History: How we used to Live (3) – Urban Housing

The Industrial Revolution led to a huge influx of workers from the country to the city, and an explosion in the population. It also led to the rapid expansion of the professional and ‘middle’ classes who wanted housing to reflect their new roles and social status. Much of this need was met through private builders and developers who took advantage of the expanding railway network to offer housing at a further distance from city centres: the suburb was born, and the rise of the commuter was on the way.

We will see how this market developed and expanded in the Victorian period, and how changes to the law enabled a much wider range of people to borrow money for their own home through building society mortgages. We will then discuss the Garden City movement and how this aimed to combine the best of urban and rural living in a designed environment, as well as examining the ‘Metroland’ phenomenon of the 1920s and 30s. We will finish with a look at the New Towns and the planning regimes that developed after World War II and consider how we might meet the pressure on housing today. What should we be building today and where?