Boundary Estate

In 1680 John Nichol of Gray's Inn, who had built seven houses here, leased 4.75 acres (1.92 ha) of gardens for 180 years to a London mason, Jon Richardson, with permission to dig for bricks. The land became built up piecemeal with houses, built by a number of sub-lessees. Many of the streets were named after Nichol, and by 1827 the 5-acre (2.0 ha) estate consisted of 237 houses.[3]

Henry Mayhew visited Bethnal Green in 1850, and noted for The Morning Chronicle the trades in the area: tailors, costermongers, shoemakers, dustmen, sawyers, carpenters, cabinet makers and silkweavers. In the area, it was noted:

Roads were unmade, often mere alleys, houses small and without foundations, subdivided and often around unpaved courts. An almost total lack of drainage and sewerage was made worse by the ponds formed by the excavation of brickearth. Pigs and cows in back yards, noxious trades like boiling tripe, melting tallow, or preparing cat's meat, and slaughter houses, dustheaps, and 'lakes of putrefying night soil' added to the filth.[4]

In about 1860 in A Visit to the Rookery of St Giles and its Neighbourhood, he mentions the area again and uses the term rookery.[5]

The vicar of St. Philip's, the church serving the Nichol, quoted by Frederick Engels, stated that in 1844 "conditions were far worse than in a northern industrial parish, that population density was 8.6 people to a (small) house, and that there were 1,400 houses in an area less than 400 yd (370 m) square";[6] and in 1861 John Hollingshead, of The Morning Post, in his Ragged London noted that the Nichol had grown even more squalid in the last 20 years as old houses decayed and traditional trades became masks for thieves and prostitutes. The Builder in 1863, noted the numbers inhabiting unfit cellars, the lack of sanitation and that running water was only available for 10–12 minutes each day.[7]

The 1896 novel A Child of the Jago by Arthur Morrison is set in a fictionalised version of Old Nichol.

Boundary Street in 1890, three years before London County Council began slum clearance.

The clearance of the slum houses of the Old Nichol Street rookery was the result of an energetic campaign by the local incumbent, Reverend Osborne Jay of Holy Trinity,[8] who arrived in the parish in December 1886. Charles Booth had already noted the extreme poverty in the area in his study of London poverty.[9] Nearly 6,000 individuals were crammed into the packed streets. The death rate was twice that of the rest of Bethnal Green, and four times that of London. One child in four died before his or her first birthday.

Redevelopment had been resisted by members of the Bethnal Green vestry, who owned much of the rookery, and were responsible for electing members of the Metropolitan Board of Works.[10] The powers the vestries and board were limited to the Torrens Act and the Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1875 (Cross Act) which the Bethnal Green vestry refused to use.[10]

Jay persuaded Arthur Morrison to visit the area, and the result was the influential A Child of the Jago, a barely fictionalised account of the life of a child in the slum, re-christened by Morrison as The Jago: "What was too vile for Kate Street, Seven Dials, and Ratcliffe Highway in its worst day, what was too useless, incapable and corrupt — all that teemed on the Old Jago". Demolition actually began before the publication of the book.

The London County Council was created by the Local Government (England and Wales) Act 1888, some 53 years after other major cities had been municipalised. It took responsibility for the housing of the working classes from the Metropolitan Board of Works.[11] In the first election, the progressives obtained a large majority. The Housing Committee secured from Parliament the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890, which gave it powers to implement the Torrens and Cross acts, and gave legal basis for it to manage housing estates. LCC chose Boundary Street as their flagship scheme.[12] Initially they attempted to get the private sector involved but failed. In 1893, on the back of the 1892 Blackwall Tunnel Act they gained permission from the Home Secretary, to rebuild a small section of the scheme. The principle had been established.[13]

• Arnold Circus Gardens[27]

• Bandstand at Boundary Street Garden, Arnold Circus.[28]
  • Iron Railings and Overthrows at Boundary Street Garden, Arnold Circus
• 4–5 Virginia Road
• Marlow House, Arnold Circus: Built in 1899.[29]
  • Marlow Workshops, Arnold Circus: Built in 1899.[30]
• Virginia Primary School, Arnold Circus: London School Board design of 1875 with later alterations. A classic three-decker designed by E.H.Robson.[31]
  • Area railings at nos. 35 to 49, Arnold Circus
• Chertsey House, Arnold Circus: Designed by Reginald Minton Taylor in 1895[32]
• Sunbury House, Swanfield Street: built 1894-6 by C. C. Winmill.[33]
  • Sunbury Workshops, Swanfield Street: designed by C.C. Winmill 1894[34]
• Taplow House, Palissy Street: built 1894-6 by C. C. Winmill[35]
• Hurley House, Arnold Circus[36]
• Culham House, Rochelle Street: built 1894-6 by C. C. Winmill[37]
• Sonning House, Swanfield Street: built 1894-6 by C. C. Winmill.[38]
• Henley House, Swanfield Street: built 1894 by Roland Plumbe.[39]
• Walton House, Montclare Street.[40]
  • Iron Railings between Henley House and Walton House, Old Nichol Street.[41]
• Cookham House, Montclare Street: this is an 1897 building by R. Minton Taylor, said to be built in a more mature style.[42]
• Porters' House (former laundry), Montclare Street: this is the old laundry as the blocks lacked washing facilities, however no bath-house was provided. Built in 1894-6 by William Hynam.[43]
• Sandford House, Arnold Circus: designed by R Minton Taylor in 1895/1896.[44]
• Clifton House, Club Row[45]
• Molesey House, Camlet Street[46]
• Iffley House, Arnold Circus: Classically detailed and designed, 1896-8 by A. M. Phillips. The entrance is at the rear, leaving the facade free for a pair of broad windows to the ground floor in glazed brown brick.[47]
• Laleham House, Camlet Street[48]
• Hedsor House, Ligonier Street: one of four designs by C.C. Winmill 1898[49]
  • Iron railings, Gate and Gate Piers between Laleham House and Hedsor House, Old Nichol Street[50]
• Benson House, Ligonier Street[51]
• Abingdon House, Boundary Street:Built 1896-8 by A. M. Phillips. It had a conical tower.[52]
• Wargrave House, Navarre Street:Built 1897 and designed by William Hynam[53]
• Shiplake House, Arnold Circus: Built in 1897[54]
• Walker House, 6–8 Boundary Street
• Rochelle Primary School, Arnold Circus[55]
  • Rochelle Primary School Infants, Club Row[56]
  • Rochelle Primary School House, Arnold Circus[57]
  • Iron Railings at Rochelle Primary School, Arnold Circus[58]
  • Playground Wall at Rochelle Primary School[59]

Streatley Buildings were demolished in 1971. These were the first dwellings on the Boundary Estate, on the east side. They were spartan larger flats erected 1893-4.

The 1870 Elementary Education Act made it compulsory for all children between the ages of five and twelve to be given a basic education at public expense. This was to be provided by Board Schools- and school boards were set up across the country to build and run these schools. It was estimated that 100,000 places would be required in London which was a gross underestimation and 500,000 had been provided by 1900. The architect who oversaw this was E.R.Robson, a student of George Gilbert Scott.The two school houses on the Rochelle campus, juniors and infants, were early examples of Robson's work.[60][61]

The Rochelle School is now a community arts facility.