12 Views of Kensal House - ACE149.5

Henry Roberts’s 1849 "model dwellings for families" in Bloomsbury. Model flats, disguised as cottages, designed by Roberts for Prince Albert in 1851. Caption lists London County Council legislation empowering local authorities to build social housing. St Pancras development, completed 1928. Commentary describes the design of these buildings. Bayley on the influence of German "existence minimum" ideas, and Fry interpreting this to suit English taste. Caption: "The Admiral Blake just South of Kensal House." Commentary asks about the social circles welcoming the Kensal House ideas and how these ideas were put into practice. Fry talks about meeting Elizabeth Denby, the leading spirit on housing reform, and telling her about his ideas; Denby immediately got him a commission to build a development in South London. Extract from Kensal House showing Denby saying that the flats were designed for families, families on their balconies, boys playing; Denby says the tenants are the people who regulate their own communal lives. Watkins describes Kensal House as "Miss Denby’s baby" and talks about her involvement in it. Cole talks about the financial help that Denby gave to people for their own flats and for the club. Lady Newell, Chairman Feathers Association, talking about visit by Prince of Wales to deprived areas of Wales in 1933, the setting up of Feathers in Kensal Road, and subsequently running the community centre at Kensal House. Photographs of Octavia Hill, pioneer of work with "the deserving poor" in the late nineteenth century. Fry describes Denby as being "passionate" about her work. Caption: "Early Afternoon below the Kensal Green Retort." Commentary asks when, and for what reasons, in the view of the original tenants, did Kensal House begin to decline? Watkins says that it was around 1940, when people were evacuated and the club was turned into a children’s dinner centre. Extract from Kensal House. Reg Cole (sitting with Alice Cole) says that it was never the same after the war, and was eventually turned into a youth club which excluded the older people. Watkins never the same after the war – no-one had the same organisational skills as Miss Denby, who visited less frequently. Minutes of management meeting of March 1945 noting that Miss Denby would resign at the end of September. Gwen Cole (with Alice and Reg Cole) says that it was originally "well ordered and kind" but was "no longer kind" after the war.