Just minutes from East London’s iconic Brick Lane is Arnold Circus, once a notorious slum but now a peaceful garden steeped in history. Locals enjoy walking their dogs and workers to take their lunch break, its crowning glory is a Victorian bandstand in the center which stands as a nod to the era in which the estate was built.
In Victorian London, Arnold Circus was the Old Nichol slum, where poverty and crime ran rampant. The death rate was a staggering 40 per 1,000, far exceeding the city average of 10 per 1,000.
The small garden once housed 5,700 people. Families of eight or more sometimes lived and worked in a single room, while open spaces were used to house wagons and livestock.
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But the slums were cleared when Reverend Osborne Jay stepped in, who noticed a lack of engagement from the slum dwellers with his church. Therefore he led the effort to raise £25,000 to build a new church, social club, gym and lodging house in Old Nichol Street.
In 1890 Reverend Jay’s advocacy culminated in the newly formed London County Council (LCC) clearing the slums, paving the way for the creation of the Boundary Estate, one of London’s first urban estates.
Despite the intention of the estate to provide quality housing for the poor, only 11 of the original Old Nichol residents were among the 5,100 housed on the Boundary Street Estate. The slum dwellers were moved to Bethnal Green and Dalston which created more overcrowding in the slums and in effect just moved the problem elsewhere.
The grand opening of the Boundary Estate, in 1900, was graced by the presence of the Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra. It marked a significant milestone, with Calvert Avenue decorated with Union flags, masts and streamers and music echoing through the air.
The Boundary Estate is now a Grade II listed site, radiating around Arnold Circus. In the center is the Boundary Gardens, which were actually built with the rubble from the demolished slum.
Today, the area has become hugely gentrified and privately owned apartments within the estate are highly sought after. One-bed flats in the city center around Arnold Circus itself are selling for £525,000. But Tower Hamlets Council still controls 500 flats so there is plenty of social housing there to this day. Arnold Circus remains a blend of history and modernity.
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