For David, who took a Bath at the Buildings

This entry is for David who told me he had a bath with the Ladies in Peabody Buildings. I hasten to add he did explain that there was a curtain around the bath so they could not see him, only chat to him!

David also expressed an interest in the historical details I had.

David's journal can be found at:-

The Way Ahead

 

From the Illustrated London News,23rd February 1867

The grand gift of a quarter of a million sterling bestowed on the poor of London by a generous American merchant is applied by the trustees, as our readers are probably aware, to the building of healthy and comfortable dwellings for working-class families, let at a cheaper rate than the wretched apartments for which exorbitant rents are too often paid in the crowded parts of this city. In the number of this Journal for March 10th of last year we gave an Illustration of Peabody-square, Islington, consisting of four blocks of buildings, five stories in height, situated in Essex Road, on the ground formerly Ward’s -place, of one, two or three rooms, with baths and laundries, ample supplies of water and gaslight, shafts for the removal of refuse, and perfect drainage and ventilation, at rents of two shillings and sixpence, four shillings or five shillings per week. We now present a view of Peabody Square, Shadwell, which has been more recently completed. The arrangement of the four buildings which here form the square, is similar to that adopted at Islington The height, however, is greater, as here there are five stories of dwellings and an attic or laundry; whereas at Islington there are only four stories of dwellings and an attic. Each building is 135 feet long by 32 feet wide and contains forty-four tenements of two rooms and sixteen tenements of one room, which will be let at rents varying from 2 shillings to four shillings per week.

The wash-houses and baths on the attic floor are distributed in a manner somewhat different from that hitherto adopted, so as to afford greater accommodation to the tenants without any sacrifice of space.

The buildings are situated at the east end of a large plot of ground which is bounded by Love Lane, High Street, Elm Row and Sun Tavern Gap. As the two latter approaches are mean and inconvenient, the local Board of Works, contemplate considerable improvements in the neighbourhood, by which the buildings will be rendered more accessible from High Street which is the principal thoroughfare of the district.

Here is the actual Illustration of Peabody Square as it appeared in the Illustrated London News.

This is the place where my Great-Grandfather lived with his wife and family. Elm Row is mentioned. After a few years, Great-Grandfather’s income must have increased because he moved out of the buildings and into a little house in Elm Row. This he shared not only with wife Eliza and the five children they had at the time but also with a widow who also had five children, the youngest being only two years. So, three adults and ten children all under one roof. How the poor widow managed in the days when there were no state benefits I just do not know.

The Telegraph 24th December 1868.

THE PEABODY BUILDINGS

If any misanthrope being wished to place himself beyond sight and sound of all the enlivening influences of Christmas, he has only to set his face eastward and take a walk through Shadwell. He will find no gay shops there to allure the man who is anxious to spread good cheer before his friends, or to set children wild with excitement, or to tempt the lovers of bright and cheerful books. At one corner of almost every street he will see a dirty beer-shop, and at the other corner its principal mainstay and support - the pawnbroker’s. (such was Shadwell when my family lived there).

The half-naked children scrambling about in the black mud are evidently quite unconscious that this is a season of universal merry-making. At the corners of dark and narrow courts a knot of gloomy men are standing, not conversing with each other, but looking out into the grim street as if in hope that somebody in want of them may pass that way. Perhaps it is the constant disappointment of this expectation which sets a frown upon their brows, and stamps them with an air of deep dejection. They are most of them willing to work if they could find any to do, but unhappily there is no work for them. The whole place has the look of decay and ruin. Many shops are altogether closed; large factories are silent and deserted. People say that theshipping trade has fallen off, and that the establishments which used to find employment for hundreds of hands, in constructing engines for Government vessels, are now quite idle. Haggard-looking women, with the necks partially bare, and gowns hanging in tatters round their heels, crawl in and out of houses which seem to have all the “Sunday Clothes” of the district hung up at the doors. These are the “leaving shops” where nothing is refused and no questions are asked. The keepers of these dens, the publicans, and the pawnbrokers, seem to divide the greater part of the trade of Shadwell between them.

