Ideals, priorities and harsh realities: Reconstruction and the LCC, 1945–51

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between the wartime ideals and the post‐war practice of reconstruction by focusing on the London County Council's post‐war housing programme. Given the importance of housing as one of the key issues on the home front, why had so little been achieved by 1951? The article describes the development of the LCC's post‐war housing plans and the absolute priority given to building as many houses as quickly as possible, a decision which led the Valuer to return to a pre‐war approach to location, layout and design of housing. This led directly to a conflict of interests, first, with the Council's architect, Forshaw, who wished to improve the quality of design and to ensure that LCC housing matched the standards proposed by the Dudley Report (1944), and, second, with the plans being prepared by Abercrombie and Forshaw for both the County and the London region. The strength of the Council's support for priorities being pursued by the Valuer is evident in the transfer of responsib...