Elephant and Castle -- South London, named after a local pub or a Spanish princess. Over the last 300 years the area has gone through many changes not unlike every other area of London. Beginning as a sparsely populated rural area to a busy cross road centre of inner city south London.

It is placed in such a way with its two roundabouts as to direct the main body of traffic travelling towards the city and South London therefore having a great influence on both city and local businesses.

1880 to the Second World War saw Elephant and Castle thrive as 'shops lined every approach to the junction including the department store William Tarn and Co., hurlocks for children's clothes and Rabits the shoe shop'.

http://www.elephantandcastle.org.uk/ourvision/history-of-change/

But without defining too many of Elephant and Castle's more notable landmarks i.e. Michael Faraday's memorial steel box in the centre of the Northern Roundabout and its shopping centre with its large red elephant with a castle on its back the Heygate Estate built in the 1960s deserves special mention. It has developed into a problem area like many other areas in London. Built as the solution to the problem of housing it once was a haven for many residents who called it home and were proud and happy to live within its walls. Now forty years later with a culmination of many reasons it has been reduced to a grey concrete mass with only a foreboding sense of danger and its welcoming face depleted.

Urban Development

PILE THEM HIGH ! RENT THEM CHEAP !
The 1960s-1970s the tower blocks were a popular solution to overcrowding in the inner city for councils. With them they could provide cheap, affordable, public sector housing to low income groups. they were easy and quick to build using reinforced concrete, replacing the old terraced houses. Also, providing more open space in the inner city with extra space planners could build small shopping precincts providing a centralised shopping area instead of small corner shops spread through the community. All this extra space also allowed planners to think about its roads and other retail areas. Elephant and Castle is a classic example of this. It has both served its time and has had its advantages as a 1960s remedy for the solution to a problem used. It is now being lined up for its next regeneration by today's planners. A good example of rgeneration in an inner city area today would be the London Docklands. In the 1980s the government set up the Urban Development Corporations (UDCs) to look at regenerating inner city areas and the vast areas of unused land and buildings in the Docklands area. due to containerisation of ships in the 1960s the Docks were eventually shut down until they were completely abandoned leaving the residents living in sub-standard housing with poor transport links and a lack of basic services.

The London Dockland's Development Corporation (LDDC) was set up to look at what could be done to improve the economic, social and environmental conditions of the area.

Within the social regeneration over 22,000 homes were built mainly from former warehouses converted into luxury flats, 10,000 local authority homes refurbished with attention paid to the low cost housing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Docklands_Development_Corporation