LATCHMERE ESTATE:
Celebrating its 100th Anniversary
A
talk for the Latchmere Residents’ Association
The
Opening of the Estate
Latchmere Estate is the
first housing estate built by Battersea Council and was officially opened on 1
August 1903. It comprised 173 two-storey dwellings to accommodate 315 families.
Each house or tenement was self contained, wired for electric light and provided
with a patent combined kitchen range, copper and bath arrangements and blinds.
Water was provided by new artesian wells serving Latchmere Baths. Electricity
was provided by the Council's own generating station which was located in
Lombard Rd. The Estate is significant because it was the outcome of the
aspirations of the organised labour movement to improve the quality of life.
The Estate's street
names Freedom, Reform Sts, Odger, Joubert, Matthews and Burns all have a special
meaning, reflecting the particular liberal, radical and socialist politics of
its controlling Progressive Alliance. Housing is of course nothing without the
people who live. And many of the residents played an active role in local
social, cultural, educational and political affairs. The Estate quickly became
solidly Progressive and from 1918 Labour. They constituted part of the core
Progressive Vote that saw John Archer, the black Liverpuddlian, elected top of
the poll for the local Latchmere Ward in 1906, become the first black Councillor
in Britain to be elected to a controlling political group, and later the first
black Mayor in Britain in 1913.
The Street Names
·
Freedom and Reform Sts reflect the local movement’s aspirations.
· Odger
St is named after George Odger, a shoemaker, and leading trade unionist in
the 1860s.
· Joubert
St is named after a leading Boer General fighting against the British in the
Boer War of 1899-1902.
· Matthews
St was named after Councillor William Matthews who had been Chairman of the
ruling Battersea Council Progressive Alliance, and President of the
Borough's Stop-the-War Committee. He had died in June 1902. Thousands had
paid tribute to him as his funeral cart moved along Battersea Park Rd.
· Burns
Rd was a living tribute to John Burns.
The Opening of the
Estate
The political context of
the building of the Estate is reflected throughout the opening ceremony on 1
August.
The Mayor declared:
‘It was a proud day for
the Council and for Battersea.’ ‘The dwellings were novel of their kind,
containing as they did what had once been regarded as luxuries, such as baths,
combined ranges and electric light. Not many working men had such accommodation
in which to bring up their families, but the Battersea Borough Council had come
to the conclusion that such accommodation was an absolute necessity. Nor need
there be any spoiling of the walls, for picture rails had been provided in every
room.’ He made it clear that the rents would be sufficient to cover the costs of
running the estate. He hoped the new residents ‘would take care of the property
and remember it was not his or theirs, but ours.’
Fred Knee, an ex-chairman of the Housing Committee, explained
‘their object had been to provide for the workman with the large family, in
contradistinction to the ordinary landlord who objected to the large family.’
Knee was the leading labour movement campaigner for municipal housing.
Originally from Frome in Somerset, he was a printer by trade. While living in
Wimbledon between 1892 and 1894 he was active in the Social Democratic
Federation, the local Co-operative Society and campaigned for cheap workmen’s’
train tickets. He had moved to 24 Sugden Rd in Battersea in 1898, the same year
as he founded and became Secretary of the Workmen’s Housing Council to campaign
for improved housing. He was appointed an Alderman on Battersea Council in 1900
chairing the Housing Committee and overseeing the development of the Estate. He
remained an Alderman until 1906, even though he moved in 1901 to Radlett in
Herts.
His view as a socialist on housing was simple: “As regards
housing, the application of this idea involves the building of houses by the
municipality on a large scale, and let at rents regardless of profits. The great
additional power we want from Parliament, particularly to house the poorest
workers is the lending of money by Government, free of interest, which
constitutes about half the worker's rent." Later he became Secretary of the
London Trades Council in 1913, and took the initiative to establish the London
Labour Party in 1914. Poor health from childhood and over worked led to his
death in 1914. Known as "The Mighty Atom" his death was greeted with great
sorrow by labour movement figures. He is commemorated with a blue plaque at
Sugden Rd unveiled on 10 March 1986 by Alf Dubs, Battersea's Labour MP.
