Post-war social housing
north. 11 The young, revolutionary architects of the time believed that modernism could destroy class divisions for good. Architect John Allan explains how the new modernist designs ‘ speak of an intense vision for a better future ’ (Cordell, 2018), just as the newWelfare State would. World War II brought seismic change to British society, devastating the country, and bringing crisis to millions. The class structure which had been so concrete before the war had cracked, and the country needed a new kind of housing to reflect this new order. Following a landslide win in 1945, the new Labour Government, led by Clement Attlee, set about to heal the battle wounds across the country with the new Welfare State. Architect Oliver Cox 12 described the mood in the country at the time as an ‘ atmosphere of hope rather than actual triumph ’ (Cordell, 2018). Key figures in the construction of s outh London’s new housing provisions emerged at this time: Labour housing minister Aneurin Bevan and town planner Sir Patrick Abercrombie, whose Greater London Plan guided the rebuilding of the city (Sutcliffe, 2006). Both men championed the importance of high-quality homes for everyone, with Abercrombie also focusing on how cities should be adapted to be better to live in. Bevan placed emphasis on community, and the government began building houses at a rate never before seen in the UK. A large number of the projects built at this time adhered to the principles of modernism, and the style became much more mainstream with modernist estates appearing around the country, with a high concentration in south London. With planning restrictions placed on private housing (Schifferes, 2020), social housing became the norm, and sequential governments on both sides of the political spectrum embraced it. The Conservatives won the 1951 election with the promise of 300,000 new homes each year (Schifferes, 2020), the target symbolic of the new importance placed on providing high-quality social housing. The new government also attended to slum clearance, however, shifting the focus and goal of new social housing to replacing existing homes rather than building new ones. By 1953, the number of privately rented homes decreased to 33% of the housing market (Schifferes, 2020), marking a dramatic change from before the war. For 34 years after the end of World War II, Labour and Conservative governments had both been in favour of state-led house building (although to different extents). When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, this all changed. Her government introduced a series of policies which would change the shape of housing in Britain . Championed by Michael Heseltine, Thatcher’s government introduced Right-to-Buy across the country and banned councils from building new social housing. Instead, house building again reverted to the private sector. This policy was later adopted by the New Labour government under Tony Blair and continues today. Modernismalso fell out of favour with the Thatcher government, as well as more generally in the country. By contrast, more traditional domestic architecture – semi-detached houses with front and back gardens – became more popular and was promoted by Alice Coleman (a geographer appointed to Number 10 by Thatcher).
The Dreams
Following the war, a new approach to housing was needed: one which could provide homes for the millions of people whose houses had been destroyed, especially in south London. Private renting had
11 One particularly famous example is the Finsbury Health Centre, designed by Berthold Lubetkin. 12 Responsible for much of the design of Alton Estate East in Roehampton, Richmond-upon-Thames
2
Made with FlippingBook Digital Publishing Software