The Other Architects Who Made London: Planning and Design of Speculative Housing c. 1870-1939

Successive house building booms from the late 19th century until the Second World War
left their indelible mark on London’s built environment and shaped it decisively. In
terms of the sheer size of area covered, the dispersed, suburban London of terraced,
semi- and detached houses that we know today was to a large extent created then. Much
of this housing was built by private firms for an assumed demand, speculatively. That is
the kind discussed in this thesis. Despite this legacy, the questions of who those
involved in house design were and how they went about it is an under-researched topic
surrounded by assumptions that are often difficult to substantiate. This research takes
the contribution of these ‘other’ often anonymous architects seriously and aims to shed
more light on a culture of housing design that has left us with such an extraordinary
heritage.
The thesis is structured in six chapters. The first one outlines the topic and the
methodology, and reviews related existing literature. Chapter two examines who the
architects and designers of speculative housing were by using a quantitative analysis of
Richmond building applications 1886-1939. Chapters three to five focus on one case
study each. The first, in chapter three, discusses the planning and development of a
speculative housing estate in Lambeth, the Minet estate, and the numerous parties
involved in its planning and construction. Chapter four examines the work of Norfolk &
Prior, a firm of architect-surveyors in Lewisham, and discusses this particular crossover
occupation and its role in speculative housing at the time. Chapter five, the third case
study, focuses on the work of the Reader Brothers, one of the numerous small family
firms of builders who were important for speculative house building and who also often
took a leading role in design. Chapter six considers the key findings of this thesis and
further implications of the research for our understanding of the history of London’s
housing.