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.
