Burning an Illusion
Live Project
2022-23 MA cohort
View the project here: https://burning-an-illusion.uk
Contribution to the special anniversary edition of Race Today, 2023
Featured in Militant Media, CRA Books 2024
The 2022-23 Live Project set out to investigate the police’s investigation of the 1981 New Cross Fire. The project was produced by the MA Research Architecture students and facilitated by Guest Professors Stafford Scott & Kamara Scott.
On the night of January 18th, 1981, partygoers gathered at the house of Sandra and Paul Ruddock. The party was to celebrate the birthday of their teenage daughter and her friend. At around 5:40 am, a fire raged through the house, claiming the lives of 13 people and later one more victim who took his own life.
This project includes an open-source reconstruction of the events that unfolded on that night. The information used comes from unsealed documents from the George Padmore Institute, the Black Cultural Archives, the National Archives, and open-source planning applications and satellite imagery.
The research has been organised into five key questions. By looking at this event with this set of questions, the project lays bare the racism that ultimately remains within state institutions.
On the night of January 18th, 1981, partygoers gathered at the house of Sandra and Paul Ruddock. The party was to celebrate the birthday of their teenage daughter and her friend. At around 5:40 am, a fire raged through the house, claiming the lives of 13 people and later one more victim who took his own life.
This project includes an open-source reconstruction of the events that unfolded on that night. The information used comes from unsealed documents from the George Padmore Institute, the Black Cultural Archives, the National Archives, and open-source planning applications and satellite imagery.
The research has been organised into five key questions. By looking at this event with this set of questions, the project lays bare the racism that ultimately remains within state institutions.