Cathall is a housing estate in the Cathall ward, Leytonstone

Leytonstone

Leytonstone is an area of east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is a high density suburban area, located seven miles north east of Charing Cross in the ceremonial county of Greater London and the historic county of Essex...

, East London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. It is managed by Community-based Housing Association.

History

Cathall estate was built in 1972, consisting of two 20-storey tower blocks and a huge maze of 8-storey flats. It became one of Britain's poorest areas with extreme levels of poverty and crime.

In the late 1990s, the estate began to be regenerated into a low-rise

Low-rise

A low-rise is a building that is only a few stories tall.There is no universally accepted height requirement for a building to be considered a low-rise...

 housing estate by the Waltham Forest Housing Action Trust and its successor landlord, Community-based Housing Association. Similar Housing Action Trust

Housing Action Trust

Housing Action Trusts were non-departmental public bodies, set up to redevelop some of the poorest council housing estates in Britain's inner-city suburbs....

 schemes were set up across Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets

London Borough of Tower Hamlets

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough to the east of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It is in the eastern part of London and covers much of the traditional East End. It also includes much of the redeveloped Docklands region of London, including West India Docks...

 in East London, Brent

London Borough of Brent

In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough had a total population of 2,022. This rose slowly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 5,646 in the middle of the century. When the railways arrived the rate of population growth increased...

 in North West London, Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, Hull

Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...

 and Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

.

Following the removal of the tower blocks, Cathall's most prominent feature is now its leisure centre.

Notoriety

Cathall Estate become somewhat a notorious area with the most notable murder being that of 19 year old Jamaican woman Cassandra Higgins who was killed by Yardie

Yardie

Yardie is a term stemming from the slang name originally given to occupants of "government yards", social housing projects with very basic amenities, in Trenchtown, a neighborhood in West Kingston, Jamaica. Trenchtown was originally built as a housing project following devastation caused by...

 gangsters after being stripped naked and thrown from an eighteenth-floor window. Cathall is locally well known for having a rivalry with Priory Court Estate of Walthamstow

Walthamstow

Walthamstow is a district of northeast London, England, located in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is situated north-east of Charing Cross...

 and violent clashes have occurred on a regular basis. Residents of Upper Leytonstone often call it a "no go area" as it has a very high rate of street robberies.