Joost (formerly habeebee)
Optimism
Aspen Gardens estate in Hammersmith, also photographed here and here by Nicobobinus, tireless chronicler of London housing estates.
The slums [that dominated this area in the late 19th and early 20th century] stretched from the river to King Street, an area now bisected by the A4. Histories of the area comment on the stark contrast between the slums and the grand buildings in King Street.
Riverside Gardens was part of the homes fit for heroes building program as slum clearance by the Council and completed in 1928. Neighbouring Aspen Gardens was built for returning soldiers after the 2nd World War and was opened in 1948 by Nye Bevin. At the fifty years celebration a plaque was unveiled by Michael Foot to his mentor.
The estate was the first to defy a local council and vote against voluntary stock transfer in the 1980's.
That's from the Radical History Walk of Hammersmith, archived online at Past Tense. From the same walk is this colourful description of those slums that used to exist in this area:
Furnival Gardens: Originally the Creek ran from Stamford Brook to the river, and this was the site of slums, factories and wharves, an area known as Little Wapping. On the riverside was the centre of heavy industry: Oil mills, lead works and Boat building. Behind this teeming slums where workers lived, in overcrowded and terrible conditions. Narrow alleys wove between factories, sheds and mills, each with their fumes and effluent.
In 1846 the District Medical Officer wrote: "Almost every house is visited with epidemic diarrhoea, so violent as to be mistaken for Asiatic cholera". The same report recorded that: “The scanty supply of water, the crowded state of the dwellings, the overflow of privies and cesspools, all combine to poison and destroy the health of the poorer inhabitants of Hammersmith and are allowed to create and perpetuate more than half of the diseases which are incidental to human nature itself.”
The Creek was filled in in 1936 but the Furnival Gardens were not created until created in 1951.
Optimism
Aspen Gardens estate in Hammersmith, also photographed here and here by Nicobobinus, tireless chronicler of London housing estates.
The slums [that dominated this area in the late 19th and early 20th century] stretched from the river to King Street, an area now bisected by the A4. Histories of the area comment on the stark contrast between the slums and the grand buildings in King Street.
Riverside Gardens was part of the homes fit for heroes building program as slum clearance by the Council and completed in 1928. Neighbouring Aspen Gardens was built for returning soldiers after the 2nd World War and was opened in 1948 by Nye Bevin. At the fifty years celebration a plaque was unveiled by Michael Foot to his mentor.
The estate was the first to defy a local council and vote against voluntary stock transfer in the 1980's.
That's from the Radical History Walk of Hammersmith, archived online at Past Tense. From the same walk is this colourful description of those slums that used to exist in this area:
Furnival Gardens: Originally the Creek ran from Stamford Brook to the river, and this was the site of slums, factories and wharves, an area known as Little Wapping. On the riverside was the centre of heavy industry: Oil mills, lead works and Boat building. Behind this teeming slums where workers lived, in overcrowded and terrible conditions. Narrow alleys wove between factories, sheds and mills, each with their fumes and effluent.
In 1846 the District Medical Officer wrote: "Almost every house is visited with epidemic diarrhoea, so violent as to be mistaken for Asiatic cholera". The same report recorded that: “The scanty supply of water, the crowded state of the dwellings, the overflow of privies and cesspools, all combine to poison and destroy the health of the poorer inhabitants of Hammersmith and are allowed to create and perpetuate more than half of the diseases which are incidental to human nature itself.”
The Creek was filled in in 1936 but the Furnival Gardens were not created until created in 1951.