The Architectural and Social History of Cooperative Living

296 Pages·1988·26.699 MB·English

by  Lynn F. Pearson (auth.)

THE ARCHITECTURAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF
COOPERATIVE LIVING
The Architectural and Social
History of Cooperative Living
Lynn F. Pearson
M
MACMILLAN
PRESS
© Lynn F. Pearson 1988
Soticover reprint ofthe hardcover I st edition 1988 978-0-333-40620-5
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication
may be made without written permission.
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save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright Act 1956 (as amended).
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may
be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
First published 1988
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LT D
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Pearson, Lynn F.
The architectural and social history of cooperative living.
1. Shared housing--Social aspects--
Great Britain
1. Title
363.5 HD7333.A3
ISBN 978-1-349-19124-6 ISBN 978-1-349-19122-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-19122-2
Contents
List of Figures vi
List of Plates VB
Acknowledgements ix
1 The Nineteenth-century Home and its Alternatives 1
2 Associated Homes and Cooperative Housekeeping 11
3 Mrs E. M. King and the English Response 23
4 Homes for Working Women 45
5 Socialised Domestic Work and the Garden City 56
6 The Cooperative Housekeeping Boom 86
7 Alice Melvin of Finchley 119
8 Communal Living and the War 129
9 The Movement Declines 158
10 The Rise and Fall of the Cooperative Housekeeping
Movement 188
11 Communal Living Today 202
Appendix 220
Notes and References 221
Index 268
v
List of Figures
1 E. V. Neale's associated home 30
2 Mrs E. M. King's cooperative home 35
3 Marie C. C. Morfit's cooperative house 40
4 Ladies' residential chambers, York Street, London 52
5 Proposed cooperative building in Bradford 82
6 Elmwood Cottages, Letchworth Garden City 88
7 Walter Crane's collective dwelling 93
8 Homesgarth, Letchworth Garden City 97
9 Waterlow Court, Hampstead Garden Suburb 107
10 The working woman's house 141
11 Mrs E. B. Pearsall's proposed cooperative houses,
Letchworth Garden City 163
12 Meadow Way Green South, Letchworth Garden City 166
13 Guessens Court, Welwyn Garden City 169
14 St George's Conrt, Bournville, Birmingham 173
vi
List of Plates
All photographs copyright the author unless otherwise stated.
1 Streatham Street 'Model houses for families', the courtyard
2 Cooperative home designed by E. W. Godwin for Mrs E. M.
King (Building News, vol. 26, 24 April 1874, p. 452)
3 Chenies Street, ladies' residential chambers
4 York Street, ladies' residential chambers
5 Nutford House residential club
6 Queen's Club Gardens
7 Mrs Daubeny, manageress of the London Distributing Kit-
chen (The Lady's Realm, Feb 1902, p. 515)
8 Raymond Unwin's design for a quadrangle of artisans' dwell-
ings (Raymond Unwin, Cottage Plans and Common Sense, Fab-
ian Tract no. 109, Fabian Society, London, March 1902, p. 10;
by kind permission of the Fabian Society)
9 Elmwood Cottages, Letchworth Garden City, by M. H. Baillie
Scott (some alterations have been made to the original design)
10 Homesgarth, Letchworth Garden City, inside the quadrangle
(author and Spare Rib)
11 The Orchard, Hampstead Garden Suburb, by Parker and
Unwin (Garden Cities and Town Planning, November 1909, vol.
4, no. 35, p. 248, by kind permission of the Town and Country
Planning Association)
12 Raymond Unwin's drawing of a 'group of cottages with a co-
operative centre' (Raymond Unwin, Town Planning in Practice,
Fisher Unwin, London, 1909, p. 381)
13 Waterlow Court, Hampstead Garden Suburb, inside the
quadrangle (author and Spare Rib)
14 Waterlow Court, outside the quadrangle showing decorative
brickwork
15 Pre-First World War picture of the interior of a flat at Water-
low Court (by kind permission of the Hampstead Garden
Suburb Archives Trust)
16 Pre-First World War picture of the dining room at Waterlow
Court (by kind permission of the Hampstead Garden Suburb
Archives Trust)
vii
VIII List of Plates
17 Meadow Way Green North, Letchworth Garden City
18 Mrs Alice Melvin, aged about 60 (taken about 1915; by kind
permission of Rosemary Melvin)
19 House in Brent Garden Village, designed by P. Woollatt
Home
