Political Economy, Ideology and the Persistence of Working-Class Housing Problems in Britain, 1850–1914

Abstract

Nineteenth-century housing was not all gloom and doom. For significant elements of the nation the standard of comfort and material welfare improved substantially.1 Suburbanization of the middle classes in the second half of the century appreciably improved environmental conditions, the family in particular benefitting from a semi-rural existence with only the commuting breadwinner subject to the hostility of urban conditions. 2 In the last third of the nineteenth century rising real incomes were especially beneficial to artisans and the more regularly employed labouring class. Linoleum, curtains, parlour furniture, even pianos transformed the immediate appearance of the home; shoes, a change of clothes and running water that of the people; and the kitchen range, water closets and gas mantles re-arranged the domestic patterns in other respects. 4 The possibility of an So fundamental and widespread were these improvements, it has been suggested, that the internal physical space of the working-class home was re-arranged. 7 The separation of kitchen and living room effectively added another room, for example, taking smells of cooking out of the main socializing area in the home, and physically segregating women to a separate rather than an integrated existence in the home. While the catalogues of kitchen ranges, the production of baths, furniture and other domestic equipment reflect growing consumerism, this was by no means universal. 8Indeed for the unskilled, irregularly employed or sweated piece-rate worker, the segregation within the grades of manual workers and the increasing gap between rising expectations and actual living conditions may well have been more acutely felt. Trade-union organization and the extension of the franchise, for example, drove divisions between different components of the working class, 9 and housing conditions served to reinforce this. Recent research has stressed improvements in working-class dwellings through four channels: first, rising real incomes and consumption levels in the last third of the nineteenth century; 10 second, philanthropic housing 5

A Quasi-Chronological Investigation of Inclusivity as a Key Constituent of Social Sustainability

“…People residing in these conditions had limited options to travel for work due to lack of finance/low income. In response to these challenging conditions, the first tenement housing was proposed under the working-class housing act in 1885 [56], in the United Kingdom. However, there was a lack of focus on green spaces and communal areas.…”

“…The proposed social housing required residents to commute to work without access to transportation. Furthermore, rising land rates led to increased rent, ultimately causing the intended social housing to become gentrified [56]. It is interesting that this gentrified garden suburb has now become one of the most expensive areas in London.…”

“…The new planning paradigms that emerged during this period considered the city as a complex system with many interrelated activities that required monitoring and, if necessary, modified. However, by the end of the 1970s, planning was again in a state of crisis which can be seen in massive gentrification with car dependency a key feature [56].…”