In the very worst part of this miserable locality the chance visitor will be surprised to come suddenly upon a pile of buildings which presents a striking contrast to the hovels surrounding them on every side. There are four huge blocks, each as large probably as the Grosvenor mansions, although designed in a much humbler style of architecture. They form a large square, and are separated from the main street by a gateway. Within the enclosed space apartments have been provided for about 200 families, and a few months ago the buildings were fully occupied. When the earnings of the very poor are stopped, a rent of even half-a-crown a week becomes more than they can pay. If they lived in any of the dismal courts in the neighbourhood, they would have their few household goods seized, and be turned into the streets. In Peabody Square as these blocks of houses are called, a tenant who is known to be industriously inclined may be sure of considerate treatment. They will not take paupers. Yet the mere erection of the houses has contributed to the wealth of the parish. The local rates levied upon the Peabody Buildings at Shadwell for the current quarter amount to £102.12s. But the guardians think that the institution ought to take people out of the workhouses and keep them free of expense. They misunderstand Mr. Peabody’s design and wishes.

Supposing that a poor man is tired of the dirt and beggary of a Shadwell court, he gets a letter of recommendation from his employer and goes with it to the Peabody buildings. If he wants one room, he pays for it 2s.6d. Per week; for two rooms, 4s; for three rooms 5s. He is obliged to state his average wages, and if they amount to more than thirty shillings per week, he is refused admission. A glance over the books shows that the tenants chiefly belong to the poorer classes of mechanics, labourers, porters, carmen, a few policemen, compositors and watchmakers.

The truth is, that the buildings do not seem to have been constructed on the best models that could have been chosen. We do not know by what name the architect would prefer to describe the style he has followed; but to the common observer it seems to be a cross between the reformatory and workhouse style. The passages are cold, dark and gloomy. Everything about the buildings (we refer to all which are at present in existence, the one at Shoreditch being particularly cheerless and prison-like) has been made as dull-looking an heavy as it could be. The use of iron, except in staircases, seems to have been overlooked by the architect. The pillars are immense; the walls along the passages seem to be capable of standing a bombardment. At mid-day they are so dark that, on first entering from the outer air, one instinctively gropes one’s way along. On every landing there is a large space open to the air. No windows have been put in, in order that free ventilation might be preserved. In winter time the ventilation is too free to be welcome. An east or a north wind must tear up and down the house with a force which would render all ordinary arrangements for warming the place entirely useless. Blinds have been put up of late at Shadwell; at Shoreditch even this defence against cold has not been provided. There are no hot water pipes to warm the passages. “The poor do not like ventilation,” said one superintendent; “they prefer to shut out every breath of air.” He was quite right, but the architect of these buildings has surely endeavoured to counteract the tastes of the poor a little too vigorously.

The rooms are not by any means attractive, not even comfortable in appearance. They seemed to us to be small and, as the tenants say “pokey.” The walls are not papered but are merely of common brick with a white colouring. A brick wall is never a cheerful object to gaze at, and if you colour it white you have not improved it much. It may be true that “wall-paper harbours vermin” but the same precautions against dirt which arenow taken would keep the walls clean, even though they were papered. Considering the size of the rooms, and the chill appearance of them, and the number of stairs, we doubt whether the rate at which they are let can be considered remarkably cheap. A small house at Shadwell may easily be had for 8s. Per week. But the Peabody buildings ought to be cheap as well as clean if they areever to provea substantial benefit to the poor. Two shillings and sixpence a week for one little room, perhaps up four pairs of stairs, down at Shadwell, is not cheap. The arrangement appears to be susceptible of improvement; but in other respects these institutions cannot fail to be productive of benefits to the poor.

In the first place, habits of cleanliness are soon taught to those who enter in ignorance of them. The passages must be cleaned by the tenants in turn. In each passage there is a trap for receiving dust and dirt.

This is a very long article so I shall leave it there for today. It goes on to describe some of the inhabitants and ask them questions, also remarks made by the superintendent. If you are interested, I will be happy to type up the rest and post tomorrow