The exhibition in particular shines a light on the pioneering role Canning Town played in Britain’s housing development policies.

By Neandra Etienne

Eastside Community Heritage, the Newham-based charity on a mission to tell the hidden histories of the East End, launched a new exhibition in January shining a spotlight on the ground-breaking story of Canning Town’s role in building a new vision of
housing in Britain.

The exhibition at the Custom House and Canning Town Community Neighbourhood Centre and Library in Rathbone Road on 18 January, shared interviews with Canning Town residents as well as a display of paintings and digital art of Canning Town in the 1950s and 60s by artist Terence Claydon.

The exhibition, A Home Fit To Live In, focuses on home and housing in Canning Town in the 1950s, 60s and 70s and was made possible by a grant of £10,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The exhibition in particular shines a light on the pioneering role Canning Town played in Britain’s housing development policies. In 1964 39 homes were built in Kildare Road to test out the Parker Morris standards, an innovative new housing policy centred on improving space and living standards.

This experiment led to changes in housing policy and design – the standards became mandatory for all the new town builds in 1967 and all council houses in 1969.

Eastside Community Heritage’s Hidden Histories archive, open to the public, now contains more than 4,000 oral histories and 40,000 photos of East Londoners, dating from the Nineteenth Century to the present day. Each item provides local people with a connection to the rich heritage of East London.

Canning Town, is a historical riverside landmark in the movement for social housing and today is in the process of being reborn as a thriving urban centre, but the aim of Eastside is to keep in focus its proud history as a centre of housing standards innovation, and in the process to continue open conversations about home and quality of living.

For further information, please contact Freya at Eastside Community Heritage at freya@ech.org.uk and 07411 536339.

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.