Social Housing History: The London County Council

The early history of social housing in Britain

Forming the county of London

It comes as a surprise to many people that London, as a county, did not exist until 1889. Before that most of what people know as “London” was in the counties of Middlesex and Surrey. For example, Southwark was in Surrey and Stepney was in Middlesex. The City of London was a small self-administrative area that was never part of any county, and remains so today.

The County of London came into being on 21st March 1889 and was administered by the London County Council (always shortened to LCC) who took over the management of roads, drainage, fire services, community health (including slum clearance) and, by 1904, education and trams. Most of these services had previously been managed by the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) and the LCC was, in the early days, a simple replacement using the same staff and taking over their headquarters, Spring Gardens, off Trafalgar Square. The main difference between the MBW and LCC was that the latter was politically aligned and the main officers were elected. Apart from elected officers, the LCC had to appoint a Chairman as leader and the first was an inspired choice; Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery. The Earl decided not to interfere with the day-to-day work of the elected officers and just provided guidance and support. As a result, the Council progressed with its “Liberal” aims with particular advantage to the Housing Department.

The Housing Department was led by experienced men who employed young architects who were given scope to develop the Council’s buildings, whether housing, fire stations or public buildings. The county did not have limitless funds; far from it. The County had to justify all spending and their housing was expected to make an annual profit, through rents, of 5%. This led to a conflict between the architects, who wanted to build modern and healthy buildings, and the London rate payers who wanted everything to be built as cheaply as possible, if built at all. Sometimes it was successful, sometimes a careful balance, and sometimes the numbers simply did not add up.

In 1907 the “Progressives” lost control of the Council and the “Municipal Reformers” took over. They were aligned to the Conservatives and no more building schemes were started before WW1. To their credit though, all schemes in the planning and building stages were continued and completed.

The sub-menus above give more detail on the early days of the LCC, and the financial and legislative environments in which the architects worked. This is followed by details on every housing scheme undertaken by the LCC before World War 1. All building stopped in WW1 but the three garden estates under construction were completed when hostilities stopped. Little social housing was started after WW1, despite government campaigns such as “Homes fit for heroes” and various Acts.

London before the LCC

To understand the housing needs of the workers of London it is important to know about London and its demographics at the time of the county formed. Who were the people, what were the building laws and what was the LCC’s challenge in attempting to house them?

Read > Paper part 1: Setting the scene. London and its housing before the LCC

It is also important to know about the LCC architects and their influence on the designs. Many were advocates of William Morris’ Arts and Crafts Movement. The pre-WW1 designs have artistic touches both inside and out that visually lifted many large blocks of tenements away from being very plain and “barracky”. However, these architects had to design blocks (and later, garden estates) to house a minimum number of people, in a location that was not of their choice, and to a budget that would permit the Housing Department to make a profit of 5% per annum from rents that were fixed at values for similar property in the area. This was a difficult task for architects who wanted to build quality buildings that they could be proud of. Sometimes they could only achieve this through reducing the cost of the design, which was not to their liking. In a number of cases the Housing Department knew that they could never make a profit but knew (or, maybe, hoped) that other housing schemes would be profitable and they could use those profits of one to offset the losses of another. All the housing had to be funded from government loans which would be paid back over 60 years from a Sinking Fund that was fed from the rents collected (once the significant running costs had been allowed for). The financial officers of the time needed to be quite creative with their methods of balancing the books. To the credit of the Housing Department most of the blocks built, and all four of the pre-WW1 Garden Estates, were to a high standard and generous proportions. The fact that much of the pre-WW1 housing remains, modernised many times, is the evidence of their success at this. Read about the architects and how the funding worked.

Read > Paper part 2: The LCC, its architects and the financial environment in which they operated

The LCC’s Early Housing – 1889 to 1914

The map below is the LCC boundary and the post-1899 London Boroughs. Each number represents a development, in sequence, of all housing schemes started by the LCC between 1889 and 1914. Use the table below the map to download the description of each scheme.

If you do not know the name of the sceme under which a particular building was constructed, use the cross-reference link in the menus to identify the building name.

LCC Scheme Name (click name to view PDF)	LCC Scheme Name (click name to view PDF)
Dufferin Street, Finsbury	Shelton Street, Holborn – Phase 1
Brook Street, Limehouse	Blackwall Tunnel, North – Phase 1
Blackwall Tunnel, South	Cable Street, Shadwell
Hughes Field, Greenwich – Phase 1	Shelton Street, Holborn – Phase 2
Green & Gun Streets, Southwark	Brookes Market, Holborn
Boundary Street, Bethnal Green	Falcon Court, Southwark
Millbank Estate, Westminster	97 Southwark Street, Southwark
Trafalgar Road, Greenwich	Cable Street, Shadwell – Phase 2
Battersea Bridge, Battersea	Blackwall Tunnel North – Phase 2
Churchway, St Pancras	Ann St, Poplar
Clare Market, Strand – Phase 1	Mill Lane, Greenwich
Rotherhithe Tunnel – South	Totterdown Fields, Tooting
Durham Buildings, Battersea	Hughes Field, Greenwich – Phase 2
Long Lane & Tabard St, Southwark	Mare St, Hackney
Burford’s & Tucker’s Courts, Poplar	Garden Row, Roby, Baltic & Honduras St, Finsbury
Nine Elms Lane, Battersea	Wedmore St, Islington
Caledonian Estate, Islington	Fulham Palace Rd, Fulham
Briscoe Buildings, Brixton	Clare Market, Strand – Phase 2
Aylesbury Place, Clerkenwell – Phase 1	Webber Row, Lambeth
White Hart Lane, Tottenham	Norbury Estate, Croydon
Aylesbury Place, Clerkenwell – Phase 2	Old Oak Estate, Hammersmith

LCC Building cross-reference

The LCC schemes covered in previous pages rarely give a clue as to the names of the blocks of housing that were built as a result. To help you identify the correct document that covers the construction of specific buildings, use the table below. Click on the “LCC scheme” to download the individual write-up of the scheme concerned. In a few cases the name of the building has changed from that given by the LCC when built, so check the contents of the downloaded paper if it seems to cover buildings of different names.