SPID Theatre helping to rebuild its community after Grenfell

If you want a symbol for the neglect of social housing in the capital, here’s one. In the ceiling of a handsome undercroft space at the top of Ladbroke Grove there is a gaping raw hole, like a six-foot-wide gunshot wound. Pipes and cables hang out of it. There’s a complex mesh of ancient concrete poured over a grid of steel cables, which have rusted and burst apart. You’d never guess you were in a landmark Grade II*-listed building in one of the richest boroughs in London. It looks like Aleppo.

The building is Kensal House, a pioneering and architecturally visionary social-housing development that dates back to 1937, and the undercroft is the home of SPID (Social Progressive Interconnected Diverse), an independent theatre charity whose free youth drama workshops are aimed at locals kids, and who is helping them change their lives. I’m here with its artistic director, Helena Thompson; its chair Ivor Flint, a Kensal House resident; SPID project coordinator Sean Cleary, who lives round the corner; and Sue Redmond, whose charity Full of Life is also based on the estate. We’re all standing around and craning our necks upwards to look at the huge hole glowering above our heads.