East London housing from the 1960s to now

A walking tour, with Philip Boyle and Tom Cordell, featuring Peter Barber

Saturday 28th May, 1000 - 1600

McGrath Road, by Peter Barber Architects

For 150 years, east London has been a place of change - from its modern origins as undeveloped marshland on the fringes of the Thames, to its rapid development around the three huge Royal Docks that by the beginning of the 20th Century were a key trading hub at the heart of the British empire. This development created huge wealth, but little of that was shared with the local workforce, who suffered decades of exploitative employment and associated terrible housing conditions.

Royal Docks, 1928

We will first look at two housing schemes that in the 1960s attempted to resolve these housing problems. Since then, the docks have closed, and since the 1980s there have been market-led approaches to revive the area, and the emergence of a leisure economy in the wake of the 2012 Olympics. Yet the poverty and poor housing conditions of the past have not gone away. In particular a development model based around pushing up local property prices has created new forms of housing crisis. We will end our day with a tour by Peter Barber of one of his recent schemes in Newham that addresses the housing problems of today.

LCC housing, North Woolwich

In North Woolwich we will explore an LCC estate which when built was located in the heart of the area’s employment - right in the middle of the then busy docks. In its form the estate reflected then contemporary practice of point blocks mixed with low rise family homes, yet this particular scheme attempted street and alley forms that attempted to encourage the of street based social networks found in the slum housing that it replaced.

We will see how more recent attempts to revive the area’s economy have connected with the scheme.

MoHLG experimental housing, Canning Town

In Canning Town we will visit a group of buildings that have huge historical significance, but which are barely known of today. Built buy the Ministry of Housing and Local Government’s Research and Development Group in 1964, they were an experiment to test how the Parker Morris standards could be implemented in practice. The Parker Morris standards had first been outlined in a 1961 government report. The idea behind them was that as post-WW2 Britain became increasingly affluent, housing quality - and in particular space - needed to increase to match current and future living standards. Design work on this scheme started the same year under the leadership of ex-LCC architect Oliver Cox, with Michael Welbeck as project architect. The scheme was an attempt to test how the standards worked in practice with real residents, to find out what additional costs would be incurred, and to find out if tenants would be prepared to pay higher rents for improved housing.

Alongside the design and construction process, the R&D group carried out a sociological survey, with residents before and after occupation. Philip Boyle helped carry out this survey when the housing was first completed and will tell us about the experience of this work and the consequences - intended and otherwise - of Parker Morris standards on British housing.

McGrath Road, Newham, by Peter Barber Architects. Photo by Morley von Sternberg

Finally we will will come forward to the present to visit Peter Barber’s recent McGrath Road housing scheme in Stratford, a highly regarded mixed tenure development created around a courtyard - a social space at its heart. Peter will give us a tour of the site and talk to us about his work.

We will provide an digital information pack for each participant with historical information, drawings, photos and maps. This will include a copy of MoHLG Housing Bulletin 15 that gives the story of the Canning Town housing scheme and the sociological study.

The tour starts at the South Pier of the Woolwich Ferry SE18 6DX at 1000. The Nearest station is Woolwich Arsenal (DLR, National Rail, and Crossrail), an easy 15 min walk away. The tour will end at around 1600 at McGrath Road E15 4JP, which is close to Maryland station (National Rail/Crossrail)

Parker Morris pilot housing in West Ham. From the cover of the Ministry of housing and local government’s Housing Bulletin 15