One of EC1’s claims to historical fame is as the first place in London where local-authority housing appeared.
By Cathy Ross
One of EC1’s claims to historical fame is as the first place in London where local-authority housing appeared. In July 1865, a block of tenement dwellings opened at the top of Farringdon Road. This was Corporation Buildings, built and managed by the Corporation of the City of London.
At the time, the Corporation was not seen as the most progressive of local authorities, particularly by those who saw the City’s independence as blocking wider metropolitan-government reform. But, nevertheless, this was a novel and important first.
Corporation Buildings was a consequence of two massive Victorian infrastructure projects: the enlargement of Smithfield market and the northward extension of Farringdon Street, both driven by the Corporation. Hundreds of buildings were pulled down; lodgings disappeared; people left homeless. As concern mounted, the Corporation committed to building new ‘labourers dwellings’ on a site west of Turnmill Street. But this plan was abandoned after the budget was spent on clearing the site and compensating existing property owners. The site (more valuable now it had been cleared) was sold to the Metropolitan Railway.
There the matter might have rested, had it not been for Alderman Sidney Waterlow, a vociferous champion of decent housing for workers. Waterlow called the Corporation out and Corporation Buildings was the result. From the start, the block was a success. Designed by the Corporation’s architect, Horace Jones, its flats offered a high standard (for the day), each flat being self-contained with its own wc. Rents were reasonable and the block proved popular. The Corporation deemed the experiment a success, not least for generating a 4% return on its investment. A second block was built alongside in the 1880s.
Corporation Buildings also provided a template for the Corporation’s second foray into social housing. This was Viaduct Buildings, opened in 1875, also in EC1. As the name suggests, this was intended to re-house workers displaced by the construction of Holborn Viaduct. Again designed by Horace Jones, the flats were described as ‘snug’ and tenants came to include some City policemen, alongside brewery draymen and printers.
Viaduct Buildings still stands in EC1: London’s earliest surviving example of local-authority housing. Corporation Buildings is, alas, long gone. The blocks were sold to Finsbury Borough Council in 1937 and demolished in 1970 to make way for the offices of the Guardian newspaper, now in turn replaced by ‘The Ray’. Viaduct Buildings was sold in the 1960s to Fleet Street typesetters Gee and Watson who housed their own workforce there. It has been sold on since (and renamed ‘St Andrew’s House’) but still functions as flats and can still be glimpsed through gates at the bottom of Saffron Hill.
More details about both blocks in Cathy Ross’s book: ’Dwell I Never: the City of London’s Lost Residents’, 2024, ISBN 978-1-3999-8661-8. On sale at the Guildhall Art Gallery shop.
