Introduction
Housing in London is a critical issue. Over the past two decades, a worsening crisis of affordability has spurred the city’s boroughs to again create housing for themselves and today they are working with architects and communities to deliver some of the best anywhere in the capital. These two walks by The London Ambler (urban historian Mike Althorpe), chart the evolution of social housing across some of London's most prolific inner neighbourhoods, exploring physical urban change, shifting politics and the form of domestic architecture and estate typologies between 1840 and the present day.
Please note that the walks can be booked separately. If you wish to do both walks, please book each one independently.
Friday 07 June
Walk 1: Shoreditch & Bethnal Green
Members: £17. Non-members: £20
Concessions: £10 (call the office 020 8340 3343)
Today some of the city’s most sought after districts, Shoreditch and Bethnal Green were historically home to some of London’s worst slums that swelled as the Victorian city pushed further eastwards through rapid industrialisation. Responding to dire living conditions philanthropists, reformers and the public sector intervened in a housing landscape pushed to its limits via wartime destruction. This talk traces housing as intervention in the neighbourhoods of the old East End exploring waves of 19th century improvement and design exemplars from Peabody’s utilitarian brick dwellings, an the LCC’s arts and crafts tenements to 20th century modernist towers and vernacular turns.
Friday 14 June
Walk 2: Victoria & Pimlico
Members: £17. Non-members: £20
Concessions: £10 (call the office 020 8340 3343)
Bordered by the mighty buildings of state at Westminster, Pimlico and Victoria have long been overshadowed by the pomp and tourist crowds of parliament and the abbey. Once outlying marshlands, they developed quickly in the 19th century for an affluent Victorian class with big townhouses and grand mansion blocks lining new streets. Yet behind the facades, another class dwelled and struggled for space in the metropolis. In tackling living conditions for the many in these areas both districts witnessed dramatic spatial change, with transformation on a huge scale. This talk explores tabula rasa neighbourhood planning through big 19th century interventions and some of London’s most comprehensive, celebrated and unusual 20th century housing landmarks.
Mike Althorpe ( The London Ambler)
Mike is an urban historian, architectural researcher,educator and story teller with a passion for the history, streets and buildings of London. Mike has an MA from the University of Westminster, focussing on London’s architecture, history and spatial development.