1/ THREAD: a virtual tour of some exceptional housing in the East End. Starting in Fieldgate Street, Tower House: A ’Rowton House’, completed 1902, to house the homeless. Stalin stayed here when attending the 5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1907. 
2/ Fieldgate Mansions, built 1905-06 by the London Hospital Estate: the scene of Communist-led rent strikes in the 1930s and, when slated for demolition in the 1970s, occupied by hippies and the Bengali Housing Action Group.
3/ The Chicksand Estate, off Vallance Road. A 1960s London County Council mixed development scheme, it replaced a rundown area of homes and businesses including four former synagogues.
4/ Pauline House, Chicksand Estate: 1961, a 19-storey point block of 73 flats, designed by George Finch for the LCC, built on the site of a bombed Board School.
5/ Hughes Mansions on Vallance Road, 1928, by Stepney Metropolitan Borough Council. On 27 March 1945 (a day before Passover) a V2 rocket – the last in London – killed 134 residents, mostly Jewish.
6/ Shahjalal Estate, Vallance Road. Built by the Spitalfields Housing Cooperative founded in 1979 and now a Housing Association managing 850 homes. (Photo credit Des Blenkinsopp).
7/ Cutting west to Woodseer Street, Vollasky House, built by Stepney Metropolitan Borough Council in 1956. As the plaque says, named after 'Alf' Vollasky, a Stepney councillor killed in the Hughes Mansion V2 attack.
8/ On to Commercial Street, the first Peabody homes erected, opened in 1863-64 to a design by HA Darbishire. Shared toilets back in the day but sold off for private flats in 1999 and now known as The Cloisters. (This was was taken today.)
9/ Across to Crispin Street, Providence Row, a night shelter housing 350 women and children and 50 men, founded by Father Daniel Gilbert and Sisters of Mercy in 1860. The currently building (closed 2002, now student accommodation), designed by Messrs Young, opened in 1868.
10/ Over the road, 66-68 Bell Lane, built by Stepney Metropolitan Borough Council in the later 1920s. Formerly owned by Tracey Emin, her application to demolish and replace it in 2016 was refused.
11/ Down the road, the Holland Estate - a London County Council scheme built between 1927-33 on the site of the Bell Lane and Ellen Street Scheme Clearance area affecting ‘1705 persons of the working classes.’
12/ Behind it lies, Chapter Spitalfields: a 2010, 33-storey block, built by American private equity firm Blackstone to accommodate 1200 students with rooms from £300 a week - a symbol of the financialisation of housing.
13/ Wentworth Dwellings, Wentworth Street: built on land cleared under the 1875 Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement Act and built in 1887 by the Wentworth Dwelling Company. Basic accommodation in the day with tin baths, housing 600 households.
14/ The Kensington and Sloane Apartments (sic), Old Castle Street - private flats built as part of the 2013 redevelopment of the New Holland Estate by East End Homes which created 62 homes at social rent, 13 for shared ownership and 128 for sale on the open market.
15/ Denning Point, Commercial Street - now a mix of affordable-rent and private leasehold flats; designed by Elie Mayorcas for the Greater London Council in 1968. Dubbed 'Heroin High-Rise' by the media before redevelopment after years of neglect. Shown here in 2019 and 1988.
16/ I hope you enjoyed the tour and its insights into the changing nature and priorities of our housing programmes since the later 19th century. Stay safe and well.