Another member of the
Council who spoke was Jimmy Lane, whom the South Western Star newspaper regarded
as a bore because he talked statistics.
Lane’s commitment stemmed from being a bricklayer, and active member of his
trade union on the Trades & Labour Council. He had been a member of the Vestry
from 1896-1900. He was a member of the Council from 1900-1906, 1912-34, and
1941-63. He was made a Freeman in 1943, and awarded an OBE and made a Justice of
the Peace. His son, known as Young Jimmy Lane, also became a bricklayer, and
Councillor 1937 to 1965. He opposed the high-rise system developments of the
1960s, and as Chair of Battersea Society successfully fought against the selling
off of Battersea Town Hall.
John Burns was excited
by the achievement of building the Estate. ‘The land has a communal origin, the
streets bear democratic names; the whole plan, history and achievement is
redolent of the common victory of the common people.’
He "expressed his
delight that one of the ideals of his early days had been realised, namely, the
securing of happy healthy homes for sober and industrious workmen.’
‘It had been difficult
to secure them, because of vested interests whether represented by a railway
company, which wanted all the group, or the obsolete allotment owner, who only
wanted a portion of it. He was glad to say the vested interests had been
completely overthrown, and besides that they to combat (check whether this is
right word) with certain private rights and public privileges. That housing
estate represented a very happy combination of public forces. Parliament had had
to be consulted after having previously several times rejected their overtures,
but finally Parliament had listened to their blandishments, public opinion had
been blighted, selfishness appeased, conflicting difficulties had been
harmonised and in the end they had secured dwellings on which every tenant and
every citizen of London might well be proud.’
He saw the estate as ‘a
sanitary oasis in a wilderness of jerry-built houses.’
As an anti-drink
campaigner, Burns said he ‘was glad the estate would not be tainted by an
off-licence or degraded by a beer-shop.’
On the naming of one of
the roads after him, he said: ‘The Council had honoured him by calling one of
the roads after his name, and he would suggest with that name there should be
associated with the estate the motto of his great namesake, Robert Burns, which
would inspire each of the tenants to keep his place tidy and a credit to the
estate. If it could be done he should like to see the words at the corner of
every road, the words which represented the object of Robert Burns' lines:
"To make a happy
fireside clime,
For weans and wife,
That is the pathos and
sublime
Of human life."
In bricks and mortar
they had realised Robert Burns' ideal, and by providing happier conditions had
brought to absolute perfection that which his great name sake sung about over a
hundred years ago.’
Burns saw ‘The home was
the centre of health, the cradle of character. If they wanted to arrest
drinking, and stop the decay of physique, they should multiply colonies like
this estate all over London and the United Kingdom.’
As Burns pointed out
Battersea was following the example of the London County Council, which he had
been an active member of since its start in 1889, and which had for many years
been under Progressive control. Indeed 1903 saw the completion of a new LCC
estate in Tooting. A leading member Lord Carrington spoke at the opening.
At the end of the
opening ceremony Burns presented Mark Green, the superintendent of the works
with a ring for his wife and an ‘illuminated address’ from the workmen employed
in the Works Department. Burns said that Green ‘had handled the 400 to 500 men
with remarkable facility, and the presentation bespoke the excellent feelings
which prevailed.’ In reply Green invited, ‘critics of the Works Department to
come down and take a turn with the workmen.’
Battersea’s Uniqueness
Why was the Estate built
in the first place? At the time Battersea Borough Council was controlled by a
labour-liberal-radical Progressive Alliance. Key organisational players in the
Alliance were the Battersea Trades & Labour Council and the Battersea Labour
League. The area’s MP was John Burns, originally elected as an independent
socialist with the backing of the Alliance in its early stages in 1892. By 1900
it had earnt the reputation of being the ‘Municipal Mecca’ because of its
municipal socialist programmes started when the Alliance took control of the
Council’s predecessor the Battersea Vestry in 1894. Battersea’s motto was ‘Not
For Me, Not For You, But For Us’. This was given visual expression in the
decoration of the entrance lobby of the Grand Hall of Battersea Town Hall, the
symbol of the bee – which in working class self-help collective action,
represented co-operation. The Council increased the public service facilities.
