London Borough of Barking and Dagenham

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Local Studies Information Sheet No.16 The Becontree Estate

The Becontree Estate Railway bringing building materials After the First World War, a national housing programme, Homes fit for Heroes, was regarded as a vital reward for returning veterans as well as for post-war social stability. The London County Council (LCC), the largest local authority, was the flagship council for this programme. The Becontree Estate was its largest housing project. On 18 June 1919 the LCC’s Standing Committee on the Housing of the Working Classes made a resolution to build 29,000 dwellings to accommodate 145,000 people within five years. 3000 acres were identified at Dagenham, Barking, and Ilford where 24,000 houses were to be provided. Most land was compulsorily acquired and consisted of market gardens, with occasional groups of cottages and some country lanes. By 1921, 4000 houses had been completed in the northern part of the estate, near Chadwell Heath Station. Early residents were able to pick rhubarb, peas and cabbages from the abandoned market gardens still awaiting development. Building materials were brought by barge along the Thames. A 500-foot jetty was built on the river, equipped with four steam cranes able to cope with seven barges at a time, and a light railway connected the wharf to the Great Eastern Railway at Chadwell Heath (with a temporary bridge over the Midland Railway line). This allowed the rapid movement of bulk materials into the heart of the building site. The LCC achieved its planned target of houses by 1934, which was marked by the ceremonial opening of Parsloes Park on 13 July 1935. Another 800 dwellings were added in 1937. The LCC built a further 600 houses after 1945 (the Heath Park extension), and later Dagenham Borough Council built 4000 houses, mostly for the children of LCC estate tenants. The residents of Becontree originated mainly from London's East End, although a good many came from districts near the LCC’s County Hall, in Southwark. Prospective tenants were interviewed by LCC officials in their homes to check the size of family, domestic standards and resources. The original tenants came from the skilled working class in relatively secure jobs and earning slightly more than the average wage. The LCC's cottage estate programme was about much more than just the building of houses. It sought to create new habits among its tenants, shaping the behaviour of an 1 Please turn over . . . emerging nation of suburban house-dwellers. The LCC's purported aim as a landlord was that ‘Tenants shall be as free as possible to order their lives in their own way, so that they may preserve their originality and that self-reliance shall not be weakened.’

The reality was rather different. The Tenants’ Handbook set out some 20 conditions of tenancy directing how tenants should behave. These included instructions such as windows to be cleaned once a week, parents to be responsible for the 'orderly conduct' of their children, no unsightly objects or any washing to be hung from windows. Gardening was particularly encouraged (the LCC awarded annual prizes for the best-kept gardens) to emphasise that home-based leisure should take precedence over more social activities like political meetings or visits to public houses. The LCC’s Tenants Handbook 1933, stated ‘Becontree is the largest municipal housing estate in the world’. The estate is still considered to be the biggest in Europe.

The People and Communities Gallery at Valence House Museum has a reconstructed Becontree Estate kitchen and living room. Primary Sources held in the Borough’s Archives (an advance appointment is necessary to view archives)  London County Council: Becontree Estate Rate Books.  Becontree Estate house plans (photocopies held in the Local Studies Library).  Microfilm copies of local newspapers, maps and a selection of photographs Primary Sources held elsewhere The London County Council archives are held at the London Metropolitan Archives , 40 Northampton Road, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 0HB.

Secondary sources held in LBBD Archives & Local Studies Centre Barking and District Historical Society: The Becontree Estate: notes on its development (1988) Butcher, Katherine B.H: The social history of the Dagenham Estate (1946) Gibbon G: Reconstruction and town and country planning, in Architects & Building News, (1942) Home, Robert: ‘A Township complete in itself’ (1997) Jackson, Alan A: Semi-detached London suburban development life and transport 1900- 1939 (1973) Kelly, Suzanne K: The Becontree Estate: Contemporary Life 1963-1988 (unpublished pamphlet, 1989) Rubinstein, Antonia et al: Just like the country memories of London families who settled the new cottage estates 1919-1939 (1991) Turner, Harold J: The sale of council houses on the Becontree Estate, Dagenham: a socio-economic survey (1978) Willmott, Peter: The evolution of a community: a study of Dagenham after 40 years (1963) Young, Terence: Becontree and Dagenham: a study in the growth of a town (1933) Young, Terence: Becontree and Dagenham: a report for the Pilgrim Trust (1934)

Archives and Local Studies pamphlets: Origins of Becontree Estate street names

A number of academic theses on the subject of the Becontree Estate. Archives & Local Studies Centre, Valence House, Becontree Ave, Dagenham RM8 3HT / 09.2014