Guest post by local historian Philip Grant in a personal capacity
Pete Firmin’s recent letter, Regeneration has made no difference to deprivation index in South Kilburn, reminded me that regeneration efforts for this most deprived part of Brent have been going on for more than the past 20 years, and that things could have been so much different!
A few years ago, knowing my interest in local history, my daughter gave me a copy of “The Willesden Survey 1949” (which she’d noticed in the window of a second-hand bookshop) as a birthday present. The quotations, and most of the images, in this article are taken from that book. There is also a copy of it at Brent Archives if you would like to know what the southern half of our London Borough was like then.
Despite the austerity of the years immediately after the Second World War, there was a feeling of optimism for the future. The 1947 Town and Country Planning Act gave local councils much broader powers to design better places for their residents to live, and Willesden Borough Council decided to grasp the opportunity. They commissioned their Officers to carry out a detailed survey of the borough, as it currently was, and to use that to plan for improvements.
Two maps from The Willesden Survey, showing levels of overcrowding and the condition of homes.
The Survey showed that the worst area of the Borough for both overcrowding and poor housing conditions was in Carlton Ward, part of South Kilburn. In its chapter on “Population and Housing” it reported that Carlton (South Kilburn):
‘contains the highest average density in Willesden, but in view of the vast overcrowding (in some cases as many as 15 persons in a small two-storey dwelling) this is not surprising. When this area was originally developed about 1850-60, the large four-storey houses were built and occupied by fairly wealthy tenants with large families. However, with the passage of time, the status of Carlton has declined and now the complete area irrespective of the size of the individual houses is let off as tenements, and very few houses have been structurally converted into self-contained flats.’
New Council flats at Canterbury Terrace in 1950.
Work had already begun by the time the Survey was published in 1950, and the report continued:
‘A complete redevelopment scheme has been drawn up for the majority of South Kilburn, and the redevelopment which has recently taken place on cleared war damage sites in Canterbury Terrace and Chichester Road areas forms the first stage of this Scheme. The second stage will be the general rebuilding of blighted and derelict areas. The final stage will show the complete neighbourhood replanned and rebuilt.’
One of the “blighted” areas was Albert Road, and this remarkable pair of photographs, taken on the same day in the early 1950s, shows the difference between the side which was awaiting redevelopment and the opposite side, where blocks of new Council flats had just been built.
Two sides of Albert Road, early 1950s. (From Len Snow’s 1990 book “Brent – a pictorial history”)
The “final stage” redevelopment plan by Willesden’s Borough Engineer and Surveyor was set out in this coloured map (although the eastern end had still to be agreed by Paddington Borough Council at that date):
Map showing the proposed South Kilburn Redevelopment Scheme (1949).
As part of the government’s wartime plans for post-war reconstruction, Professor Abercrombie of UCL (a leading architect and urban designer) had been asked to prepare a “Master Plan for Greater London”, which was published in 1944. His guidelines were followed in drawing up the proposals for the Scheme:
‘In the Greater London Plan standards for the allocation of land use have been determined according to the four population density zones. The area covered by the South Kilburn Redevelopment Scheme is situated within the Inner Urban Zone, for which a net density of 100 persons per acre with four acres of open space per 1,000 population is proposed.
As Paddington Recreation Ground is within easy reach of the area, the standard of 40 acres [per 10,000 people] for open space can be reduced to 30 acres and, as few main roads affect the area, the figure of 17 [acres per 10,000 people] for “main roads and parking” can be reduced to 12. This would give a total requirement of 165 acres for 10,000 population and a gross density of 60 persons per acre. As the area within the Borough proposed for redevelopment totals 67 acres, the ultimate population will be 67 x 60 = 4,020, and land use will be approximately divided as follows:-‘
Table showing the proposed land use for the South Kilburn Redevelopment Scheme (1949).
You will see on the proposals map above that there is plenty of green (with around 12 of the 67 acres allocated for open space and school playing fields). But as already mentioned, South Kilburn was the most overcrowded district in Willesden. How would the proposed Scheme house everyone already living in the area? This was what the Survey suggested:
‘In the Scheme as envisaged, flats are predominant and no allowance has been made for flats over four storeys high. The area zoned for residential purposes, including dwellings over shops and offices, amounts to 41.78 acres with a population of 4,100. These figures compare favourably with the required 40 acres for housing, 2½ acres for shops and offices, etc. and the population estimate of 4,020. The present population is estimated at 6,364 which leaves 2,264 persons to be accommodated elsewhere in the Borough, or to be decentralised to one of the New Towns.’
Map showing the “Willingness to move to a New Town” of Willesden residents in 1949.
The post-war policy of moving willing residents from Willesden to Hemel Hempstead New Town was looked at in a 2020 “local history in lockdown” article: Uncovering the history of Church End and Chapel End, Willesden – Part 3. As the map above shows, more than half of the families surveyed in South Kilburn said that they would be willing to move (as long as there were decent affordable homes and employment for them in the new town).
Employment in Hemel Hempstead for people from South Kilburn was not seen as a problem in the Survey, as many small industrial firms from the area were likely to move as well. The proposed Scheme only included one small area for light industry near Queen’s Park station, and the Survey reported:
‘The highest proportion of firms willing to move is at Carlton Vale where 50 per cent of the total number of firms, involving about 33 per cent of the employees, wish to change their location. In many cases conditions in Carlton Vale are so bad that no specific location for a new site is expressed, the sentiments of the employer being “anywhere but Carlton Vale!” Much of the area is scheduled for early redevelopment, but the area designated for absorbing present industries cannot possibly accommodate them all, and it is, therefore, from Carlton Vale that a large proportion of industrial migration will occur.’
Many firms and residents from Willesden did move to New Towns, but although the vision set out in the 1949 South Kilburn Redevelopment Scheme started well, circumstances changed, and the plans changed with them. The proposed three or four storey brick-built blocks of Council flats had been replaced, by the early 1960s, with much taller concrete-framed blocks.
Two photos showing Craik Court in Carlton Vale, under construction and
completed in the 1960s.
(Photos courtesy of John Hill)
You can read and see more about the regeneration of South Kilburn in the 1960s in another “local history in lockdown” article from 2020: Uncovering Kilburn’s History – Part 6. For the past twenty years, there has been a further regeneration programme for South Kilburn. Some of the 1949 Redevelopment Scheme buildings have so far been replaced, and some of the 1960s Brent Council blocks are still waiting to be demolished. They will make way for “new homes”, less than half of which are now likely to be for Council tenants (almost all of them existing tenants “decanted” from other blocks due for demolition).
In the late 1940s, Willesden’s Borough Surveyor and Planning Officers, working closely with elected councillors on its Town Planning and Redevelopment Committee, and using detailed survey data collected from the local community, came up with a plan for South Kilburn which may now seem like a dream. They managed to implement some of it during the 1950s, but it was never finished as they had planned it to be.
Though I don’t live in South Kilburn myself, I suspect life might have been much better there now if their Scheme had been completed!
Philip Grant.
