Living in 'slum' conditions

'Slum' dwellings scheduled for demolition

Brighton and Hove in Pictures

In the 1930s the Government spearheaded a campaign to demolish urban 'slums' - housing which was unsafe, damp or inhabitable. Many buildings and streets were demolished and cleared in Brighton and people were moved to new housing.

On this page and in Re-housing we explore the memories of the streets and neighbourhoods which disappeared during the 1930s in Brighton and Hove, and the new communities which emerged.

Further memories of housing, neighbourhoods and communities can be found in Our community 1920-1940 and its inner pages.

You can download Living in 'slum' conditions and its accompanying page by clicking here (PDF format).

The inhabitants were united by poverty, and built up strong support networks within the community to help them survive the rigours of their lives; not everyone had extended families, but everyone had neighbours. The demolition of a neighbourhood is not just the destruction of buildings, it is also the destruction of a complex social system.

People felt they belonged to an area of the town, (a small collection of streets around their home) and everyone knew where that area began and ended. Although almost all the buildings only survive as photographs, memories of living in 'Backyard Brighton' are very much alive.
Backyard Brighton

Brighton Borough Council Health Committee Report: 29.11.34
Nos 9-15 Dorset Buildings.
Nos 9-12 inclusive are damp walled houses with unhealthy sliprooms and small sculleries opening onto very small yards.
No 13 is a damp walled house and although it has a large garden to the north has only a small confined yard.
Nos 14 & 15 are damp walled houses opening onto very confined yards.
Backyard Brighton

When 'Backyard Brighton' was being written in the late 1980s a call went out in the local press for people to come forward with memories relating to the Council collection of photos. This letter, included in the finished book, reacting strongly to those homes being referred to as 'slums'.

Regarding your article and pictures of the houses in old Richmond Street, Carlton Hill and surrounding streets in Brighton, I object to them being called slums. The people who lived in these houses were good, clean, working-class people. They kept their houses spotlessly, and the front doorsteps and each bit of pavement was swept and washed nearly every morning.

In the summer evenings we would sit out on the front steps enjoying a laugh with our friendly neighbours with a jug of beer at 4p a pint. No filthy litter or vandalism like today and no fear of thieves. These streets were far from slums. They were cosy houses for happy families.
R.J. Weedon, Hollingdean Road, Brighton. Published in The Evening Argus 8 July 1988 and Backyard Brighton

The difficulties of paying rent
Practically all working class houses were let at a weekly rental. There were so many empty houses in the various streets because families could not afford to pay the rent. To encourage a tenant to take over a house, the owner would show the tenants over the house and say he was prepared to paint, decorate and paper the walls of every room. Then he would accept a week's rent and hand over the door key.
Albert Paul - Poverty, Hardship but Happiness

People would be unable to pay their rent, which would only be five shillings for a house, and that shared with two or three families, living in slum conditions, not dirty, but crowded because there was not enough money.
John Langley - Always a Layman