From slum clearance to the Great Depression: 1875-1939
From 1875 onwards new housing legislation made London's first slum clearance schemes possible. These schemes were undertaken by the Metropolitan Board of Works, which sold newly cleared sites to a number of buyers, including Peabody. Peabody was required to build new estates to re-house the slum dwellers. Among the estates resulting from this were Whitechapel (1881), Wild Street (1882), Whitecross Street (1883) and Clerkenwell (1884). In addition some existing Peabody estates were enlarged by the purchase of extra land so that more blocks could be built. This rate of development could not be sustained indefinitely, so after 1887 no new building was undertaken until the next century.
In 1900 Peabody's powers were updated and set out in a Royal Charter. This extended the area in which it operated to a radius of 12 miles from the Royal Exchange. By this time improved public transport made it possible for tenants to live further from their workplaces. For the first time Peabody built cottages as well as flats; these were at Herne Hill, now known as Rosendale Road, which was built between 1901 and 1905, and at Tottenham (1907).
Estates of flats continued to be built and self-contained dwellings with their own lavatories were introduced, although shared bathhouses and laundries were still provided. Examples from this time can be found at Bethnal Green (1910), Fulham (1912), Vauxhall Bridge Road (1913) and Walworth (1915). Externally the blocks still resembled the ones built in the 19th century, except that red brick tended to be used rather than yellow.
The Vauxhall Bridge Road estate, built in 1913.
From 1910 to 1947 Peabody's architect was Victor Wilkins, and the estates he designed in the 1920s were more ornate in appearance than those that were the work of Henry Darbishire. Hammersmith (1926) was the last estate to have a separate bathhouse, and the Cleverly estate in Shepherds Bush (1928) was the first to be built with a bathroom in each flat. Cleverly has the most elaborate exterior features of any of the pre-war estates, being based on the style of Sir Christopher Wren.
A general economic downturn in the 1930s meant that plainer blocks had to be built to reduce construction costs. Separate bathrooms were abandoned for a while, and instead each new flat was provided with a covered bath in the kitchen. The estates at Chelsea Manor Street (1931), Dalgarno Gardens (1934 to 1938) and Clapham (1936) are typical of this period.
