The Boundary Estate is a housing development, formally opened in 1900, in the East End

East End of London

The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...

 of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is situated in the north western corner of Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney. Located northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney,...

 in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets

London Borough of Tower Hamlets

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough to the east of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It is in the eastern part of London and covers much of the traditional East End. It also includes much of the redeveloped Docklands region of London, including West India Docks...

 and on the boundary with Shoreditch

Shoreditch

Shoreditch is an area of London within the London Borough of Hackney in England. It is a built-up part of the inner city immediately to the north of the City of London, located east-northeast of Charing Cross.-Etymology:...

, in the London Borough of Hackney

London Borough of Hackney

The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....

.

The estate, constructed from 1890, was one of the earliest social housing schemes, and was built by the London County Council

London County Council

London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...

 as the world's first council housing, replacing the Friars Mount slum

Slum

A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...

 in the Old Nichol

Old Nichol

The Old Nichol, also known as the Nichol or the Old Nichol Street Rookery, was an area of housing in the East End of London, between High Street, Shoreditch, and Hackney Road in the north, and Spitalfields in the south. The main streets within the Old Nichol were Boundary Street, Old Nichol Street,...

. The demolition rubble was used to construct a mound in the middle of Arnold Circus at the centre of the development, housing a still extant bandstand

Bandstand

A bandstand is a circular or semicircular structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts...

. The estate consists of multi-story brick structures, surrounding the central mound.

Old Nichol Rookery

In 1680 John Nichol of Gray's Inn

Gray's Inn

The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...

, who had built seven houses here, leased 4.75 acres (19,222.6 m²) of gardens for 180 years to a London mason, Jon Richardson, with permission to dig for bricks. The land became built up piecemeal with houses, built by a number of sub-lessees. Many of the streets were named after Nichol, and by 1827 the 5 acres (20,234.3 m²) estate consisted of 237 houses.

Henry Mayhew

Henry Mayhew

Henry Mayhew was an English social researcher, journalist, playwright and advocate of reform. He was one of the two founders of the satirical and humorous magazine Punch, and the magazine's joint-editor, with Mark Lemon, in its early days...

 visited Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney. Located northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney,...

 in 1850, and noted for the
Morning Chronicle

Morning Chronicle

The Morning Chronicle was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London, England, and published under various owners until 1862. It was most notable for having been the first employer of Charles Dickens, and for publishing the articles by Henry Mayhew which were collected and published in book format in...

 the trades in the area: tailors, costermongers, shoemakers, dustmen, sawyers, carpenters, cabinet makers and silkweavers. In the area, it was noted:

roads were unmade, often mere alleys, houses small and without foundations, subdivided and often around unpaved courts. An almost total lack of drainage and sewerage was made worse by the ponds formed by the excavation of brickearth. Pigs and cows in back yards, noxious trades like boiling tripe, melting tallow, or preparing cat's meat, and slaughter houses, dustheaps, and 'lakes of putrefying night soil' added to the filth

The vicar of St. Philip's, the church serving the Nichol, quoted by Frederick Engels, in 1844 had found that conditions were far worse than in a northern industrial parish, that population density was 8.6 people to a (small) house, and that there were 1,400 houses in an area less than 400 yards (365.8 m) square; and in 1861 John Hollingshead

John Hollingshead

John Hollingshead was an English theatrical impresario, journalist and writer during the latter half of the 19th century. He is best remembered as the first manager of the Gaiety Theatre, London...

, of the Morning Post

Morning Post

The Morning Post, as the paper was named on its masthead, was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by The Daily Telegraph.- History :...

, in his Ragged London noted that the Nichol had grown even more squalid in the last 20 years as old houses decayed and traditional trades became masks for thieves and prostitutes. The Builder in 1863, noted the numbers inhabiting unfit cellars, the lack of sanitation and that running water was only available for 10–12 minutes each day (excepting Sundays!).

Demand for change

The clearance of the Old Nichol Street Rookery

Rookery (slum)

A rookery was the colloquial British English term given in the 18th and 19th centuries to a city slum occupied by poor people...

, as it was notoriously known, was the result of an energetic campaign by the local incumbent, Reverend Osborne Jay of Holy Trinity, who arrived in the parish in December 1886. Charles Booth

Charles Booth (philanthropist)

Charles Booth was an English philanthropist and social researcher. He is most famed for his innovative work on documenting working class life in London at the end of the 19th century, work that along with that of Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree influenced government intervention against poverty in the...

 had already noted the extreme poverty in the area in his study of London poverty. Nearly 6,000 individuals were crammed into the packed streets. The death rate was twice that of the rest of Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney. Located northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney,...

