London County Council cottage estates

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London County Council cottage estates are estates of council houses, built by London County Council, in the main between 1918 and 1939.

Contents

Council-built housing

The City of London Corporation built tenements in the Farringdon Road in 1865, [1] but this was an isolated instance. The first council to build housing as an integrated policy was Liverpool Corporation, [2] starting with St Martin's Cottages in Ashfield Street, Vauxhall, completed in 1869. [3] That year a royal commission was held, as the state had taken an interest in housing and housing policy. This led to the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890 (53 & 54 Vict. c. 70), [4] which encouraged the London authority to improve the housing in their areas. [5] It also gave them the power acquire land and to build tenements and houses (cottages). As a consequence London County Council opened the Boundary Estate in 1900, a block dwelling estate of tenements in Tower Hamlets. [6]

The first four cottage estates were at Norbury, Old Oak, Totterdown Fields and White Hart Lane.

Homes fit for heroes – interwar policy

In 1912 Raymond Unwin, published a pamphlet Nothing gained by Overcrowding. [7] He worked on the influential Tudor Walters Report of 1918, which recommended housing in short terraces, spaced at 70 feet (21 m) at a density of 12 to the acre. The First World War indirectly provided a new impetus, when the poor physical health and condition of many urban recruits to the army was noted with alarm. This led to a campaign known as Homes fit for heroes. In 1919 the Government, through the Housing Act 1919 required councils to provide housing built to the Tudor Walters standards, helping them to do so through the provision of subsidies. [8]

Tudor Walters Committee Recommendations
House

without a parlour

Area sq ft (m2)Volume cu ft (m3)House

with a parlour

Area sq ft (m2)Volume cu ft (m3)
Parlour120 (11)960 (27)
Living Room180 (17)1,440 (41)Living Room180 (17)1,440 (41)
Scullery80 (7.4)640 (18)Scullery80 (7.4)640 (18)
Larder24 (2.2)-Larder24 (2.2)-
Bedroom No. 1150 (14)1,200 (34)Bedroom No. 1160 (15)1,280 (36)
Bedroom No. 2100 (9.3)800 (23)Bedroom No. 2120 (11)960 (27)
Bedroom No. 365 (6.0)520 (15)Bedroom No. 3110 (10)880 (25)
Total855 sq ft (79.4 m2)1,055 sq ft (98.0 m2)
Desirable Minimum sizes- Tudor Walters Committee [9]

London County Council embraced these freedoms and planned 8 cottage estates in the peripheries of London: Becontree, St Helier, Downham, Watling for example; seven further followed including Bellingham. Houses were built on green field land on the peripheries of urban London. [10]

LCC Cottage estates 1918–1939
Estate nameAreaNo of dwellingsPopulation 1938Population density
Pre-1914
Norbury 1121886719.8 per acre (49/ha)
Old Oak 32736351923 per acre (57/ha)
Totterdown Fields 39126232.4 per acre (80/ha)
Tower Gardens
White Hart Lane
9878359368 per acre (20/ha)
1919–1923
Becontree 277025769 [lower-alpha 1] 1156529.3 per acre (23/ha)
Bellingham 25226731200410.6 per acre (26/ha)
Castelnau 51644285112.6 per acre (31/ha)
Dover House Estate
Roehampton Estate
147121253838.2 per acre (20/ha)
1924–1933
Downham 60070963003211.8 per acre (29/ha)
Mottingham 2022337900911.6 per acre (29/ha)
St Helier 82590683987711 per acre (27/ha)
Watling 38640341911010.5 per acre (26/ha)
Wormholt 68783407811.5 per acre (28/ha)
1934–1939
Chingford [lower-alpha 2] 21715407.1 per acre (18/ha)
Hanwell (Ealing)1401587673211.3 per acre (28/ha)
Headstone Lane 142n.a5000
Kenmore Park 58654207811.3 per acre (28/ha)
Thornhill
(Royal Borough of Greenwich)
21380159818.1 per acre (45/ha)
Whitefoot Lane (Downham)49n.an.a.
  1. Source says 2589 – transcription error
  2. Part of a larger PRC estate around Huntsman Road

Source:

  • Yelling, J. A. (1995). "Banishing London's slums: The interwar cottage estates" (PDF). Transactions. 46. London and Middlesex Archeological Society: 167–173. Retrieved 19 December 2016. Quotes: Rubinstein, 1991, Just like the country.

The Addison Act provided subsidies solely to local authorities and not to private builders. Many houses were built over the next few years in cottage estates. [11] Following the Geddes Axe of 1922, the Housing, &c. Act 1923 stopped subsidies going to council houses but did extend subsidies to private builders.

The first Labour government took office in 1924. The Housing (Financial Provisions) Act 1924 restored subsidies to municipal housing but at a lower level. It failed to make any provision for the lower paid, who were living in the worse conditions, and could not afford to pay the higher rents of the new houses.[ citation needed ]

Examples of these were built at the Downham Estate in London, [12] Blocks of flats were also built. [13]

Design of the estates

This was dictated by the topology and the desired densities.

Design of the houses

Most of the houses were brick built, but due to the shortage of bricks and wood in the early 1920s, and the availability of factories tooled up for war work some interesting experimental designs and prefabrications.

Furnishing the house

An advertisement offering to complete furnish an Atholl all-steel house in Downham for £78.17.11d, gave a full list of what was needed. [14]

See also

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References

  1. Tarn, J. N. (1973) Five Percent Philanthropy: An Account of Housing in Urban Areas Between 1840 and 1914, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press pp. 42, 61
  2. Beggs-Humphreys, M, Gregor, H and Humphreys, D (1959) The Industrial Revolution, Oxford, Routledge p. 34
  3. "St Martin's Cottages municipal housing, Silvester Street, Liverpool | RIBA". architecture.com. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  4. "Housing of The Working Classes Act, 1890". Irish Statutes. Government of Ireland. 1890. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  5. UWE 2008.
  6. Yelling 1995, p. 167.
  7. Parkinson-Bailey 2000, p. 153.
  8. UK Parliament- Acts 2015.
  9. Manoochehri 2009, p. 70.
  10. Just like the country 1991, p. 6.
  11. Hollow 2011.
  12. "Why the estate was needed - Case Studies". Ideal Homes.
  13. Chris Roberts, Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind Rhyme, Thorndike Press,2006 ( ISBN   0-7862-8517-6)
  14. Just like the country 1991, p. 20.

Bibliography