Millbank Estate: turn of the century social housing

On a site not far from where once a mill has stood on the Thames lies the area known as Millbank. Here the first modern prison in London, Millbank Penitentiary would be opened in 1816. The marshy site in Pimlico was purchased on behalf of the Crown by Jeremy Bentham to build the first example of the Panopticon he had devised. This National Penitentiary was eventually constructed after plans by William Williams, redesigned by Thomas Hardwick and built by John Harvey and his successor Robert Smirke as the site proved difficult for the erection of such a massive construction. It had separate cells for 860 prisoners and served as a holding facility for prisoners before transport to Australia. The prison was costly to run and in time it was decided to make the Model Prison Pentonville into the National Penitentiary and abandon the Millbank facility.

In 1885 the site is thus earmarked for development and demolition of the fortress-like prison complex began. The principle buildings erected in its stead, were the National Gallery of British Art, now rebranded Tate Britain (built 1893-1897) and the Royal Army Medical School (1905-1907) now in use by the Chelsea College of Art & Design. Following on from the Boundary Estate in Shoreditch the London County Council (LCC) decides to develop the site for a large-scale, inner-city housing complex for the working classes. In those days the wharfs and warehouses on the Thames lay close by, so the provision of housing for harbour workers made sense. In 1896 a street plan is approved. Construction starts in 1897 and ends in 1902. For the construction bricks from the demolished prison were used.

The octagonal outline of the prison complex can still be recognised in the street plan of this part of Pimlico. Tate Britain (1) takes pride of place on the river bank. Behind it the LCC Millbank Estate (2) and the Millbank Gardens (3). The CCAD occupies the former medical school (4).

The apartment blocks were designed by R. Minton Taylor in a style in-between the Mansion Block and Dutch-revival brick architecture. The result is a convincing ensemble of symmetrically arranged, asymmetrically detailed blocks on a plinth and with stone door surrounds. The estate comprises of 17 buildings, each named after a distinguished painter. The streets were planted with London Plane trees. Between the blocks communal gardens, laid to lawn, were included. At the centre a winged building with a school for boys and a school for girls was included in the scheme. Whilst the housing blocks were being constructed the Millbank Gardens were laid out as a public greens space for the residents. It is best described as a Public Garden in the tradition of the German People's Park. The Millbank Estate can be seen as an example of the German tradition of social housing in so-called Reform-Mietskasernen, predating the Gartenhof.

The whole complex, including the public garden, is now Grade II listed.