The Trades Council’s programme was ‘Direct Employment, Municipal Housing,
Electric Light, Libraries, Baths and the many other things in our opinion
necessary to the well-being of the community’.
The record of the Vestry/Council between 1894 and 1909 when it lost control for
three years was impressive. A 48 hour working week had been introduced following
a conference considering the results of a joint trade union and Vestry Survey
into wage rates in the area published in 1895. Through its Direct Labour
Department it had built library extensions, slipper baths and a public laundry,
swimming baths, a sterilised milk depot, and electric light station, and the
Latchmere estate and the Town Hall dwellings of 18 houses, providing 351
tenement dwellings. It was the first London Borough to set up a health visiting
service, and its Medical Officer of Health played a leading role in the
maternity and child welfare movement from 1905 and 1915. The appointment of an
electoral registration officer had helped to ensure a high electoral roll among
the working class. The facilities built up by the Vestry/Council were regarded
by the labour movement as positive achievements needing defending and improving,
an example being the Latchmere Baths.
Latchmere Baths
Latchmere Baths not only played an important role in the recreational, social
and political life of Battersea, but its independent artesian well water supply
was adapted to provide water for the Estate. In those days Baths were not just
swimming pools. Given large numbers of people did not have proper personal or
clothes washing facilities in their homes, they could wash at the Baths. The
baths had been built in 1888/89 by the Commissioners of Baths and Washhouses,
and at some date were taken under the control of Battersea Vestry. The local
labour movement was particularly proud of the facilities, and worked for their
improvement, and wider use for recreational purposes during the winter. In 1895
the Baths were opened up to school use. Large numbers of Battersea children were
to learn to swim there and receive their swimming certificates from the Council.
The provision of its own independent water supply started in 1897 with the
driving of artesian bore holes and the provision and adaptation of machinery and
equipment to pump it up and store it – 100,000 gallons. From 1898/9 the winter
use of the pool areas was made available firstly as a gymnasium ‘for the
athletic enjoyment of Battersea's youthful citizens’, and then secondly as a
recreation room provided with various games, including billiards and bagatelle.
By 1902-3 the number of women using the swimming baths had increased
dramatically, and a separate swimming bath for them was built, and along with
the provision of additional slipper baths. The Estate was supplied with 40,000
gallons from the Baths water supply.
Boer War
In choosing the names of Joubert and Matthews the Council was loudly proclaiming
that it had been actively opposed to the Boer War in South Africa between 1899
and 1902. It was one of the few areas where there was not an overwhelming
display of blind patriotism. A Battersea Stop the War Committee was formed in
February 1900, chaired by William Matthews, a leading Progressive member of the
Vestry/Borough Council. The Labour League, the Liberal and Radical Association
were among the affiliated organisations. Burns, however, did not participate,
probably because the socialists played such a prominent party. While he held his
own public meetings from May to August 1900 every Sunday in Battersea Park, they
were chaired by Matthews. The meetings organised by Burns and the Committee were
attended by thousands of people. Battersea was able to influence the national
policy of the anti-war movement by shifting National Stop the War Committee
policy towards independence for the Boers in June 1901. The organisations
involved in the Committee were virtually the same as those on the Trades
Council, and in the Progressive Alliance on the Borough Council. It is therefore
not surprising that Battersea Borough Council opposed the War. Feelings ran high
enough for the Councillors to refuse to sign a loyal address on Edward VII's
Coronation in 1902, in a display of republican zeal. William Matthews, after
whom one of the streets is named, had been a stone-mason, and a member of
Battersea Labour League. He was elected Councillor for the local Latchmere Ward
in 1900. When he died in June 1902, thousands paid tribute to him as his funeral
cortège moved along Battersea Park Rd.
