Prince Albert studying, Queen Victoria looking on
1859
Victoria and Albert married in 1840 when the nation already needed some sort of collective response. Many voluntary and charitable organisations sprung up to address the issues eg Ragged Schools (starting 1844) which tackled education and SICLC which addressed housing.
HRH Prince Albert’s Secret Papers discussed how turmoil spread across Europe in 1848, and thousands of workers gathered in London demanding the right to vote. Albert understood that the world was changing and felt deeply about the plight of labourers and the poor. But the Prince was ahead of many landowners who approved of child labour and opposed Peel's repeal of the Corn Laws.
And another passion. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was a direct result the annual exhibitions of the Society of Arts, of which Albert was President from 1843. It is not overstating history to say that the brilliant Crystal Palace event owed much of its success to the Prince.
That the Prince was committed to the design and construction of social housing should not have surprised the upper classes. He believed that building working class homes constituted the first step towards improving the life of the working class. Providing them with cheery, comfortable homes would result in improved health, sobriety and domestic peace, especially in conjunction with education and employment opportunities.
Because of the Prince’s keen interest in working class conditions, he became the Society for Improving the Conditions of the Labouring ClassesSICLC's first president in 1844. At exactly the same time, the SICLC’s honorary architect Henry Roberts was becoming very involved in the design of model housing for the poor. The Prince commissioned Henry Roberts to design and build a 2-storey model working class house to display at the 1851 Great Exhibition Hyde Park. Paid for by Prince Albert, it became world-famous and Robert’s designs were exemplars for decades to come eg in Stepney and Kensington in London.
HRH Prince Albert’s Secret Papers discussed how turmoil spread across Europe in 1848, and thousands of workers gathered in London demanding the right to vote. Albert understood that the world was changing and felt deeply about the plight of labourers and the poor. But the Prince was ahead of many landowners who approved of child labour and opposed Peel's repeal of the Corn Laws.
And another passion. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was a direct result the annual exhibitions of the Society of Arts, of which Albert was President from 1843. It is not overstating history to say that the brilliant Crystal Palace event owed much of its success to the Prince.
That the Prince was committed to the design and construction of social housing should not have surprised the upper classes. He believed that building working class homes constituted the first step towards improving the life of the working class. Providing them with cheery, comfortable homes would result in improved health, sobriety and domestic peace, especially in conjunction with education and employment opportunities.
Because of the Prince’s keen interest in working class conditions, he became the Society for Improving the Conditions of the Labouring ClassesSICLC's first president in 1844. At exactly the same time, the SICLC’s honorary architect Henry Roberts was becoming very involved in the design of model housing for the poor. The Prince commissioned Henry Roberts to design and build a 2-storey model working class house to display at the 1851 Great Exhibition Hyde Park. Paid for by Prince Albert, it became world-famous and Robert’s designs were exemplars for decades to come eg in Stepney and Kensington in London.
Model housing design for two families
by SICLC’s architect Henry Roberts
click to expand
Painting of model house for 4 families
based on SICLC’s architect Henry Roberts
Henry Roberts’ model cottage housed 4 families, with two flats on each level. To improve conditions for the workers, Robert’s cottages had to provide decent accommodation for the hardworking, labouring types: simple, robust and economical. As the plan shows, each family was given a living room, kitchen-scullery, 3 bedrooms, running water and an internal toilet but no bathroom. It provided that separation which is so essential to family morality and decency.
The open staircase gave access to the flats on the upper level which has since been enclosed, and the doors on the left-hand side were later bricked in. And a porch was later added to the back of the cottage when it was moved. Along the front of the house, mosaic tiles on the cornices spelled out Victoria and Albert’s initials intertwined.
Just as important as the social value of these prototypes was their ability to make a profit. A SICLC brochure calculated the house would offer investors a 7% return. The house personified the spirit of the Victorian era, combining philanthropy with efficiency and order.
The original model house for 4 working families
designed for HRH Prince Albert
and built at the Great Exhibition, 1851
A replica was built in other places, including Cowbridge, Hertford.
Built by The Hertford Building Co, on land given by Baron Dimsdale.
Not surprisingly the houses proved very popular with the visitors, but not allThe Illustrated London News called the model houses "a contribution not less important, and in many respects far more interesting than most of the works of art and utility within...His Royal Highness ... could have devised no more appropriate contribution to the extraneous utility of the Exhibition than this unpretending block of buildings". After the closure of the Exhibition, construction of 2 groups of houses based on Prince Albert and Henry Robert's model began.
After the massive Chartist gathering seeking electoral reforms back in 1848, Kennington Common had been fenced off. This all changed when Kennington Park beame South London’s first public park. The original Model Cottage was dismantled in 1852 and re-assembled on the edge of Kennington Park, in working class South London. Today it remains between Oval and Kennington tube stations. The gardens around the house were laid out in 1861, the very year Prince Albert died.
Photo credits: thelondonfile
After the massive Chartist gathering seeking electoral reforms back in 1848, Kennington Common had been fenced off. This all changed when Kennington Park beame South London’s first public park. The original Model Cottage was dismantled in 1852 and re-assembled on the edge of Kennington Park, in working class South London. Today it remains between Oval and Kennington tube stations. The gardens around the house were laid out in 1861, the very year Prince Albert died.
Photo credits: thelondonfile
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24 comments:
I wish I had been at the Great Exhibition of 1851. It was a fantastic way to learn about model cottages etc, especially since most people could not go to university back then.
This is such an interesting piece of history. There is so much I do not know.
