There were those who looked askance at the London County Council’s new Dover House Estate in 1919. Well-heeled local people in the big houses nearby expressed concern that transport links were poor for the area’s new residents. And then there was another ‘element for consideration’ – ‘that its conversion into a working-class district must enormously depreciate the rateable value of property in the vicinity’. (1)
Dover House Road
In fact, worries that the Estate would blight the neighbourhood and would be filled by ‘very, very poor people from the bad areas of the East End’ were illusory. The Dover House Estate, initially known as the Roehampton Estate, would become a ‘show place in its day…visited by many from all over the world.’ (2) And it would house an overwhelmingly ‘respectable’ working class. Many of these worked in the public services – in public transport, as police officers or postal workers – and they…
View original post 1,927 more words
Old School Garden 