HOUSING DEPARTMENT: GENERAL

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: LCC/HSG/GEN
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: HOUSING DEPARTMENT: GENERAL
Date(s)	: 1845-1971
Level of description	: Collection View parent record
Extent	: 8.55 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: LCC | London County Council x London County Council

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Council's functions in relation to housing were originally exercised by the Valuer but were separated in 1901 to form an independent Department under a Housing Manager. In 1919, the greatly increased work involved in the preparation and development of new schemes led to the appointment of a Director of Housing responsible both for development planning and for the management of estates, the former Housing Manager at this stage becoming a subordinate officer under him. In 1921, the Department as a whole was again merged with that of the Valuer. This position continued until 1 April 1954 when a separate Department was again created under a Director of Housing. Originally designated Housing Management Department, it was renamed Housing Department in 1960. The Housing Department's work was focussed mainly on slum clearance, the construction of new housing estates both inside London and out of county, and the post-war provision of emergency housing.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the London County Council Housing Department, 1845-1971, including subject and policy files regarding the Becontree Estate; Old Oak Estate; National Housing and Town Planning Council; visits to estates and to the Housing Department Chart Room; correspondence; rents; Norbury Estate; Roehampton Estate Tenants Association; Watling Estate; White Hart Lane Estate, Tottenham and the Bellingham Estate.

Selection of reports relating to the Housing of the Working Classes, bound into volumes; annual reports of the Housing Committee; Housing Manager's annual reports and statistical tables; Workmen's Trains: report of the case of LCC and others versus Great Eastern Railway Company and others before the Railway and Canal Commission of the High Court; evidence from the Inquiry into the Whitecross Street Scheme; Housing notebook containing particulars of the Council's Estates and Dwellings; lecture "Working Class Dwellings - the Rebuilding of the Boundary Street Estate" by Owen Fleming, assistant architect to LCC; lecture "Overcrowded London" by R.M Beachcroft, LCC alderman; speech "A Remedy for Overcrowding in London" by Henry Jephson; lecture "Slum Areas in London" by Cecil B Levita, chairman of the LCC Housing Committee; LCC Housing Progress Handbook.

Plans and details of Standard Types of LCC Housing Accommodation; Acts of Parliament relating to housing functions and lodging houses; plans referred to in schemes made under the Housing of the Working Classes Act; map and guide to LCC housing estates; samples of tenant's handbooks; Code of Instructions for the Guidance of Superintendents of Estates; rent books and tenancy file of a model tenant on the Downham Estate; large poster inviting applications for tenancy of LCC dwellings, listing all estates with details of accommodation and rents; samples of completed application forms for tenancy of Council houses and flats.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

LCC/HSG/GEN/01: General; LCC/HSG/GEN/02: Reports; LCC/HSG/GEN/03: Estates; LCC/HSG/GEN/PP: Plans. For convenience, records relating to the housing function are listed here, irrespectively of their creation during the Department's separate existence or during the periods of merger with the Valuer's Department.

Conditions governing access:

These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright: City of London.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Acquired with the records of its parent body, the London County Council.

Allied Materials

Related material:

For more records relating to LCC housing estates please see the Chief Engineer's records (LCC/CE), the Architect's Department records (LCC/AR), the Valuation Department records (LCC/VA) and the Clerk's Department records (LCC/CL/HSG).

Publication note:

For further information on the history of the LCC please see Achievement: A Short History of the London County Council by W Eric Jackson (1965), LMA Library reference 18.0 1965, The London County Council 1938, LMA Library reference 18.7 SER 4, and The Youngest County: A description of London as a county and its public services, 1951, LMA Library reference 18.0 1951.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
April to June 2009