*The “Boundary Estate” – London E1 – Britain’s first ever, and once the World’s largest – Council Estate,

Last week saw my London Shoes venture out, not too far from home, to visit a location that holds a prominent place in London’s ‘social’ history – a place that is still very much in situ and in use in today’s world, and still as relevant as it was back-in-the-day.

This week’s London Shoes blog is slightly different than the norm, as the subject matter is all about the history of the “Boundary Estate”.

The ‘Boundary Estate’ was built in 1890 and is the world’s oldest and Council Estate, and architecturally, one of the most unique.

It sits within 2 postcodes E1 & E2, and is just a few minutes’ walk from London’s mainline Liverpool Street Station.

For those that may know this particular area of east London – if you exit Liverpool Street onto Bishopsgate, then turn left and walk up to the junction of the Bethnal Green Road, turn right and then do a left up Club Row – you will find yourself bang in the middle of this socially historic London landmark – the was Britain’s very first ever Council Estate.

The ‘Boundary Estate’ arose from the ashes of “The Old Nichol” – one of 19^th century London’s worst slums areas (or Rookery’s – as they were commonly referred to in the 1800’s

‘The Old Nichol’ didn’t start as a slum area – when houses were first constructed there in the late 1600’s, it was quite a posh place, with many respectable trades people renting its houses. However – as the decades and century’s progressed, more and more houses were added to the area, all crammed together right on top of each other.

By 1827 the ‘Old Nichol’ area of housing covered 5 acres and consisted of 237 houses – and it started to gain a bad reputation.

All the roads surrounding these houses were unmade – there was no drainage or sewers. The only walkways between the houses were narrow alleyways. The air throughout the area stank as smells from livestock kept in back yards, plus noxious smells from some of the trades operating in the area, such as tanning / boiling tripe / slaughterhouses etc – all added to the degeneration of the location.

In 1860, social ‘reform’ started to be seen more of a political issues, and a survey of the ‘Old Nichol’ area was commissioned – and this survey documented that there were now 1400 houses situated in the area, with on average of 8 people per family unit. – and statistically,  1 child in 4 living in the area, died before it reached its 1^st birthday.

By 1886 the death rate in the Old Nichol ‘Rookery’ was higher than anywhere else in London.

By this time, all of the decent trades and the ‘decent’ tenants had long left the area – and the houses were now occupied by the lesser privileged of society – and the place was totally lawless, and rife with crime and prostitution. It was classed as a no-go area, that even the local police steered clear of.

With ‘social reform’ now being seen as a massive ‘vote’ earner – notorious slum places like the Old Nichol ‘Rookery’ were often front page news.

A popular novel published at that time, entitled “The Child of Jago” – a fictional account of the life of a child growing up in the Old Nichol – was another massive influence on the urgent need for ‘change’ in the area.

The passing of the ‘Housing of the Working Classes Act’ of 1890 – raised awareness of places such as the Old Nichol even more.

In 1890 the very first ‘London County Council’ was formed, and the council’s first task on its massive ‘reform’ agenda, was to completely demolish the ‘Old Nichol’ slum, and create a purpose built ‘housing estate’.

The entire Old Nichol slum area was ‘raised to the ground’ displacing some 5,700 tenants – and on its site, within tree lined streets – 20 blocks of 5 storey flats, named as the “Boundary Estate”  – two schools (one still in operation), workshops and commercial shops, were all built around a central raised ‘circus’, that was built from  soil and rubble from the demolition – this was known as ‘Arnold Circus’, and named after an LCC councilor.

Each property of the new ‘Boundary Estate’ consisted (and still consists) of multi-brick tenements, which bear the names of towns and villages situated along the non-tidal ‘reaches’ of the River Thames – eg Marlow House – Henley House – Chertsey House – Cookham House plus many more.

All of the estate tenements were designed and built to an unusual structural design, with large curves, arches and other embellishments – and each tenement building spiraled out in a radial plan, from the central Arnold Circus mound.

The new tenement properties consisted of 2/3 bedroom flats that were designed to house 5,500 tenants.

A bespoke ‘estate laundry’ was built, plus 18 retail shops and 77 workshops.

The estate also had its own Schools – ‘Rochelle School’ b. 1879 & ‘Virginia School’ b. 1887. Virginia School is still in situ as a school today.

Interestingly though – apparently only 11 of the families displaced from the Old Nichol slum, actually became re-housed in the new Boundary Estate.

The ‘Boundary Estate’ was formally opened by the Prince of Wales in 1900 – and to be fair, very little about the Estate has changed much throughout the past century.

Today – the Boundary Estate consists of 500 flats/apartments.

Two thirds of the estate remains under the jurisdiction of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets – and some of the estate lies within the control of the London Borough of Hackney.  

One-third of the properties are privately owned luxury flats – much in demand in the now fashionable ‘Shoreditch’ district (now frequented by the all beards – no socks & loafers-brigade) 

A very strong unionised residents group exists today, that is fully focused on the Boundary Estate retaining its identity and not being fobbed off to housing developers.

Nearby  popular attractions like Brick Lane and Columbia Road Flower Market – help keep the Boundary Estate a popular place ‘to be & be seen’ at.

So – that’s the history of the ‘Boundary Estate’ – a wonderful bit of London social history – and a place that is still very much important today as it was when constructed over 130 years ago.

Hope you enjoyed this piece and that the accompanying photos bring its story to life a bit.

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Summarised below are all of the photos taken to support the ‘Boundary Estate’ blog