The Secret Life of Streets (BBC Two)

[Serial_Apologist]

Wasn't it always thus? In the years of slum clearance before the last war and the re-building after, the likes of Herbert Morrison was supposed to have said “We'll build the Tories out of London”. While there's no proof that he ever did say it, and whatever laudable aims the LCC had, it's hard to imagine that the thought that they were also creating a Labour fiefdom never crossed their minds.

But those typical red-brick LCC estates did endure and were never instant slums.



Smoky and dirty? Quelle surprise. I can remember some pretty unpleasant smogs before we had the clean air acts, smokeless fuels and finally people turned away from burning coal. The “God knows what else” was how the people had earnt a living. The story of the E&C and how it's development was influenced not so much be Le Corbusier but the post-war the “ Abercrombie Plan” is well told here:

http://thecarandtheelephant.com/chapter/introduction

This BBC clip of the Abercrombie vision scares the hell out of me:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/britainfromabove/stories/buildingbritain/visionoflondon.shtml

I wonder if Hans Peter Trenton came from Vienna and if he had been influenced by the ideas of socialist housing that went on there before the last war. My maternal grandmother had finally escaped the deprivation of SomersTown to the sunny uplands of Wandsworth by the time the Ossulton Estate and others were built by the LCC on the site of the old slums. It's ironic the Ossulton is now a listed building and it's design is said to be strongly influenced by pre-war Viennese modernist public building such as Karl Marx-Hof. There's a fascinating video about this period in Vienna at http://vimeo.com/35278999:

Compared to Trenton's vision of the Aylesbury Estate, this is paradise. Personally I think he should have been wrapped in a concrete overcoat.

Yes - if that first clip were from an episode of Harry Enfield, I dare say we'd laugh. That said, apart from the E&C, some limited areas where the Abercrombie scheme were implemented aren't that bad: Churchill Gardens along the Grosvenor Embankment on the Pimlico side between the Victoria main line and Vauxhall bridges; but one has a sense that aesthetic concessions were made on behalf of smart next-door Belgravia when those flats were lined up like barracks.

[Anna]

No, they were not "extremely nasty" then, nor were they "these inner-city areas". They were peoples' homes. Our strange outsider, who was just 30-something when let loose, describes the flats he designed as having been light and airy. The despised walkways were "created to keep people away from cars" which were becoming "ubiquitous". Even now, according to Tinker, it feels as a visitor like a clean, "dreamlike" place where you see trees and only a few people. Why, he asks, pull down "a perfectly good estate?". Blimey, I don't know which part of Surbiton or Virginia Water he might live in but clearly he has always been mainly in la-la land.

Lat and everyone, I have yet to catch up on the Caledonian Road episode, but Abercrombie and his ilk strike me, in their vision, of organising the 'worker ants' whilst they (the Planners) continued lived in their des res somwhere, out of the smog and the filth and families and real life.

However, we must not get too sentimental and Dickensian like about the cheerful cockney sparrers, going about their business, always chirpy and 'aving a knees up at the drop of a pint of mild and bitter. There were horrendous conditions but most the alternatives being built should have been on a human scale not some planner's mythical utopia for the drones.

[Pegleg]

How could they make a programme about the “Cally” and not mention that Kenneth Williams was born in Bingfield street? But we did get a bit of a “Cally-on” with a few Sir Sidney Rough Diamonds thrown in.

Joking part, it was another watchable episode, but rather light on secrets and selective of the road's history. While the narration was telling us how Booth thought the place was dingy, down at heel etc., did you notice how the camera zoomed over a map that had a lot of pink on it? I think they missed an opportunity to make more of the west east divide on either side of the Caledonia Road which separated the nobs from the mob. We did hear about the Thornhill Estate but little else of other near-by squares and the Barnsbury area with it's history of gentrification that started in the 1960s and 1970s. Even here the story is more mixed than the programme implied:

“ In a 1968 pilot survey in Matilda Street, Barnsbury, out of 160 households interviewed: 127 had no access to a bath, 138 shared a toilet, 15 had no kitchen sink and 25 were living in overcrowded conditions”
(London Borough of Islington 1969, 13).

(You might not have the stamina to wade through this, but pages 471-475 are the most relevant:

Super-gentrification in Barnsbury, London: globalization and ...

