Remade in Dagenham: how the arts are helping the borough celebrate its past - The Guardian
The survey, carried out by property website Rightmove , asked residents in 130 places to rate their neighbourhoods and the borough came 130th. It’s perhaps not the most groundbreaking piece of research ever carried out (rich people are happier... ) but, still, it’s another kick in the teeth for an area that has had more kicks than most. The survey is only the latest in a long line of bad news stories: the UK’s most burgled town , the highest rate of teenage pregnancies and the highest level of unemployment in the capital. It was neither Essex nor London , an anomaly, a sprawling manufacturing town dropped into the suburbs, its only landmarks of distinction the white water towers and wind turbines of the Ford motor plant. Dagenham has been described as a mining town without the mines and, in terms of its dependence on one major employer, it is not that far-fetched a comparison. As a student, I’d get summer jobs in the canteen at Ford and would often come face to face with my former classmates. Not only did they provide a job (and, if you worked for Ford, a. Source: www.theguardian.com
