Acton Town, a major interchange for the District and Piccadilly lines, with links to Heathrow and the West End is on the western boundary.

To the south east, on the other side of the railway line, lie the suburban residential areas of Acton Green and Bedford Park.

[citation needed] Historically, the estate and the area has suffered from a poor reputation, in particular because of high levels of crime and drug dealing and use.

The area was originally built to a traditional Victorian street pattern with medium density terraced housing occupying the majority of the site.

In the post war period, the area was earmarked for comprehensive redevelopment that would involve clearance of the 19th century properties labelled as slums.

The central area of the site comprises 1960's tower blocks and slab blocks, including Charles Hocking House, Barwick House, Hardy Court, Carisbrooke and Ludlow Courts, which are set in a generous open pedestrian space, located to the north of Bollo Bridge Road.

It has a sloping site topography and lack of through roads, and is characterised by complex deck access circulation patterns, which are difficult to negotiate as a pedestrian.

Generally the estate is characterised by a series of slab blocks and towers set in mature landscaped open spaces which exploit the natural topography of the site.

[citation needed] Traditionally the area was well served by local industries such as Wilkinson Sword and Lucas Aerospace but the last decade[when?]

[citation needed] The Council has been severely limited in its ability to invest in the fabric of buildings and the estate since it was built, primarily in the 1960s and 1970s.

Acton Town underground station (Piccadilly and District lines) provides access to the West End in 20 minutes and Heathrow Airport in a similar time.

SASAC, the South Acton Sewing and Arts Collaborative has been very successful and is operating as a business from a building in the west of the estate.

[9] Both schools have had good reports from their last OfSTED inspections and Berrymede Junior has the highest value added score in the Borough in the recently published league tables.

Many teenagers are found here recording music, including UK Garage and Grime popular urban British genres.

The centre is also used for daytime programmes with young people who are not in mainstream education, delivered in partnership with other voluntary and statutory sector organisations.

The high levels of crime stem from a combination of poor design on parts of the estate that bear some of the features Alice Coleman identified in Utopia on Trial of single entrances with multiple users, as well as complex deck access.

[citation needed] South Acton's former reputation as dangerous is acutely juxtaposed by its local community which is made up of young and old families who have lived in the area for decades.

As long ago as 1996 the council decided that redevelopment and regeneration was needed on South Acton to improve the quality of homes and of peoples lives.

As noted above, lack of investment and poor original design and the high levels of maintenance necessary meant that refurbishment was not the preferred option.

ECD Architects and Proctor and Matthews were appointed by Ealing Council to prepare an Urban Design Framework, or masterplan, for the regeneration of the South Acton Estate.

In 2001 Barrie House, a 21-storey tower block on the centre of the estate was demolished and Phase 1 of the regeneration of South Acton began with the re-development of this site in partnership with Catalyst.