Raffles, Cumbria
Suburb of Carlisle, England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Raffles or the Raffles Estate is a suburb of Carlisle, Cumbria, England. 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] 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 yourself 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
- Margaret Forster (1938–2016), author, was born there.[6]
- Helen Grant, the current MP for Maidstone and Malling and the Conservative Party's first black female MP. grew up on the estate.[7]