20 Cedar Court, Brent Garden Village, by Taylor and Huggins
21 Part of the Melvin Cooperative Residential Society
(Hampstead) Ltd property in Priory Road
22 Meadow Way Green South, Letchworth Garden City
23 Guessens Court, Welwyn Garden City, inside the quadrangle
24 St George's Court, Boumville, Birmingham
Acknowledgements
I would first of all like to thank the Economic and Social Research
Council, who provided the funding for the research fellowship at
the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies (CURS), University of
Birmingham in 198~ which enabled this book to be written.
Professor Gordon E. Cherry of CURS provided support, ideas and
encouragement during my work on the book, and with Chri-
stopher Watson of CURS was instrumental in guiding the project
through its initial stages. I am indebted to them both for their
interest in this book. I would also like to thank the staff of CURS
Library and the University of Birmingham Library, particularly
the Inter-library Loans section, without whose efficient service
this research would have been severely impaired.
I want to thank some long-suffering friends who saw this work
from its very early stages, especially Jenny Brennan who was first
to encourage me to pursue this line of research. Frances Anderson
added constructive criticisms which helped change my initial
ideas into a research proposal, Helene Hogg bought me endless
lunches and Janet Smith endured several long conversations.
Throughout the research and writing of the book, Caroline Mose-
ley offered constant support, ideas and willingness to discuss
even its smallest details, for which I am deeply grateful. Lastly,
Sam the dog succeeded in preventing me from becoming totally
immersed in cooperative housekeeping.
I have an academic debt to Dolores Hayden for her work on
The Grand Domestic Revolution (referred to in the text), as this was
one of the inspirations behind my investigation of the English
cooperative housekeeping movement. I would finally like to thank
the large number of people and institutions who contributed to
this work in one or more ways, by allowing me to inspect and/
or to reproduce material in their collections, or by giving their
time and information. The study relied enormously on access to
a wide variety of archives and personal reminiscence, and I am
very grateful to the following: Ian Allan Group Ltd, Ambleside
Tourist Information Office, County of Avon Planning Department,
BAAS, Borough of Barnet Engineer and Surveyor's Department,
Mr A. H. Beatty, Bell and Hymans Ltd, City of Birmingham
lX
x Acknowledgements
Reference Library, Mr and Mrs Hugh Bidwell, University of Birm-
ingham Library, BournviJle Village Trust, David Brightwell, Brit-
ish Architectural Library, BAL Drawings Collection, Building
Societies Association, Miss Bury, Doreen Cadwallader, Jane V.
Dansie and the Essex County Council, Roy Evans and the Let-
chworth Settlement, Miss V. G. Exton, Fabian Society, Fawcett
Library, Neville Fay, First Garden City Museum, Mrs Stella Gold-
man of the Hummingbird Housing Association, Brigid Grafton
Green, Guildford Museum, Guildhall Library, Hampshire County
Libraries, Hampstead Garden Suburb Archives Trust, Philip
Henslowe, Hertfordshire County Council, Hertfordshire County
Council Record Office, Housing Corporation (all regions), Howard
Cottage Society, M. R. Hughes, Imperial War Museum Department
of Printed Books, Kenneth Johnson, George F. D. Jones, Miss K.
M. Kaye, the Labour Party Library, Paul Larkin and Runnymede
Borough Council, Helen Lloyd, London City and Westcliff Prop-
erties Ltd, Valerie Marett, Mr McBride, Rosemary Melvin, Mervyn
Miller, T. E. Morgan, Mount Provincial Developments Ltd, Stella
Mary Newton, Nuffield College Library, Onslow Village Ltd, Mr
and Mrs K. Pegg, Mrs Petherick, Margaret Pooley, Public Record
Office, Alison Ravetz, Registry of Friendly Societies, David N.
Robinson, Mr J. Rogers, Philip Sharp, Mrs G. Shaw, Kathleen
Slack, Ken Spinks, Jane Sutton, Miss L. Tetley, Elaine Tickel, Town
and Country Planning Association, Kathleen Vinall, the Venerable
Geoffrey Walton, Welwyn Hatfield District Council, Nina West,
Mr and Mrs Woollons, Miss Wright. Transcripts of Crown-copy-
right records in the Public Record Office appear by permission
of the Controller of HM Stationery Office.
Lynn F. Pearson
Whitley Bay