Stop 8: 4% Industrial Dwellings
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We have already learned that in the late 19th century a significant number of Jewish immigrants settled in the East End. Interestingly, while the Irish before them had been condemned for 'bringing down' an area, landlords at this time often hung up signs saying 'Jews only' as they paid higher rents.
Living conditions in this area were very poor and cramped and while the population in the centre of London started to decline, in Spitalfields the number of persons per house rose from less than 9 in 1841 to over 11 in 1881. A Government report in 1903 predictably blamed this overcrowding on high levels of immigration.
The 4% Industrial Dwellings, opened in 1887, were one of 6 housing blocks built in the East End by the wealthy British-born Jew Lord Rothschild in order to create better quality affordable housing for poor Jews. The homes were 2-roomed apartments with a central corridor running down the middle; in which a shared toilet and kitchen was located, with one for every two flats; 150 families were housed here and 1500 across all 6 blocks in the East End.
In 1890 the Housing of the Working Classes Act was passed and social housing began to be constructed. This accelerated after WW1 as the state feared that soldiers returning to poor housing may lead to riots and so it started clearing slums and building large estates. A million new homes were built by 1939, nearly doubling the housing stock.
By the 1970s the 4% Dwellings here in Wentworth Street were in severe disrepair and the decision was made to demolish them. Today, all that remains is the entrance archway. In its place, in 1984, the Flower and Dean Estate was built here by the council.
In 1979 things began to change when the Conservative Government came to power under Margaret Thatcher. The conservatives encouraged councils to sell off as many council houses as possible. In 1981 82% of the dwellings in Tower Hamlets were publicly owned, 20 years later it was 50% and this figure is still high by national standards. Nevertheless, the modern distinction between public and private housing is misleading, as indeed Tower Hamlets Council proved to be no more enlightened than the next private landlord, and a hostile force to be reckoned with for the incoming Bengalis community.
As the Bengali population grew in the 1960s and 1970s, the Council's policy increasingly resembled an apartheid housing policy. Despite the severe over crowding suffered by Bengali families, Tower Hamlets council retained many empty properties in this area which they claimed were reserved for 'white' occupants. By the 1970s the draconian council housing policies meant that about half of all homeless people were Bengali.
To address this discrimination the local community founded the Bengali Housing Action Group (BHAG) in 1976 and some 300 Bengalis squatted in houses in this area. Again in 1976, a huge demonstration saw thousands of young Bangladeshis demonstrate for better housing and more employment.
Despite local opposition, during the 1980s Tower Hamlets enshrined their unofficial apartheid housing rules in an official policy of prioritizing homes for the children of families who had lived in the East End for over 20 years. In the 1990s it was finally recognized that this was a racist policy, which discriminated against Bengalis. Sadly, since May 2008, the Council has been considering reinstating this rule but this time, ironically, it is to protect the housing needs of the Bangladeshi community and keep out new immigrant arrivals.