Latchmere Common
The area had originally
formed part of the Latchmere Common. It had been enclosed for allotments in 1835
by the Battersea Parish Church Wardens, and been let on an annual basis with the
income going towards the Poor Rate funds. In 1877 it had been suggested that the
allotments should be built on. It turned out that the Vestry had no legal powers
to do so. Eventually a special Bill was passed in Parliament in 1888 to pass the
allotments to the Vestry and give it the power to sell, lease or build artisans’
dwellings. Because of strenuous opposition, on the ground that the land should
be maintained as an open space, the Bill was modified to allow part of the land
to remain as open space. It was on part of this land that Latchmere Baths had
been built.
In November 1897 the
Trades & Labour Council took the initiative and lobbied the Vestry to providing
municipal housing. The Vestry set up a special Committee to look into the
matter, the culmination being the building of the Estate. The powers available
to the Vestry were inadequate for it to undertake the building of housing. It
required tow new sets of legislation in 1899 and 1900 to enable the Vestry to
take over the land. The planning process involved the plans going back and forth
between the Vestry/Borough Council and the London County Council before all the
details of the project were approved. It also met opposition from the Municipal
Alliance/Moderate, essentially Conservative, who argued that "The proposed
capital outlay on the Housing Scheme was extravagant and urging the council to
economise by putting the work out to tender." rather than using its own Direct
Labour workforce.
At the root of the
difference of opinion is that between quality and cheapness. A delegation from
Bradford Trades Council in 1904 inspected the Estate, and commented that the
joinery was soundly made, and not at all like the work usually fixed into houses
of this class by private contractors. They also, by way of comparison, went to
see the new Totterdown Estate, which the L.C.C. was having built by a private
contractor in Tooting, and declared that ‘the work in connection with these
houses is, in our view, not to be compared with that done by the Battersea Works
Department."’
Labour Movement
Activists Who Lived on the Estate
Who went to live on the
Estate? Given the rent levels these appear to have been better off workers.
Among them were many who were active in Battersea’s labour movement
organisations. The Estate became a powerhouse of community action throughout the
next decades. A great deal more research will be needed into the electoral
registers to determine how many years each individual lived on the estate. The
information I have comes from a variety of sources, including the Annual Reports
of the Trades Council labour movement and local newspapers. Battersea Trades &
Labour Council reformed in 1918 as the Battersea Trades Council and Labour
Party, and replaced the Progressive Alliance in control of the Council for most
of the period from 1919 to the merger with Wandsworth in 1964/5.
·
Edgar
Boys, a railway worker, Councillor from 1941, to 1960, and Mayor 1957-8, who
lived at 42 Odger Rd during the War, and later 8 Burns Rd.
·
Augustus
Albert Pecksen, a railway signalman, and railway trade union activist who lived
at 10 Freedom St and 19 Burns Rd after the First World War.
·
Sidney
Booth, an active railway trade unionist, who lived at 24 Burns Rd and 1 Reform
St in the 1930s, and who was a Councillor from 1929-45 and Mayor at the
beginning of the War.
·
John
Kenny, who lived at 6 Matthews St before the First World War, and was a
Councillor from 1912-1919.
·
Sidney
Fussey, a bus conductor, who was living at 2 Freedom St in the early 1930s, as a
Councillor from 1934 to 1953, and Mayor in the last year of the War.
·
Frank
Caske, a printer, and active Socialist in the early years of the estate, living
at 1 Freedom St.
·
Arthur
Edward Hollidge, a stone mason (1919), who lived on the Estate at 26 Odger St,
and 3 Freedom St certainly until 1919 when he stood for the Council.
·
David
Miller who lived at 17 Freedom St when he stood as a socialist candidate in
1909.
·
Edward
Coles, a master plasterer, and Councillor 1922-31, 34-49, and Mayor 1942-3, who
was living on the estate in the 1920s and 1930s at 27 Freedom St and 47 Odger
St.
·
William
Humphreys, a clerk, who over the years was active in the Independent Labour
Party, the Social Democratic Federation, was a leading SDF speaking on
militarism and the armed forces as a former member of the Royal Scots Guards. He
lived on the Estate at 37 Freedom St, certainly in 1909 when he stood
unsuccessfully for the Council. He became a Labour Councillor in 1919.
·
H.