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/.../people/.../SupergentrificationinBarnsbury.pdf

)

When the programme focused on one resident's former home on Lesley Street it was pink, no police sergeant of the day would have lived in a dodgy street. While we saw the modern homes that dispossessed them, we were given little background about the compulsory purchase. The programme makers could easily have gone down the neighbouring Bride Street, with it's St.Giles Mission hall, to at least give a feel for what the old homes looked like but as some segments of filming had been interrupted by local youths perhaps it wasn't safe. Of course, gangs in that part of the world are nothing new, as you can read about here if you have the stomach for such depressing facts:

https://sites.google.com/site/london...ages/islington

We heard absolutely nothing about the area immediately to the west of the Caledonia Road with it's acres of social housing and how much bomb damage there had been. The most glaring omission was that of the “Crumbles”, the Beaconsfield Buildings. Originally built circa 1879 as “model dwellings for the labouring classes”, but when eventually purchased by the GLC in 1966 the “Crumbles” had the reputation of one the worst slums in the area, if not in the whole of London.

But then, depending which decade you want to pick there have been plenty of candidates for that dubious honour, and besides the programme makers want to talk about the “worst slum” in next week's Portland Road episode. You can find a set of photos of part of the “Crumbles” in its last days here:

http://viewfinder.english-heritage.o...=all&form=home

And this website tells the story from the viewpoint of those who lived there and has a lot more photos:

http://www.beaconsfieldbuildings.com/index.htm

The modern day Mr. “Build first, get permission afterwards” character seemed to be making a good job of turning the clock back on housing conditions with his take on the medieval dungeon. Just how he had got away with his many “that mine” schemes, Lord knows.

The spookiest moment was the segment when the IT worker talked about the photo collection he had made through his window of life in the raw on the “Cally”. It was the voice I recognised from years ago when I worked in BT Mobile's IT in Euston ....

If you're feeling nostalgic for some dirt and grim here's a mostly 1950s photo set of the area, and it's got a load of buses in the pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/5908209...9684/lightbox/

[vinteuil]

.



If you're feeling nostalgic for some dirt and grim here's a mostly 1950s photo set of the area, and it's got a load of buses in the pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/5908209...9684/lightbox/

... lovely! Thank you. And not just buses - trolley-buses too - and the odd isetta bubble-car - morris traveller - rover 90 - ford anglia - lots to wallow in

[Nick Armstrong]

If you're feeling nostalgic for some dirt and grim here's a mostly 1950s photo set of the area, and it's got a load of buses in the pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/5908209...9684/lightbox/

Wonderful! Can one be nostalgic for something from before one's birth? Probably, in this instance... because that look and feel continued into the 60s when the infant Caliban stretched forth from his perambulator to kiss the front wheel arch of the family Morris Minor (grey - red interior) and pronounce his first ever word: "CAR!"

But....

... lovely! Thank you. And not just buses - trolley-buses too - and the odd isetta bubble-car - morris traveller - rover 90 - ford anglia - lots to wallow in

<<wince>>

Vinrouge - are you sure? The faired-in front lights make me think it's a Heinkel/Trojan, not an Isetta...
q.v. http://www.3wheelers.com/heinkel.html (It's captioned as such, too, not that that is probative either way)



(Braces self for incoming....)

[Anna]

We heard absolutely nothing about the area immediately to the west of the Caledonia Road with it's acres of social housing and how much bomb damage there had been. The most glaring omission was that of the “Crumbles”, the Beaconsfield Buildings. Originally built circa 1879 as “model dwellings for the labouring classes”, but when eventually purchased by the GLC in 1966 the “Crumbles” had the reputation of one the worst slums in the area, if not in the whole of London.

Oh, that's a shame about the Crumbles. As mentioned upthread my Grandpa's family lived in the Beaconsfield from 1911 to 1919, I was going to post those links after I'd seen the programme assuming they had filmed there (I will catch up with it tomorrow), they do look grim in the 60s but perhaps not so grim at the turn of the century?

In the meantime, although of an earlier era, here are 75 very old photos of London, the earliest 1860, the latest around 1938. Some are tagged British Library and I suspect form part of a fairly recently published book, I think Caliban in particular will enjoy them. Most of them look like sets of a Dickens dramatisation! I've enjoyed looking at them (note to bus fanciers: there are none but some horse-drawn omnibuses)

http://www.referenced.co.uk/lost-london-75-early-photographs/

[vinteuil]

Vinrouge - are you sure?

... my dear caliban - the last time I was absolutely sure of anything was probably in 1959....


And, here, I am very happy to defer to your superior knowledge of the world of bubble-cars

[amateur51]

... my dear caliban - the last time I was absolutely sure of anything was probably in 1959....


