Raffles, Cumbria

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.

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

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] By 1994 the area had deteriorated; a report published in The Independent on Sunday in April 1994 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 housing estate had undergone significant redevelopment and modernisation.[3] The £9 million 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. In 2010 Carlisle Police discovered a large amount of heroin at 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] Author Margaret Forster (1938–2016) was born there.[7]

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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. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. 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. Archived from the original on 2 August 2010. 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. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
  7. The Guardian: Margaret Forster, award-winning author, dies at 77 (accessed 8 February 2016)

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