Manning, a railway signalman and active railway trade unionist, living at 47
Freedom St (1916).
·
William
James O’Neill, a coach painter, who lived at 42 Freedom St and 28 Matthews St in
the 1920s, and was a Labour Council candidate in 1931.
·
William
Davis a local Ward Councillor from 1903-6, and lived at 12 Joubert St in the
period 1906-9. He was a Councillor again in the years 1940 – 1946.
·
James
Murrey, a stone mason involved on the Trades Council when he lived at 14 Joubert
Rd in 1909. He was also a Councillor from 1903 to 1906.
·
George
Steer, was an active socialist in the SDF and ILP, and the Clarion Cinderella
Club which fed poor children. He was an active member of the engineering Union.
He became Secretary of the newly formed Battersea Labour Party in 1908 and
represented it at the National Conference in 1909. He lived at 41 Odger St
between 1906 and 1908, and may have lived before that at 22 Joubert St.
·
Joseph
Edwards lived at 169 Sheepcote Lane, and 40 Joubrrt St in the late 1920s and
early 1930s. He had been Secretary of the local National Federation of
Discharged Soldiers and Sailors branch in 1918. Later he became a trade union
official and member of the Independent Labour Party. He through to the 1930s,
and Mayor 1928-9.
·
Joseph
George Dibdin was a Councillor from 1906-9, as the same time he was President of
the national Electrical Trades Union (1906/7). In 1906 he lived at 14 Matthews
Street (1906).
·
William
Arthur Andrews lived at 24 Matthews St when he was elected as a local Ward
Councillor in 1906, servicing until 1909 and then again 1912-22, when he died.
·
William
Henry Ivens was a
harness maker living at 28 Matthews St in 1908 and 1909. He had been a Vestryman
until 1900, and then SDF Councillor 1900-1903
·
Joseph
Thomas Knock was Secretary of Battersea Socialist Society in 1916. A member
Battersea Labour Party he worked as a Co-op insurance agent. He was on the Poor
Law Guardians in the 1920s, during which he lived at 5 Matthews Rd.
·
Robert
Bracken was local Battersea Labour Candidate in 1909 when he was living at 19
Mathews St.
·
Henry
Arthur was Secretary, Battersea Labour League Slate, and a local Ward Council
candidate in 1906, when he lived at 21 Matthews St.
·
Charles
Varley, a gas fitter was elected as a Labour Guardian in 1922 when he lived in
Odger St.
·
Tom Pocock
an active railway trade unionist at national level. He was involved in Battersea
Labour Party from 1908, when he lived at 49 Odger St. He was a Councillor in the
1930s through to his death in 1945.
·
George
Whitehead was an electricity meter fitter, LEB, who while living at 22 Reform St
in 1953 was elected as a Labour Councillor.
·
William
Frederick Powell lived at 32 Reform St, SW11 when he stood for the Council in
1937.
·
William
David Garnsey was an active member of the Trades & Labour Council as a
bricklayer. Before the First Wold War he was an active member of the SDF, and
then Labour Councillor for the local Ward 1919-25. He lived at 47 Reform St
before the First World War and was living at 41 Reform St at the end of it.
·
Charles
James, an electrician lived at 48 Reform St in 1922 when he stood for the
Council. He was Council member from 1922-31, and then 1934-8, active on
unemployed issues for the Trades Council in the 1930s.
·
Henry
Herbert Hall was living at 112 Reform St when he stood for Labour in 1928.
·
Alfred
Clist, a plumber’s mater, was a Progressive Vestryman from 1894-1900, then
Councillor 1900-9, and 1912-15. In 1906 he lived at 41 Reform St.
·
George Richards at 188 Sheepcote Lane stood for the Council in
1909), and represented the bricklayers union on the Trades Council.
Active Women Residents
Women were also active.
·
Ellen
Humphreys was William Humphreys’ wife. She stood for the SDF in the Council
elections in 1909. She was a member of the Battersea Women’s Socialist Circle
from 1908-1910. She was involved in setting up and helping to run the Battersea
Socialist Sunday School from 1908. She stood for the Council in 1908.
