Origins
The idea to build a residential site to the north of the Cripplegate area, followed devastation of much of the City of London in The Blitz during World War II. Following almost complete destruction in the Blitz, only around 500 residents remained in the City in 1950, a mere 50 of whom lived in Cripplegate. The brief was to provide general needs council housing for the many people who serviced or worked in the City, as part of the comprehensive recovery and re-building strategy of the City of London. As the Estate then fell within the boundary of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury, a proportionate number of tenancies were also offered to those on the Finsbury waiting list. A Boundary change in 1994 means the estate is today wholly inside the City of London.
Compared to other council housing of the era, there was a greater emphasis on the housing needs of single people and couples rather than larger families. Studios and one bedroomed flats comprise the majority (359) of the units (554 in total). The density at 200 person per acre was high but 60% of the area of the site is open space, a figure made possible by building taller structures than was common in 1951.
The site had been occupied since the mid 19th century by small Victorian industries and businesses, especially metal working. Some of the basements of the bombed buildings were retained as sunken areas of the landscaping.It was designed by architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, who later designed the adjacent, Barbican Estate. The estate was commissioned and paid for by the City of London, who still own the freehold and act as managers, and the area was transferred to the City of London in 1994, following boundary changes lobbied for by residents. However, it is distinguished from the bulk of the City of London, which is today the largely non-residential European financial services capital.
The first phase of the estate was officially opened in 1957. Before completion, the estate was enlarged to the West as more land was acquired, with three buildings added later: Cullum Welch House and Hatfield House and Crescent House. This last was completed in 1962.
Read more about this topic: Golden Lane Estate
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: “Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?””
—Katharine Hamnett (b. 1948)
“The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.”
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—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)