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Britain Allows More Space For
Flats After Lesson Of Slums
These five-storey blocks of flats at Gascoyne Estate Hackney, are spread over a site of about five acres and have a total of 282 flats. The balconIes look out on Wells Common. Help
These five-storey blocks of
flats at Gascoyne Estate
Hackney, are spread over a
site of about five acres and
have a total of 282 flats. The
balconies look out on Wells
Common.
Even with the big post-
war flat schemes of the
London County Council
there is nothing that
compares with the plan
to build 242 flats on 2½
acres at Subiaco.
Britain has learnt her lesson
from the slums and no longer
is she anxious to cram too
many people on too small an
area.
Vacant land is at a real premi-
um in London but the post-war
emphasis has been on allowing
as much land as possible for
flats.
The highest density permitted
by the London County Council
under its town planning schemes
is 200 persons an acre, and this
only in the inner central core
of London.
Worked out on the national
standard of 3.6 persons to a
family and one family to each
dwelling that means a maximum
average of 55 dwellings to the
acre.
In upholding the Subiaco
scheme, its architect, Mr. Har-
old Krantz, said in a letter last
week that there were in London
"blocks containing over 1,000
flats in one tall building of ten
storeys or more."
Densities
My experience this year during
a study of the L.C.C. new hous-
ing schemes was that it was not
unusual to find eight-storey
buildings with 80 flats each close
to the heart of London.
Some of these are built on sites
where formerly small houses
stood which housed people at
densities now considered too
great.
But never did I come across a
post-war project in London that
has 242 flats to 23 acres-a
density average of 97 flats to
the acre.
Generally, the average is much
lower than the permitted 55
dwellings to the acre as the
following figures of density rat-
ings in some of the L.C.C. big
post-war fiat schemes show:
Dwellings
per acre
Gascoyne Estate, Hackney 52.7
Mersey Estate, Islington . 52
Tufnell Park, Islington .. 50
Tanners Hill, Deptford ... 49.5
Sheringham Estate, St.
Marylebone ....... 49
Ocean Estate, Stepney ... 38.9
Oaklands Estate, Wands-
worth .......... 31.3
It will be noted that most of
these schemes mentioned are
in London's most congested
areas.
Probably the nearest approach
in size to the 242-flat scheme at
Subiaco is the Tufnell Park
estate in much-bombed Isling-
ton-an overcrowded district
that has 235,000 people living
in 3,092 acres.
Tufnell Park has 273 flats on
an estate of 5.3 acres. They are
made up of five-storey blocks
built U-shape and comprise
eight one-room, 40 two-room,
147 three-room, 63 four-room
and 15 five-room flats. There
are also heated drying rooms,
pram sheds and children's play-
grounds.
Rents vary from 8/6 sterling
for a one-room flat to £ 1/3/7
for a five-room flat. They in-
clude rates, hot water, central
heating and other services.
Gascoyne Estate in Hackney
has 282 flats, ranging from one
to five rooms, on a site of
about five acres. It faces a
common. Front flats have pri-
vate balconies with pleasant
views. Inclusive rents vary
from 7/6 a week to £1/2/9.
Mersey Estate, Islington, is
smaller with only 1½ acres. It
has 82 flats in two five-storey
acre estate at Linden Grove,
Camberwell. They are built in
three five-storey blocks and
comprise 25 two-room, 105
three-room, 60 four-room and
20 five-room flats. Rents are in
a similar range to the others
mentioned.
These estates are typical of
those built by the L.C.C. since
the war in areas within a few
miles of London. Many replace
slum areas wiped out by bomb-
ing or by the start of the pre-
war slum clearance campaign.
Many of the 100,000 Londoners
who had their dwellings destroy-
ed during the war now live there.
Coal In Bath
Most of the occupants of these
flats whom I met said that they
preferred life there to the grim
conditions under which they
existed before. However, they
By
BASIL ATKINSON
envy those who are able to live
farther away from London in
the green belt.