Housing has always been a thorny issue in UK and remains so. Prince Albert's ideas were revolutionary - an indoor loo at a time when such a thing was unheard of for the vast majority of people. Indoor sanitation was not widespread until the beginning of the 20th century.
Hello Hels, The interesting thing about Roberts/Albert's floor plan is how similar it is to modern apartments, although the rooms seem a trifle smaller. The kitchen does appear an afterthought, but in Taiwan apartments, kitchens are often minuscule, although elaborate meals can come out of them. Also, from reading Victorian novelists like Dickens (boo, hiss!) and Gissing, one imagines that people living in tenement-like conditions often brought in food rather than cooked from scratch at home, although I am sure that many did. It would be interesting to see floor plans of the types of worker housing that this new plan was replacing. It also might be interesting to do some research as to what was going to prevent, say, three or four families moving together into a single one of these flats. Overall, though, an attractive and livable step up for many.
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Incidentally, if I were planning to move into a home blazoned with the initials of Victoria and Albert, I would just move into the V&A. It comes pre-decorated!
--Jim
Joe
In 1850 Prince Albert was asked to commission the Great Exhibition within one year to show Britain's cultural importance, to inspire industrial growth and to educate the public. Unbelievably large numbers turned up, of Brits and visitors, all fascinated.
Prince Albert's hard work paid off handsomely.
roentare
I have written often in this blog about the 1851 Great Exhibition, starting from a Crystal Palace post back in 2009 right up to 2023. It is fascinating for architects, cultural historians, industrialists and those interested in global cooperation.
jabblog
Yes! I didn't like Prince Albert particularly but growing industrialisation required a very serious response in housing, sanitation, public transport etc. Once convinced of the importance of the Great Exhibition, Albert involved the greatest minds in 1850 to create revolutionary ideas and models, as you say.
parnassus
I wonder if floor plans for workers' housing were considered very carefully before 1850. My guess was that once the building was completed, families moved in and simply put in enough beds for all the adults and children. Often with shared beds.
I don't know much about him like all people he had good points and bad points but he was also a man of insight who died far to young
That was very interesting to learn and it amazes me the original house survived, although altered. However, were many actually built?
Jo-Anne
Prince Albert (1819-61) might have only been the royal consort, but he was starting to make a serious name for himself individually.
What a shame to die so young while his poor wife still had heaps of children to raise.
Andrew
I am on a cruise and cannot find the answer to your (important) question. But there are plenty of journal articles on line that discuss the growth of architecture designed as working family housing. I suspect however that the movement actually took into the 1870s-90s to flourish.
I didn't know much about what Prince Albert did apart from making children :) Hels. However he sounds as if he was full of wonderful ideas and good on him, pity he died too soon.
Happy New Year.
Margaret
Queen Victoria had 9 full term deliveries in 15 years! I would have made Albert sleep in a different room, but no, Victoria adored him.
However Prince Albert really was a modern thinker, surrounding himself with the leading professionals
If he was bitter about not being king, he threw himself instead into valuable projects.
Prince Albert rightly understood that 'a roof over the head' is the first step towards improving the life of the working class people. His cooperation with the architect, Henry Roberts, was a fruiful one. The houses built were popular, and marked the beginning of a revolutionary approach to social housing.
DUTA
Agreed!! Both men were foundation members of the Society for Improving the Conditions of the Labouring Classes and made very important contributions in a difficult era for working class families. There weren't too many capitalist societies (or royals) who gave a toss about their workers.
How did I not know about this? How marvellous. I see an excursion is in order.
Mandy
although almost all World Fairs were intentionally pulled down within 6 months of the opening of the festivities, I think Crystal Palace should have totally been protected. The original was spectacular, the replacement perhaps less so.
But after Prince Albert's patronage of the Great Exhibition of 1851, he had new national museums created and the Royal Collection was greatly expanded. He supervised the design of Osborne House, Isle of Wight; of Balmoral Castle, Aberdeenshire; and of the Royal Dairy, Frogmore. The bit that I did _not_ know about was the Prince's systematic cataloguing of the Royal Collection and his use of new photography for artistic and recording purposes.
What a significant royal!
It looks to be decent housing from the outside and the floorplan workable, but no bathrooms? If people had to wash in the kitchen sink, the kitchen would have to be a bit larger I'd think. I'm guessing there might have been a communal laundry building somewhere nearby too. I hope.
River
The toilets for moneyed families were at least comfortable, internal and cleanable. The toilets for working families were simple, cheaper and often external. Have a look at the trade advertisement for baths and toilet-ware made by Edward Perry in Wolverhampton 1868.
https://hgghh.org/blog/the-nineteenth-century-bathing-environment
My grandmother still had an outdoor loo in Melbourne in the 1950s. Fine in summer, but you wouldn't want the children to be crying about going outside in a wet winter.
We had the backyard dunny into the 60s in Port Pirie, until my dad closed in part of the back porch and built us a bathroom.
River
why did it take so long for interior toilet and bathroom facilities to arrive in Port Pirie, do you think? I hope you were very thankful for your dad's skills :)
This is also very interesting reading. I always find it fascinating how people can be so misinformed about what it takes for other to survive. I am speaking of course of people in power with a lot of money, especially people who never had to earn that money.
Erika
Agreed, so imagine how revolutionary it was that Prince Albert and his best architects were NOT misinformed about acceptable housing, family comfort, adequate sanitation and modern public health concerns. Some wealthy, educated people really did care about working families.
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