An enthusiastic talk by Peter Claxton opened the eyes of the Augustinians to the wax and wane story of social housing. He covered the period from the uncontrolled Victorian building boom that led to squalor, through the move to more social housing after the WW1, and up to the present day. He included examples from Bridlington and the local rural area.
Peter explained that even though urban populations had increased 13 fold during the 1800’s, by the end of this period 99 percent of housing was privately held rented accommodation of low standard. The aspirations of the returning heroes from the WW1 and a perceived threat of bolshevism led the government to promote council house building through a number of Acts of Parliament.
Bridlington’s first council houses were built on Watsons Avenue. The building of the Postill estate took 10 years from 1920 owing to stop-go government policy making. Unusually, tenants at the Quay were allowed to sublet to visitors in the summer as this reduced rent arrears. The houses on Baptist Place were called “the best houses the corporation has ever built”.
Peter’s talk also covered slum clearances, and houses of non-standard construction such as the wooden Swedish Council Houses and steel and concrete Airey houses, and of course the much loved “Prefabs”. Bridlington built 100 prefabs. The mixed community approach of the prize winning West Hill Estate was explained.
Peter’s enjoyable talk linked together the aspirations, hurdles, architecture, social engineering fashions, proponents and detractors, and achievements of social housing in the 20th century.
The Vote of thanks was given by Eileen Johnson.