Golden Lane Estate - A Model For Social Housing & Urban Living

A Model For Social Housing & Urban Living

When completed the estate attracted even more publicity than the architectural competition, being viewed as a symbol of post-war recovery. It was widely photographed and written about, also featuring in various newsreel features. From the outset the estate was also regarded as a model of social integration with early tenants including caretakers, clergymen, clerks, doctors, office cleaners, police officers and secretaries.

Today the estate is home to approximately 1,500 people living in 559 one, two or three bedroom units. There are 385 flats and 174 maisonettes. Approximately half of the flats have been sold on long leases under the Right to buy scheme provisions brought in by the Thatcher government and, when subsequently sold into the commercial market, leases have proved attractive to design-conscious buyers and command good prices. The rental flats continue as council housing let at affordable rents. Applications for rented housing units can be made to the City of London, with preference given to eligible applicants who live or work in the City of London or have a direct connection with the City's other housing estates.

On the western edge of the estate is a line of shops, and there are social facilities open to all residents, a public swimming pool and gym, police office, estate office, nursery, pub and tennis courts (originally a bowling green) - the whole combining to make an urban microcosm. A number of these facilities survive in their original uses, preserving the values that lay behind the creation of the estate. Once common in post-WW II local authority planning and housing, this idealism, commitment to quality design and a holistic vision of urban living have in many cases been abandoned by municipalities.