Albert Cottages

Albert Cottages is a row of nine artisans' dwellings built in 1858 for the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes. They were likely designed by Henry Roberts (1803-1876). Originally, each house was sub-divided into two units, with rectangular plots and wings to the rear, comprising three rooms per floor and sanitary facilities. The cottages are set back behind small gardens, facing onto a paved forecourt.

The exterior is of yellow stock brick with red brick door and window surrounds, and slate roofs. Each house is two windows wide on the upper floor. The ground floor double doors have been altered to form a single dwelling entrance. Modern replacement casement windows now occupy the positions of the original sash windows.

The interiors are believed to have been considerably altered and were not inspected.

The Metropolitan Association purchased the site in 1850, and Albert Cottages were built on the former Pelham Street, which had been demolished in 1857. The cottages were designed to provide accommodation for small artisan families who could not afford the rents of larger family dwellings. Despite criticism from Roberts, their low-rise density provides a rare insight into the type of cottage accommodation once common in the East End. The cottages were modernised by the Newlon Housing Trust in the late 1970s. The row opposite, to the south, was part of the same development but has been altered (with doors moved to the rear) and is not listed. They were illustrated in the 1867 edition of Henry Roberts’s ‘The Dwellings of the Labouring Classes’.