February 23, 2024 – The Origins of British Public Housing 1890-1914

Speaker: Andrew Saint, Author & General Editor, the Survey of London Interlocutor: Mosette Broderick, Art History Department Chair, New York University College of Arts and Science The concept of British public housing is a unique phenomenon. It seems a timely moment to explore its origins and character at a time when housing crises throughout the developed world call into question the design, delivery and quality of residential architecture for ordinary citizens. The lecture will focus largely on London. Because of the unique size and complexity of the metropolis, the challenges of providing decent housing had proved hard to meet throughout the Victorian period. The creation of the London County Council (LCC) in 1889 and a national housing Act that followed offered the opportunity of a fresh approach to the problems. The LCC took up the cudgels, building up a new Housing Section of young men in its Architect’s Department from 1893 charged with designing accommodation – in the first instance, mainly ‘flats’ – of handsome appearance combined with decent space standards and sanitation. Though the LCC’s housing programmes were modest in the first instance and the difficulties it faced were great, this marked the effective start of what in Britain has been known as ‘public-sector architecture’: some time will be devoted to exploring just what that meant. After 1900 the LCC switched its housing programmes largely to suburban estates in the belief that these proved better environments for working families. Such estates became dominant in British public housing up to and even after the Second World War. As important and influential as the LCC’s efforts in these years if not more so was the Garden City and Garden Suburb movement, in which Raymond Unwin provided the main architectural and planning force. Strictly, Unwin’s pre-First World War work does not belong to the public sector, but it is a crucial strand in the development of the story of British housing, not least in terms of its international influence, so it will feature strongly in the second half of the talk.