‘Pevsner for the PFI generation’ – from the AJ
October 28th, 2010
Reading today’s email from the AJ, Owen Hatherly struck a chord when he commented on the difference in quality between todays lousy flats (of which I have much to say elsewhere) and the golden age of post war building, in an interview with James Pallister. The article begins as a review of Hatherly’s book A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain.
JP Was there a golden age?
OH No. It’s a terrible cliché but in any given period most architecture is not very good. There are periods when we hit upon a decent standard and I think one was in the late 19th century, as well as the 1950s and 60s.
To a large degree, in terms of hygiene, services, the amount of light and air coming into the flat, the amount of green spaces, the length of tenure, the best public housing built in this country occurred between 1945 and 1970 [despite the fact that] there were some very well-publicised disasters and some very poor planning. A lot of it was mediocre, though it was good mediocrity. But compared to contemporary standards, which is below Parker Morris standards, it was vastly superior. I sincerely believe that.
https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/critics/-pevsner-for-the-pfi-generation/8607518.article
Of all people it’s Boris Johnson who’s doing his level best in conjunction with Alex Ely of MAE llp to bring back some standards into housing, after 30 years of much poorer quality housing in cities.
BBC Open Book 21/8/11 included a section about Pevsner, available here:- Open Book – Pevsner
Pevsner section starts at 1m 15s in, don’t be put off by the unedited section that precedes it.
More on the life of Pevsner here:-
Tackle the housing crisis . . .
October 28th, 2010
. . . by building shared flats for the young
No issue illustrates our “two-nation” problem better than this one, in that so many people are on incomes that cannot possibly gain them a private home in a lifetime, even though that is the holy grail to which all are expected to aspire.
Deborah Orr in todays Guardian tackles the housing problem from a different perspective, that of the young and advocates state owned and subsidised flats.
Two-nation Labourism must bear some responsibility for the divisive climb in housing costs that has been seen in this country since the housing market picked up at the time when Labour achieved power. Unfettered encouragement of the buy-to-let market, which allowed private landlords to step into the gap left by the lack of investment in social housing, contributed greatly to a situation in which people find themselves renting accommodation that is priced beyond their slender means, even in the suburbs they are supposed to be relocating to.
https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/28/deborah-orr-build-shared-flats
One of the commentators below the article writes from France with an excellent suggestion:-
Our local town in France has a wonderful building that is specifically for young workers. I suppose we’d call it a hostel in the UK (just to make it sound worse) but they are nice individual flats complete with caretaker on bottom floor. What a great idea. If we’re asking youngsters to work where jobs are, let’s make it just a bit easier, eh?
https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/28/deborah-orr-build-shared-flats
Fortunately this has happened in London quite by chance. As a former Merchant seaman I have some direct experience of facilities provided for seamen by charities over the decades, for those leaving and joining ships. The following were once the home ashore of those who made their working life afloat.
Beacon House 7 Dock Street, London, E1 8JN
Single persons housing.
Prince of Wales Mission – Salmon Lane
Now private housing.
Queen Victoria Seamans’ Rest – East India Dock Road
Until the mid 1990s the QVSR retained rooms for the use of seaman on leave, but had by then long been used for overspill by the local borough council of Tower Hamlets for Somalian refugees and homeless people.
Anchor House – Canning Town
Historically a hostel for seafarers visiting the ports of East London, Anchor House today is a charity based in Canning Town that provides support to over 200 homeless and workless people each year to help them move on to employment and independent living. See the film.
Flying Angel – Silvertown
This is now being redeveloped into flats while keeping the facade onto Victoria Dock Road. The plans may be downloaded from the following link Flying Angel.
Stella Maris- Tilbury docks
This former seamans’ hostel is now 40 one bedroomed flats. Alternate document link here
There were others but as I say this is not a comprehensive list. The link to the issue of hostels above is simply that some of these former seaman’s homes have become homes for single working people. Beacon House is one such and the former Flying Angel hostel at Silvertown, another.