, and four times that of London. One child in four died before their first birthday. Jay persuaded Arthur Morrison

Arthur Morrison

Arthur George Morrison was an English author and journalist known for his realistic novels about London's East End and for his detective stories....

 to visit the area, and the result was the influential A Child of the Jago, a barely fictionalised account of the life of a child in the slum, re-christened by Morrison as "The Jago": 'What was too vile for Kate Street, Seven Dials

Seven Dials

Seven Dials is a small but well-known road junction in the West End of London in Covent Garden where seven streets converge. At the centre of the roughly-circular space is a pillar bearing six sundials, a result of the pillar being commissioned before a late stage alteration of the plans from an...

, and Ratcliffe Highway

The Highway

The Highway, formerly known as the Ratcliffe Highway, is a mile-long road in the East End of London, with several historic landmarks nearby. The route dates back to Roman times. In the 19th century it had a very notorious reputation for vice and crime and was the site of the infamous Ratcliff...

 in its worst day, what was too useless, incapable and corrupt - all that teemed on the Old Jago'. Demolition actually began before the publication of the book.

Such was the success of the campaign, that the Prince of Wales (Bertie)

Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

 officially opened the estate in 1900, saying Few indeed will forget this site who had read Mr Morrison's A Child of the Jago.

While the new flats replaced the existing slums, where many had lived below street level and in appalling conditions, with decent accommodation for the same number of people, it wasn't the same group of people. The original inhabitants were forced further to the East, creating new overcrowding and new slums in areas such as Dalston

Dalston

Dalston is a district of north-east London, England, located in the London Borough of Hackney. It is situated northeast of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...

 and Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney. Located northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney,...

. At this time, no help was available to find new accommodation for the displaced, and this added to the suffering and misery of many of the former residents of the slum.

The impresarios and brothers Lew Grade

Lew Grade

Lew Grade, Baron Grade , born Lev Winogradsky, was an influential Russian-born English impresario and media mogul.-Early years:...

 and Bernard Delfont

Bernard Delfont

Bernard Delfont, Baron Delfont , born Boris Winogradsky, was a leading Russian-born British theatrical impresario....

 (born Winogradsky) moved to the Boundary Estate in 1914, from nearby Brick Lane

Brick Lane

Brick Lane is a street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. It runs from Swanfield Street in the northern part of Bethnal Green, crosses Bethnal Green Road, passes through Spitalfields and is linked to Whitechapel High Street to the south by the short stretch of...

 and attended Rochelle Street School. At that time, 90% of children attending the school spoke Yiddish.

Today

The flats remain and are Grade II listed, together with the bandstand. In their day, they were revolutionary in their provision of facilities for residents. Today, despite the lack of some modern amenities they remain popular with tenants and there is an active community. The Rochelle School is now a community arts centre.

The estate radiates from a centrepiece roundabout, Arnold Circus, formed around a garden with a bandstand

Bandstand

A bandstand is a circular or semicircular structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts...

. It is now being preserved by the Friends of Arnold Circus and has received grants for regeneration. As of March 2010 restoration work is underway on the bandstand, and is due to be completed in May 2010.

Arnold Circus is also a mark point on several ley alignments including Alfred Watkins

Alfred Watkins

Alfred Watkins was a businessman, self-taught amateur archaeologist and antiquarian who, while standing on a hillside in Herefordshire, England, in 1921 experienced a revelation and noticed on the British landscape the apparent arrangement of straight lines positioned along ancient features, and...

' "Strand Ley" and "The Coronation Line".. One of the roads that link into the circus is the northern extension of Club Row, a part of Brick Lane

Brick Lane

Brick Lane is a street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. It runs from Swanfield Street in the northern part of Bethnal Green, crosses Bethnal Green Road, passes through Spitalfields and is linked to Whitechapel High Street to the south by the short stretch of...

 market; where the headquarters of George Galloway

George Galloway

George Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...

's Respect Party is situated.

Further reading

• Rosemary Taylor - Walks Through History – Exploring the East End (Breedon Books, 2001)
• Sarah Wise - The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum (Bodley Head, 2008)

Transport

The nearest London Underground stations are Liverpool Street and Old Street. Opening on 4 April 2010, the nearest London Overground

London Overground

London Overground is a suburban rail network in London and Hertfordshire. It has been operated by London Overground Rail Operations since 2007 as part of the National Rail network, under the franchise control and branding of Transport for London...

 station is Shoreditch High Street railway station

Shoreditch High Street railway station

Shoreditch High Street is a railway station in Shoreditch, London. The station is located on Bethnal Green Road close to Shoreditch High Street and is served by London Overground services running on the extended East London Line under the control of the London Rail division of Transport for London...

.

External links

• Art Community housed in 1896 Rochelle School, built to serve the children of the Boundary Estate
• The Guardian Battle of the Boundary, 21 June 2006 Moves to transfer the estate to an alternate social landlord (Now defeated, Nov 2006)
• Friends of Arnold Circus community website