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Stories

  • Article

How slums make people sick

A newly gentrified corner of Bermondsey leaves little clue to its less salubrious history. But a few intrepid writers recorded the details of existence in one of London’s most squalid slums.

  • Article

Building a dream in the garden suburbs

In the late 19th century a ‘garden suburb’ promised a retreat from London’s dirt and crowds. See how this new concept was developed to appeal to the health concerns of the literary classes.

  • Article

The tower in fiction, film and life

The high-rise estates born of postwar idealism soon became symbols of crime and squalor. But after one terrible tragedy, public bodies are being forced to rethink our towers.

  • Article

Two health centres, two ideologies

Two futuristic, light-filled buildings aimed to bring forward-looking healthcare to city dwellers. But the principles behind each were very different.

All stories (5)

Images

  • London slums
  • Poor sanitary conditions in London in 1862: four scenes. Wood engraving by W. E. Hodgkin, 1862.
  • Poor sanitary conditions in London in 1862: four scenes. Wood engraving by W. E. Hodgkin, 1862.
  • Harrow alley, Houndsditch
  • Wentworth st, Whitechapel
  • The former Monmouth Street in London: women and children playing and men sitting and standing while smoking pipes, with items for sale hanging outside shops. Etching by George Cruikshank, 1839.
  • Water tank in St. Giles in the Fields, London. Wood engraving, 1858.
  • Opium den, East end
  • Fisher's Alley (Fisher Lane), near the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich, with many Pensioners and other people walking. Wood engraving by R. Branston after C. Stanfield.
  • A tree showing the evolution of health care in the twentieth century. Colour print by J. Galloway and R. Richards, 2011.
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Catalogue

All works (52)