The flats are comfortable and
modem and are what the occu-
pants make them. Some have
them well furnished and spic-
and-span but there are others
who use the bath for storing
coal.
The divisional surveyor of the
Stepney Borough Council (Mr.
O. G. Freeman) told me of one
case in a modern block of flats
in his district where a frustrated
gardener, deprived of his accus-
tomed plot of land, filled his
bath with sand and used the taps
to irrigate flowers and vege-
tables.
In post-war blocks of flats in
London where no nurseries are
provided, children amuse them-
selves by playing in lifts. This
means that the lifts are frequent-
ly out of order and residents do
not appreciate the eight-storey
climb up stairs to their flats.
Green Belt
But the emphasis now is on
building as far out of London
as possible. This has a twofold
purpose: decentralisation that
will help keep the County of
London's population down to the
planned 3,250,000; and to pro-
vide healthier and better-plan-
ned housing conditions and
towns.
Only 20 per cent of the dwel-
lings now being erected by the
L.C.C. are inside the County of
London. The remaining 80 per
cent are in neighbouring coun-
ties well removed from the
grime and grit of London's
slums.
Examples of this new trend are
the Harold Hill Estate in Essex
that will contain eventually some
8,000 dwellings on 1,387 acres
(including open space and other
open land), Oxhey Estate in
Hertfordshire (925 acres includ-
ing 390 acres of woods), 4,200
dwellings and at Debden, Essex,
another estate will provide 4,081
dwellings on 579 acres.
These new estates are in real-
ity like small towns with all the
social services and amenities.
Take St. Paul's Cray Estate in
Kent.
This will have 3,905 dwellings
of all types, including some flats
and old people's dwellings. A
wedge of green space will re-
main in the centre and there will
be five schools, a community
centre and library, a clinic,
churches and all the public
buildings found in a virile com-
munity. There will also be local
open spaces, recreation grounds
and playing fields, a cinema and
pubs.
It was the lack of a pub that
residents of the Kingswood
Drive Estate, closer to London
at Camberwell, criticised most
when I visited the 37-acre es-
tate a few months ago. There
are 783 dwellings on the estate
made up of flats, maisonettes
and cottages.
A block of one-room flats has
been provided for old people and
the occupants I met were happy
to be there. They pay 12/6 a
week for a small flat in this area
but a three-bedroom cottage
costs £ 1/7/6. Each dwelling
has its own little plot of garden.
However, I found even happier
old folk in the George Lansbury
House in the East End. Here
in a modern block live some 50
men and women whose ages
range from 61 to 89. Each has
his or her own room but there
are communal dining facilities
and television and recreation
rooms.
It is not run on an institutional
basis and the residents are free
to come and go as they please.
They each pay £1/I1 a week
for their food and room from
their pension of £ 1/7/6 a week.
There is incentive payment for
jobs done about the place; for
example, washing-up is worth
5/.
Some elderly couples have
married from courtships which
bloomed there. This entitles
them to double rooms, which are
now at a premium.
Council-Owned
All these estates, like most
housing projects in London,
have been built by the London
County Council.
The metropolitan borough
councils have also built many
dwellings within their own areas
and there are various housing
associations, privately-owned es-
tates and companies which have
erected dwellings for letting at a
restricted profit. However, the
bulk of the post-war building
work has been done by the
L.C.C.
No private dwelling can be
erected in London because home
ownership is against the policy
of the Socialist-controlled coun-
cil. If one wants to build his own
home he must go outside the 117
square miles of the county into
a Tory-governed area which per-
mits private house-building.
But even so the ratio of pri-
vate buildings in Britain has not
been allowed at any time since
the war to exceed one house to
four local authority houses.
Every effort is made to ensure
that the new dwellings go to
families in genuine need of them.
Rents are cheap mainly because
of a Government subsidy of
£16/10/ a year on each dwell-
ing.
There is a long waiting-list for
L.C.C. flats but even so the ex-
perts refuse to build anything
like 242 flats to the 2½-acre;
nor have the communists in
East Berlin with their imposing
new blocks of flats in Stalin Al-
lee.
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