New developments and acquisitions
Although other organisations had been working in the same way as Peabody for many years, by the 1950s a number of them were struggling financially. Most were considerably smaller than Peabody and did not have the same financial strength. Peabody was able to acquire existing estates from these organisations and take over their work. The oldest was Parnell House in Bloomsbury, which had been built in 1850 by the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes. One of the newest was the Nags Head estate in Bethnal Green, completed in 1947 by the Nags Head Housing Society.
Other notable examples are the Shaftesbury Park estate in Battersea, which had been built in the 1870s by the Artizans' Labourers' and General Dwellings Company; the Carlton Square estate in Mile End, built in the 1850s by the Pemberton-Barnes family; the Ebury estate, built in the 1870s by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company; and the Tachbrook estate in Westminster, built between 1935 and 1947 by the Westminster Housing Trust. Like the older Peabody estates, most of them needed extensive modernisation and improvement work.
The Tachbrook estate in Westminster.
The formation of the Housing Corporation in 1974 brought further changes. New funding opportunities enabled Peabody to purchase land and build new housing to modern standards. Several of these developments have shop units at street level, and some of the estates include extra facilities such as sheltered housing for the elderly. In the 1990s scattered properties were acquired for the first time, and three former council estates were transferred to Peabody. 2011 saw the purchase of four estates from the Crown Estate: Cumberland Market in Camden, Millbank in Pimlico, Lee Green in Lewisham and Victoria Park in Hackney and Tower Hamlets.
A number of the older estates owned by Peabody are now Grade II listed buildings, because of their significance in the history of working-class housing. The listed estates include Blackfriars Road, Shadwell, Parnell House and part of Ebury. Many other estates are covered by local listings or are designated as conservation areas.
