Origins

By Ben Jones

By 1880 Brighton was Britain's largest seaside resort and also one of the most densely populated towns in the country.[1] Between 1901 and 1921 its population increased by over 40,000[2] and by the latter date it was, with the exception of West Ham, the most densely populated county borough in England and Wales.[3] Its industrial structure was fairly diverse for a resort town. The 1931 census showed that personal service was, unsurprisingly, biggest sector and employed over half of the female working population. However commerce and finance employed nearly as many whilst light industry, engineering and construction were also significant sectors. The relative buoyancy of these industries, combined with the electrification of the railway to London in 1932-33, helps to explain why Brighton escaped relatively lightly in terms of unemployment during the worst years of the slump. Residents did experience relatively high levels of unemployment and distress during the early 1920s however.[4]
The contrast between the relative affluence of middle class residents and tourists and the working class population employed to service their needs, was strikingly apparent to visitors who ventured away from the glitz and wealth of the seafront. In Brighton Rock Graham Greene described the working class district around Carlton Hill as 'the shabby secret behind the bright corsage, the deformed breast'.[5] Such unflattering comparisons were not confined to the pages of popular novels. In early 1919 the Mayor himself likened the town to 'a ragged garment with a golden fringe.'[6]
Not only were many of the houses in the (predominantly) working class St. John's, Elm Grove and Hanover districts of the town damp and poorly constructed,[7] they were also severely overcrowded.  In 1909, house to house inspections in working class areas showed that 'in one in three houses there were more than two families and in three per cent there were three families.'[8] In this pre-war period the Corporation did little to address the shortage of affordable working class housing. Under the provisions of various housing Acts between 1890 and 1909 local authorities had powers to build and let houses. However, since the costs incurred had to be borne entirely by the rates, municipal house building schemes were unpopular with middle-class ratepayers.[9] In Brighton the Corporation built only 176 houses up to 1914.[10]
The local building trade was badly affected by the pre 1914 downturn. Whereas the period 1901-5 saw 2,573 houses constructed, a mere 178 were built between 1911 and 1915.[11] As the War progressed house building in the borough came to a virtual standstill. Nine houses were built in 1916, one in 1917 and just five in the year of the armistice. The first year of peace saw the construction industry at its lowest point; not a single house was built during 1919.[12]
From 1918 demobilised soldiers swelled the numbers of those looking for affordable accommodation. In September 1918 a discharged serviceman wrote to the Brighton Herald pleading 'Can nothing be done to stop the profiteering going on in house letting? How can I, a discharged soldier afford to pay £50 premium for a small house and £5 upwards for a flat?'[13] In the same month 28 limb-less ex-soldiers employed by the Diamond Works in Lewes road petitioned the Mayor to request that the council begin building houses as soon as possible.[14] During July the Working class Dwellings Sub-committee concluded that the council ought to acquire land for the erection of at least 500 houses for the working classes.[15] In December the Council made a compulsory purchase order on 94 acres of land at Moulsecoomb under the provisions of the Housing of the Working Classes Acts 1890-1909.[16] By the end of the year there had been little progress and the council was still negotiating a price for the land with the owner.
In early January 7,000 troops based at Shoreham and Southwick marched to Brighton to protest to the Mayor at the delay in demobilisation.[17] Although there was no violence and the men returned to camp after interviewing Mayor Herbert Carden, the incident has subsequently been given the epithet the 'Shoreham Mutiny' owing to the troops disobeying orders to remain in camp. This dramatic development followed a year of national and local industrial unrest.[18]
Pressure continued to mount on the Council from various quarters. In late February 1919 the Honorary Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen Women's Guild requested that they be allowed to nominate representatives to sit on the Working Class Dwellings Sub-committee.[19] The request was denied but the Guild was invited to inspect plans for proposed houses. (In May both the Guild and the Women's Local Government Association submitted criticisms of the house plans.)[20] In March Mr B. Oppenhiemer, owner of a Diamond Works on Lewes Road forwarded a petition to the Council signed by 158 of his employees 'stating that at the present time there are over 150 men seeking houses and requesting that the council assist them.'[21]
If fear of revolution was not the primary factor which drove men like the Mayor Herbert Carden to push through housing schemes, they were not adverse utilising this notion to silence their critics. In April 1919 the Brighton Herald carried an account of a lively debate within the council chamber over the funding of municipal housing schemes. The article read:

