The Housing Problem a Century Ago

Abstract

Housing one hundred years ago was a problem of philanthropy, speculation and public health. The early housing societies were not very successful either financially or in terms of the number of houses provided. The speculator was catering for the artisan and the middle classes rather than the very poor and his work was uncontrolled by adequate legislation. The paper traces the growth of '5 per cent philanthropy' and the important contribution of new organisations which rejuvenated in the 60's what then appeared to be a declining movement. It outlines the various attitudes to housing the poor in an age which still believed in self-help, it examines the relation of public health questions to housing, it discusses the condition of our cities and particularly London at that period, and it examines the scope of legislation, its permissive nature and the whole problem of state interference in what was generally regarded as the sphere of private liberty.

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References

For a good outline account of the rise and development of the model dwellings movement see N. Pevsner , Model Houses for the Labouring Classes , Architectural Review, May 1943.

Peabody originally gave £150,000 to the Trustees of the Fund, but by a subsequent series of gifts and a bequest in his will the total sum he gave to house the London poor was £500,000.

C. Smalley , The Life and Times of Sir Sydney H. Waterlow, 1908, and also J.N. Tarn , Housing in Urban Areas 1840-1914 , unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 1961. Cambridge University Library.

See Reports of the Select Committee on Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings, 1881 and 1882 and, Report of the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes, 1885.

Transactions, R.I.B.A., 1861-2, p. 95 ; see also Builder, Vol. XX (1862 ), pp. 56, 71 and 107.

Transactions, R.I.B.A., 1866-7, p. 37; see also Builder, Vol. XXIV (1866 ), p. 915.

Builder, Vol. XXIV ( 1866), p. 915.

Ibid.

Op. cit, p. 960.

10.

Transactions, R.I.B.A., 1866-7, p. 80.

11.

Quoted, Labourers' Friend, Jan. 1864, p. 4.

12.

Ibid.

13.

See for example Illustrated London News, 22 Feb. 1867.

14.

Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population and on the Means of its Improvement, 1842.

15.

Royal Commission on the Health of Towns, First Report, 1844; Second Report, 1845.

16.

See for example: 'The State of Bethnal Green', Builder, Vol. XXI (1863), pp. 709 and 719, also 'The Sanitary State of the Metropolitan Dwellings', Builder, Vol. XXII (1864), p. 594.

17.

An account of Godwin's life and work, particularly for the Builder is: Anthony King, 'Another Blow for Life. George Godwin and the Reform of Working Class Housing', Architectural Review, Dec. 1964, p. 488.

18.

G. Godwin , Another Blow for Life, 1864, p. viii.

19.

Op. cit, p. 31.

20.

Op. cit, p. 41.

21.

Op. cit, p. 62.

22.

Op. cit, p. 94.

23.

J. Hole , The Homes of the Working Classes with Suggestions for their Improvement , 1866.

24.

The powers in Public Health Acts, the Nuisance Removal Acts, and the Building Acts were very often adoptive rather than compulsory.

25.

Hole , op. cit, p. 26.

26.

Op. cit, p. 42.

27.

Op. cit, p. 95.

28.

See W.T. Hill , Octavia Hill, 1956.

29.

O. Hill , Homes of the London Poor, 1875, p. 193.