old town slums

[lee evans]

right hopefully someone can help me_ _ _ im doing research on my family tree but im not going back along way _ _ _ my grandad william quinnell used to live in the old town my uncle keith says my grandad moved out of the sloums in the old town in the 40s i think so has anyone any info on these slums ??? and any info on william quinnell B 20.01.1927 and his wife iris b.28.07.1930 i.e their parents , would be greatly apprieciated, i know my granparents moved to the butchers in old london rd in the 60s and thats it . many thanks

[Terry]

A number of buildings were demolished in the 50s and 60s as part of the road widening that is now the Bourne. This was originally planned in the 30s and was supposed to be done in the 40s, but was delayed because of WW2. I've been told the houses in Bembrook Road were constructed in the 30s to rehouse the displaced occupants of the demolished buildings.

[Terry]

Found it! these reports come from Hastings Chronicle dated March and November 1934

Hastings Council agrees to buy 36 acres of Bembrook Farm for GBP10,000 from Major Carlisle Sayer for rehousing the dispossessed from the Old Town redevelopment.

The Ministry of Health gives the go-ahead for a major slum clearance project in the Old Town (actually a way of building the Bourne road). Over 600 people are to be rehoused in new council housing to be built at Bembrook, Ore and Hollington, despite much opposition. Work starts early in 1935 and causes much distress over the following years; the Bourne opens in 1963.

[Terry]

Also found this at Hastings Chronicle

1928 Slum clearance starts in the Old Town, the long-term project that ends with the Bourne being constructed in the early 1960s. The first people made homeless are rehoused in the new council housing in Hardwicke Road, Halton. The main clearance starts in 1935.

[peter_simpson]

yes - it was a con-trick by the council on a massive scale; because the houses in the way of the new road had been classified as slums, the council only had to pay for the land they stood on, and most people got very little - hence they went from being homeowners to council house tenants.