Linda identifies changes in the production of housing in Camden, focusing in particular on the original development of Somers Town from the 1790s, the subject of her book, Building Capitalism, and on what happened subsequently to turn the area into a monument to social housing from every decade since the 1890s. She traces the stages from housing built by artisans to tenements constructed by wage labour, from private rented philanthropic housing constructed by contractors to council housing often designed, built and maintained by the local authorities’ own direct labour organisations or DLOs. She concludes with some of the battles fought by building workers and tenants in Camden to obtain good quality housing in the 1970s, including the challenge to Camden DLO and the successful CPO (Compulsory Purchase Order) campaign to turn private housing into council housing.

Linda Clarke is Professor Emerita of European Industrial Relations in the Westminster Business School (WBS), and contributing to the programme of research at the University of Westminster’s Centre for the Study for the Production of the Built Environment (PROBE).