeared in The Independent on Sunday condemned the estate as a no-go area with a high level of crime. One resident was reported to have said "If you've got a problem in Raffles, get a shotgun".[2]

By the first decade of the 21st Century the once notorious housing estate had undergone significant redevelopment and modernisation.[3] The £9million redevelopment plan got underway in 2004 and saw many of the original council properties demolished and replaced with new housing stock. This was completed in three stages,[4] the last building phase being finished in 2009.

Raffles is still not without its problems, however. In 2010 Carlisle Police recovered a large haul of heroin from a house on the estate, described as one of the largest to be found in the area in recent years.[5]

Notable residents

Helen Grant, the current MP for Maidstone and The Weald and the Conservative Party's first black female MP, grew up on the estate.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "The Raffles Estate: Then and Now". BBC Cumbria (BBC). 13 November 2009. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  2. ↑ "No-Go Britain: Where, what, why". The Independent on Sunday (Independent Newspapers Ltd). 17 April 1994. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
  3. ↑ Legg, Matthew (17 February 2009). "New homes for rent on Carlisle's Raffles estate". Cumberland News. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
  4. ↑ "Lovell to start work on £9m Carlisle housing regeneration scheme". CountracJournal.com. 15 January 2008. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
  5. ↑ Thorpe, Caroline (20 July 2010). "Humble Helen". Inside Housing. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
  6. ↑ Whittle, Julian (7 May 2010). "Ex-Carlisle mum wins ‘safe’ seat to become Tories first black woman MP". News & Star. Retrieved 27 September 2010.

External links

Coordinates: 54°53′29″N 2°58′01″W / 54.89137°N 2.96708°W