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First council housing


rob123

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Has anyone got a map showing the first council houses in Sheffield on, I think, Button Lane close to what is now Charter Row ? Cheers.

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On 10/6/2017 at 18:17, rob123 said:

Has anyone got a map showing the first council houses in Sheffield on, I think, Button Lane close to what is now Charter Row ? Cheers.

That's a very interesting subject, have you any date for council housing on Button Lane please?

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the first council properties for rent were flats on Townhead Street about 1904, I think to rehouse people from the crofts that were starting to be cleared. I think the same source / book claimed that the first council estate was built at Wincobank as a garden suburb estate built about 1918, possibly the Flower Estate.

I can't find the source of this information so not at all sure but thought I would chuck this in in case anyone on here has a detailed history of any of these three places or any other early council housing in Sheffield.

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The passing of the "Housing of Working Class" Act in 1890 was the catalyst to the building of the Hawley Street flats. These housed many of the inhabitants of the notorious Crofts , cleared between 1898 and 1903. The Flower Estate on Shiregreen/Wincobank followed.The original dwellings on this estate were constructed as "exhibition houses" as  examples of what might follow...hence the "cottagey" appearance of a number of them ...I  seem to think some may have been erected prior to WW1 since the then newly built Shiregreen Council school on the estate was used as a WW1 hospital.

In 1929 the Government transferred  the duties of the Board of Guardians to the City Corporation including housing, education and public health...which led to a mass of new schools and " fit housing for heroes".

 

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61 to 73 Button Lane on a 1896 insurance map from http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/firemaps/england/yorkshire/mapsu145ubu21u2uf026r.html. Note that north is not at the top on this map.

61 to 73 in 1905.jpg

And the same in 1953 (corresponding with the splendid bit of paperwork posted by lornarainey11 above) from https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/435107/386827/13/101329. This time north is at the top of the map!

61 to 73 in 1953.jpg

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On a roll with the maps now.

This one is a side by side comparison which suggests that the location of 61-73 Button Lane is now the loading area off Charter Row behind Sainsbury's, where the cross is on the modern view.

Map from the National Library of Scotland: http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18&lat=53.3766&lon=-1.4746&layers=168&right=BingHyb

61 to 73 side by side.jpg

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Interesting ….It seems the biggest of the lot…Low Shiregreen…appears to be missing from the list….as is Wybourne and Arbourthorne! Perhaps the publication merely used some as examples of (old) Council housing policies.

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It's interesting to note that nearly all the later estates required subsidies from Central Government to build them. Plus the fact they leave out the fact that Council Housing never met the full demand for housing.  The policy of letting them out was also very tight. At one time in the 50's and 60's the Council was so scared of young couples abandoning parents they wouldn't put them on the waiting lists for Council houses. Even if the house was overcrowded!

By the time of that leaflet the only way you could get a house on Bowden Wood Estate was if someone died.  

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My understanding is that the Housing Acts of 1924 and 1930 gave MASSIVE grants to Local Authorities so as to enable the demolition of sub standard housing and the erection of new homes and that Central Government grants continued until Government policy changed during the 1980s.

As a matter of fact, my name went on the Sheffield Housing “waiting list” when I reached the age of 21…in 1964…after Parental insistence…even though I intended buying my own home.

My parents name was on the list for 13 years…before they got a house on Littledale…largely on account of the War. 

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8 hours ago, Lysanderix said:

I read in todays paper that Parson Cross is to be the site of some new Council housing.

But are they really Council Houses or are they like the replacement ones they did on the Upper Manor which are not social housing, but claim to be?

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