Katharine Buildings

Katherine Buildings were model dwellings in Cartwright Street, Aldgate, London, the first project of the philanthropically-motivated East End Dwellings Company. The block was built during 1884, and opened in 1885 as model apartments for the working class. There were 628 single rooms with shared cooking and sanitary facilities, plus a top floor for the very poorest families.^[1] The buildings were named after the philanthropist Catherine Courtney.^[2]

A key feature of the Buildings was the rent collection system. Whereas most Model Dwellings Companies employed a strict regimen of prompt rent payment, the EEDC employed female collectors following the successful schemes demonstrated by Octavia Hill.^[3] Beatrice Potter was employed as a principle visitor alongside Ella Pycroft,^[4] living in the Buildings, and the scheme was assisted by Charles Booth, Samuel Barnett, Maurice Eden Paul, the Charity Organisation Society and Osborne Jay.^[1]

The Buildings were demolished in the 1970s and replaced with council housing.^[1]

References

Model Dwellings

Private model dwellings companies	Artizans, Labourers & General Dwellings Company Chester Cottage Improvement Company East End Dwellings Company Edinburgh Co-Operative Building Company Four Per Cent Industrial Dwellings Company Improved Industrial Dwellings Company Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes Newcastle upon Tyne Improved Industrial Dwellings Company Pilrig Model Dwellings Company Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes

Charitable model dwellings trusts	Peabody Trust Guinness Trust William Sutton Trust

Model villages in the UK	Akroydon Bessbrook Blaise Hamlet Bournville Copley Creswell Laurelvale Meltham Milford Nenthead New Bolsover New Earswick New Lanark Portlaw Port Sunlight Railway Village Saltaire Selworthy Silver End Sion Mills Snelston Stewartby Tremadog Trowse Woodlands, South Yorkshire

Model dwellings for the poor	Gibson Gardens Katharine Buildings Leopold Buildings Noel Park Queen's Park Shaftesbury Park Stockbridge Colonies

See also	Model dwellings companies List of existing model dwellings Model villages Colony houses

Katharine Buildings

Further reading

References