And, here, I am very happy to defer to your superior knowledge of the world of bubble-cars

very hot summer, 1959

[Nick Armstrong]

... my dear caliban - the last time I was absolutely sure of anything was probably in 1959....
And, here, I am very happy to defer to your superior knowledge of the world of bubble-cars

[Pegleg]

Oh, that's a shame about the Crumbles. As mentioned upthread my Grandpa's family lived in the Beaconsfield from 1911 to 1919, I was going to post those links after I'd seen the programme assuming they had filmed there (I will catch up with it tomorrow), they do look grim in the 60s but perhaps not so grim at the turn of the century?

Apologies Anna If I have trodden on your toes, but I missed reading your family connection to the Beaconsfield Buildings. It would be good to have a clearer idea of how it waxed and waned over the decades. I'll be very interested to hear your views of the programme.

In the meantime, although of an earlier era, here are 75 very old photos of London, the earliest 1860, the latest around 1938. Some are tagged British Library and I suspect form part of a fairly recently published book, I think Caliban in particular will enjoy them. Most of them look like sets of a Dickens dramatisation! I've enjoyed looking at them (note to bus fanciers: there are none but some horse-drawn omnibuses)
http://www.referenced.co.uk/lost-lon...y-photographs/

A stunning set of photos. How about his for traffic and pedestrian integration? The vid plays to a score composed and performed by James Pearson with the Ronnie Scott's All Stars, nice!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-5Ts_i164c&feature=related

All rather different to Abercrombie's ideas of strict separation of traffic and people. You could argue that this and similar thinking lead to the "sky walks" and "deck access" of the Aylesbury etc., a major factor in their failure.

[Pegleg]

Wonderful! Can one be nostalgic for something from before one's birth? Probably, in this instance... because that look and feel continued into the 60s when the infant Caliban stretched forth from his perambulator to kiss the front wheel arch of the family Morris Minor (grey - red interior) and pronounce his first ever word: "CAR!"

Your family had a car? I have vivid memories of my first family trip with my Dad at the wheel. It was in a Ford Anglia, hired for the weekend. Once stalled, a bu**er to start. We kept out of his way as his damaged pride turned into a black mood.

One three wheeler that sticks in the mind is the Messerschmitt http://www.3wheelers.com/messer.html mostly after coming across the scene of a nasty accident at the top of my road as a youngster. Said three wheeler had disappeared under the back of a lorry and judging by the look on the firemen's faces the outcome was none to pleasant.

[Nick Armstrong]

Your family had a car? I have vivid memories of my first family trip with my Dad at the wheel. It was in a Ford Anglia, hired for the weekend. Once stalled, a bu**er to start. We kept out of his way as his damaged pride turned into a black mood.

One three wheeler that sticks in the mind is the Messerschmitt http://www.3wheelers.com/messer.html mostly after coming across the scene of a nasty accident at the top of my road as a youngster. Said three wheeler had disappeared under the back of a lorry and judging by the look on the firemen's faces the outcome was none to pleasant.

[Serial_Apologist]

Oh, that's a shame about the Crumbles. As mentioned upthread my Grandpa's family lived in the Beaconsfield from 1911 to 1919, I was going to post those links after I'd seen the programme assuming they had filmed there (I will catch up with it tomorrow), they do look grim in the 60s but perhaps not so grim at the turn of the century?

In the meantime, although of an earlier era, here are 75 very old photos of London, the earliest 1860, the latest around 1938. Some are tagged British Library and I suspect form part of a fairly recently published book, I think Caliban in particular will enjoy them. Most of them look like sets of a Dickens dramatisation! I've enjoyed looking at them (note to bus fanciers: there are none but some horse-drawn omnibuses)
http://www.referenced.co.uk/lost-lon...y-photographs/

Absolutely wonderful, those photos, Anna - thanks so very much!

Interesting to note the half-timbered buildings in the first shots of the series that managed to survive the Great Fire, and for another 200 years. Apart from the celebrated terrace in High Holborn, two or three are to be found in the Strand, and others in Bermondsey Street, to this very day - but you have to search carefully for them.

[Nick Armstrong]

, here are 75 very old photos of London, the earliest 1860, the latest around 1938. Some are tagged British Library and I suspect form part of a fairly recently published book, I think Caliban in particular will enjoy them. Most of them look like sets of a Dickens dramatisation! I've enjoyed looking at them (note to bus fanciers: there are none but some horse-drawn omnibuses)
http://www.referenced.co.uk/lost-lon...y-photographs/

Indeed Anna!!! They are quite amazing! And in fact I am familiar with them from the book you mention, which I was given for Christmas by a family member who knows my penchants

It's this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-London-...0393480&sr=1-1

Great to have them in internet form though, I have downloaded some to use as an atmospheric screen saver

[Nick Armstrong]

This is a particularly haunting one, with the figure out in the sunlight... A marvellous pic by any standards.