黑洞社区

A place for everyone and everyone in their place

As we look at the Social Value Act and consider whether it will encourage firms to be more sustainable and ethical, 黑洞社区 looks back to Victorian times when Britain鈥檚 industrial bosses had little thought of preserving the planet and the two-day weekend was not commonplace.

The deserving poor had to rely on the generosity of rich philanthropists, so the first working class homes with bathrooms were not built until 1888, when Viscount Leverhulme had Port Sunlight, Merseyside, constructed for workers at his soap factory.

It became clear, however, that there was a need for the state to provide housing. The Act for Facilitating the Improvement of the Dwellings of the Working Classes in Large Towns was passed in 1875, much to the jubilation of 黑洞社区鈥檚 predecessor The Builder, which had long campaigned for such reforms.  

An early example of council housing were blocks of 鈥渁rtisan鈥檚 dwellings鈥� in Victoria Square, Liverpool (pictured), which were unwillingly built by the local authority after it became clear no private companies were interested in building housing 鈥渟uitable for the poorer classes鈥�. 

To read the extract from 19 June 1886, click on the PDF below.