A further protest from Alderman Titcomb that the scheme would "absolutely kill people like myself" drew the reply from the mayor that "you may look on this as an insurance against Bolshevism." It is admitted said the Mayor, that there are half a million houses today in which the conditions under which the workers are living are shocking, "and they will not put up with it."[22]

Carden himself became one of the most vigorous proponents of municipal housing in Brighton during the interwar period. In a Corporation that was dominated by conservative-minded Independents concerned about 'economy',[23] he stood out with his firm belief in 'municipal socialism'. From the late nineteenth century he had bought great swathes of farmland on the outskirts of the town which he later sold back to the Corporation at cost. Not only did this ensure that a 'green belt' surrounded the town, it also secured water supplies and provided the space upon which municipal and owner-occupied estates would be erected.[24] Further land at Rottingdean, Patcham, Ovingdean and Falmer was incorporated into the borough with the abolition of Steyning East Rural District Council in 1928.[25]
In October 1919 the Brighton Medical Officer for Health estimated that 3,152 working class houses would be required during the next three years.[26] Having had preliminary plans for houses at Elm Grove, Nesbitt and May roads rejected by the Local Government Board[27] and perhaps mindful of their criticism by local women's organisations, the Corporation sought professional expertise for their prestige development at Moulsecoomb.
[1] Farrant, S., 'London by the Sea: Resort Development on the South Coast of England, 1880-1939, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 22, No. 1, January (1987). p. 140.
[2] Ibid. p. 141.
[3] Gilbert, E., Brighton: Old Ocean's Bauble, Second Edition, Hassocks, Flare Books, (1975). p. 214.
[4] Musgrave, C., Life in Brighton: From the Earliest Times to the Present, London, Faber, (1970). p. 377-380.
[5] Greene, G., Brighton Rock, Harmondsworth, Penguin, (1986). p. 140.
[6] Sussex Daily News (3.2.19).
[7] Dickens and Gilbert note that many of the houses were built with inferior bricks and mortar made of sea sand, which made them damp. In addition many had basements without damp courses. See Dickens, P., and Gilbert, P., 'Inter-war Housing Policy: A study of Brighton', Southern History, Vol. 3, (1981). p. 206.
[8] ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER FOR HEALTH (BRIGHTON) (1932). p. 67.
[9] Burnett, J., A Social History of Housing, 1815-1970, London, David & Charles, (1978). p. 181.
[10] Minutes of the Housing Committee (Brighton Corporation) (5.5.37).
[11] ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER FOR HEALTH (BRIGHTON) (1936). p. 2.
[12] All figures are taken from ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER FOR HEALTH (BRIGHTON) (1920). p. 10.
[13] Brighton Herald (14.9.18).
[14] MINUTES OF THE GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE (BRIGHTON CORPORATION) (1.10.18).
[15] MINUTES OF THE GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE (BRIGHTON CORPORATION) (11.7.18).
[16] MINUTES OF THE GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE (BRIGHTON CORPORATION) (17.12.18).
[17] Brighton Gazette(8.1.19). See also QueenSpark Collective, Blighty Brighton, Brighton, QueenSpark, (1991). p. 53-4.
[18] Dickens and Gilbert, 'Inter-war Housing Policy: A study of Brighton'. p. 207.
[19] MINUTES OF THE GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE (BRIGHTON CORPORATION) (19.2.19).
[20] MINUTES OF THE GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE (BRIGHTON CORPORATION) (5.5.19).
[21]  MINUTES OF THE GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE (BRIGHTON CORPORATION) (28.3.19).
[22] Brighton Herald (19.4.19).
[23] Davies, S. & Morley, B., County Borough Elections in England and Wales, 1919-38: A Comparative Analysis, Vol. 2, Aldershot, Ashgate, (2000). p. 121.
[24] Seldon, A., Brave New City: Brighton and Hove, Past, Present, Future, Lewes, Pomegranate Press, (2002). p. 72-3.
[25] Fines, K., A History of Brighton and Hove: Stone Age Whitehawk to MillenniumCity, Chichester, Philmore, (2002). p. 126.
[26]  MINUTES OF THE GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE (BRIGHTON CORPORATION)  (13.10.19).
[27]  MINUTES OF THE GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE (BRIGHTON CORPORATION)  (28.2.19).