Gibson Gardens, at the corner of Northwold Road and Stoke Newington High Street, is now a gated estate where many modern Londoners start on the housing ladder. In the last decades of the twentieth century, the flats began to be put on the market. The unplastered walls were, in the 1980s, considered to be ‘trendy’, but the original reasons for this state of plastering had been to get rid of the likelihood of vermin. Gibson Gardens had begun as a Victorian social experiment to help reduce death rates amongst the needy of Stoke Newington.
The Gibson Gardens flats were built by the ’Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes’ in 1880. They were originally called Gibson Buildings and were some of the first quality dwellings for working and lower-middle-class families in London. The development was named in honour of Thomas Field Gibson, who was a director of the Metropolitan Association from its inception.
The story stretches back some years before the 1880s. Dr Southwood Smith is no longer a familiar name. His granddaughter Octavia Hill is far better remembered but she wouldn’t have done any of her notable work without his influence.
When Octavia’s father became too ill to support his family, her grandfather, Dr Southwood Smith – a Victorian health reformer – took responsibility for the family.
Studying medicine at Edinburgh University, Smith passed his examinations in 1816 and came to work at the London Fever Hospital, then located on the site of what became King’s Cross Station. Southwood Smith’s work there was concentrated on how fevers might be prevented.
Many of the Fever Hospital patients seemed to show a pattern. Patients came in with ’a low fever’ and, nursed at the hospital, were cured by rest. Returning to their homes, they would often develop fever once more. There seemed to be a connection between poor living conditions and ill-health. Men, who were not in the house all day, generally breathed better air for part of the time and seemed to suffer fever less than women. Southwood Smith published reports on this finding.
As a result of work by Smith and others, the Contagious Diseases Act, The Public Health Act and The Metropolitan Sewers Act, were all passed before 1848, the year when he was appointed to the Board of Health.
Southwood Smith and acquaintances decided to carried out an experiment to prove that good housing would help to produce good health. In 1842 they formed ’The Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes’ and its first venture was The Metropolitan Buildings in Old Pancras Road, King’s Cross – 110 sets of rooms, 20 two-room and 90 three-room flats, in five-storey blocks.
Southwood Smith published a book on the results of the experiment. In the three years between 1850 and 1852, child deaths in the Buildings were only one third of those of the metropolis as a whole.
The findings led to the building of blocks of industrial dwellings for ’reliable’ working class families who would pay the rent on time.
Gibson Gardens as photographed by Jack Whitehead
Gibson Gardens was one of the blocks built as part of this initiative, part-inspired by Smith’s granddaughter, Octavia Hill. Along the principles of Octavia Hill’s schemes, female rent-collectors were used, including Beatrice Potter (later Webb). Webb played a crucial role in forming the Fabian Society.
Main blocks of four-storey flats, set out in an L shape, held most of the tenants. Each building still bears its original name – The Long Block, The Gatehouse Block, The Railway Block and The Cottages. The architects were Henry D. Davis (1838-1915) and Barrow Emanuel (1841-1904). This partnership produced a number of other model housing developments.
Access was by stairway meaning that people were expected to be able to carry coal up four flights of stairs in Gibson Gardens. Octavia Hill said that one cold tap was enough for each floor in her flats. This being said, Gibson Gardens was amongst the first groups of flats to have sinks and running water. Originally, there was an outside toilet on each landing, shared by two flats.
The Cottages were built separately to a different design. They have the air of a row of almshouses, overlooked by the tall blocks. These were designed for the older relatives of people living in the blocks, their independence preserved. It was Victorian social planning at its best.
A further building (known as the ‘Paddle Steamer Block’) was built in 1909. It was named to reflect the long iron balconies which were reminiscent of the decks of a paddle steamer.
The gates and the pillar are typical of the period. These were never locked in case some of the tenants were on night shift, but they acted as a barrier, making Gibson Gardens a distinct community.
Gibson Gardens was renovated in 1975 but many period features survive, including the cobblestone street surfaces.
The community spirit from its earliest days, with events and fairs, survived World War Two, and despite the sale of many of the flats there is still an active Residents’ Association.
Gibson Gardens was later the location for shooting the video of the 2007 single Back to Black by Amy Winehouse.
Jack Whitehead (1916-2014) Photograph: Polly Hancock
NOTE: Much of this article was based on the excellent work of the much-missed London historian, Jack Whitehead (1916-2014). I was only in contact with Jack in his final year via his nephew Keith Robinson. Jack had moved into a nursing home aged 97. Jack’s deep affection for his birthplace was the starting point for a series of self-published local history books: The Growth of Stoke Newington (1985), The Growth of Muswell Hill (1998), The Growth of Camden Town (2000) and The Growth of St Marylebone and Paddington (2001). Having taken part in the battle of Cable Street in 1936, Jack joined the political theatre company Unity Theatre in the late 1930s, where he met his wife, Pat. After RAF service in the war, he became a teacher.
During his retirement, Jack and Keith developed a website, www.locallocalhistory.co.uk to help schools teach local history. He believed that by exploring their built and natural environments, children would discover many unexpected avenues of important learning. At time of writing (March 2021), I am thankful to report that this website is still available.
