Following a visit to Poplar, East London, Sylia Pankhurst’s article in the Workers’ Dreadnought, 'Revolution and the Housing Question', dated Saturday 14 January 1919 paints a vivid picture of what it was like to live in Hanbury Buildings, Poplar at the end of the first world war. Sylvia was the daughter of Emmiline Pankhurst, the suffragettes who famously chained herself to the railings outside 10 Downing Street in an attempt to gain the vote for women. The Dreadnought was keen to highlight the housing and living conditions of working class families.

Pankhurst describes the approach to the buildings as follows: ‘... at the top of the first steep flight one is confronted by the open doors of three W.C.s, all of which are out of order’. This opening sentence sets the tone of the article which is dictated somewhat by the socialist politics of the Workers’ Dreadnought, the journal in which it was published and the reflects the views of the editor, Sylvia Pankhurst, one of whose goals in life was to empower working-class women in the East-End of London. The article sets out to expose the capitalist landlords who were exploiting working-class tenants.

The article goes on to state that ‘to the left is a narrow, dark passage where, by feeling with one's hands, one discovers the doors of the two-roomed apartments in which the tenants are living’, which creates the impression of a lack of either natural or artificial lighting, i.e. that the buildings were designed and constructed with minimising costs and with little thought for the inhabitants. Although not explicitly stated, it appears that there was no electricity supply to the building, so maybe tenants used candles to light the inside of the buildings. Rents for these apartments vary from 4s 6d to 6s 6d a week, and seven families share the common washing facilities which the women take it in turns to clean.

Residents stated that the buildings came into this state through a combination of lack of maintenance and vandalism caused by young men who came to gamble at night, some of whom lived in the building and some of whom came from outside, but in common stemmed from boredom.

Out of necessity, some of the women go out to work as they can’t manage on their husbands wages alone. Some of the apartments are very well looked after being clean and beautifully arranged but nonetheless some of the tenants are keen to leave. However, the landlord keeps promising to give the tenants rent books, but they never materialise. Without rent books they are unable to find rented accommodation elsewhere, and therefore feel trapped. This situation works to the advantage of the landlord, who would rather have tenants able to pay the rent rather than take a chance on new tenants who may not be able to pay. This is further alluded to in the fact that the landlords prefer tenants who are able to decorate and carry out basic repairs themselves, all at no cost to the landlord. The article cites the example of a woman that had the good fortune to move into rooms at the front of the building where there was more light and air, and notes that she looks much healthier for it.

One woman states her worry that as her sons are due to return from the war and they won’t be able to invite their young ladies to a place like this. She would like to move but cannot afford the risks involved in renting a house and sub-letting part of it should the tenants fail to pay the rent.

The article concludes: ‘Marvellous that women who have lived for years in these wretched tenements should still retain a genuine enthusiasm for home-making, still grasp at any chance to beautify their rooms, still toil even when excessively tired by outside labour, to keep them clean’.

It is interesting to note that there is one issue that has been alluded to but not discussed is that Hanbury Buildings caters for the need for cheap housing. Hanbury Buildings was designed and constructed to provide accommodation for ‘artisans’, ie. more economical than normal. And, as the article states, ‘but newcomers are everywhere waiting to occupy the rooms of outgoing tenants’, so maybe it was just fulfilling a need.

The original article is available from the British Newspaper Archives, located here.

Copyright © 2006 - R Wilkins