·
Mrs
Margaret Bumpstead, at 4 Matthews St was a Labour Candidate in 1937.
·
Edward
Cole’s daughter, a health visitor during the War, was also active: Councillor
1942-49, Alderman 1949-56, local Councillor Latchmere Ward 1956-65and Mayor
1952/3.
·
William
Garnsey’s wife was a member of the Battersea Socialist Women’s Circle 1908-1910.
She chaired one of the two open air public meetings at Battersea Park when the
Clarion socialist propaganda campaign Van came.
·
Mrs Louisa Allen was a Labour Councillor from 1956 to 1965, and
active in the Women’s Co-operative Guild. She was living at 116 Reform St in
1949), and 52 Reform St in 1962.
·
Mrs
Tomalin at 186 Sheepcote Lane in 1908, was a member of Battersea Women’s
Socialist Circle 1908-1910. Possibly the wife of Ernest Tomalin, who stood for
the Council in 1912, and was a Councillor 1919-22, by which time they were
living elsewhere in Battersea.
·
George Richards’ wife was a member of Battersea Women’s Socialist
Circle 1908-1910.
She was involved in setting up and helping to run the Battersea
Socialist Sunday School from 1908.
Workers’ Educational
Association
Among those living on
the Estate was H Goodman, an important figure in the development of the Workers’
Educational Association before the First World War. The WEA celebrates its 100th
Anniversary this year. Today the WEA is still the largest non-state provider of
adult education. This was founded in January 1903 by Albert and Frances
Mansbridge in their home in Winsham Grove, off Clapham Common. Albert had grown
up as a child in the trade union, co-operative and Congregationalist world of
Battersea. He thirsted for education and knowledge. He developed ideas to
provide educational opportunities for workers whose schooling ended by the time
they were. He conceived the WEA as a partnership between the co-operative, trade
union and University Extension movements.
H Goodman, who lived at 21 Matthews St was a member of the Battersea Labour
League, and Secretary of the Battersea WEA branch. The branch helped form the
Battersea Adult School, a national religious focussed educational movement. From
1909 the branch members visited London historic places every Saturday. There was
a University Extension Tutorial class. The branch had its own Choir which
performed at social events. Although not living on the Estate Battersea resident
William Salter, an engineer, who had supported the Mansbridges founding of the
Association, was South London Secretary.
In 1911 the WEA’s growth in London allowed it to restructure, convert its South
London Branch, of which Battersea was part, into the London Branch. When Salter
retired Goodman became London Secretary. The WEA magazine ‘Highway’ reported in
October 1911: 'The rapid formation of new branches in London gives our London
secretary, Mr. Goodman plenty to do.’ In gratitude to Goodman the Battersea
members took the opportunity at a local WEA reception on 6 October 'of
presenting an illuminated address’ to him. ‘They had previously given him a
roll-top desk.' In December 1911 the Battersea WEA Women's Committee and the
Utopian Choir held a concert on Friday, December 6th, in the Battersea Town
Hall. By 1913 the London WEA office, where Goodman worked, was based at the
Cambridge House Settlement at 137 Camberwell Rd. His wife was active in the
London WEA including serving on its Council in 1913/14. Another Estate resident,
Mrs Knock was active in the Battersea WEA Section, and by 1914 was its
Secretary. On 24 April 1914 the Section organised a social evening in the Small
Hall at Latchmere Baths, with music and light refreshments. The Section
organised two classes especially for women.
John Burns
And what happened to
John Burns? Less than three years after the opening of the Estate he
entered the Liberal Cabinet from January 1906. He became a Minister in the great
reforming Liberal Government which brought in old age pensions and other
pre-welfare state measures. He resigned in 1914 in protest at the decision to go
to War. He remained Battersea MP until 1918. He refused to accept the
candidature offered to him that year by Battersea Trades Council & Labour Party
because of his long objection to the Parliamentary Whip system’s limitation on
the freedom of MPs to represent their constituencies.
© Sean
Creighton February 2005
www.seancreighton.co.uk
sean.creighton@btopenworld.com
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