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Between the World Wars 1919 – 1939
the history of Leyton and Leytonstone
from . dot to … dots – with plenty of spaces
Housing
1 ‘Jenny Hammond - the life of a Labour councillor’, a WFOHW publication
“... in those days, there was no such things as flats – they were always known as half houses, practically every house had two families, one downstairs and one upstairs. And there used to be one toilet, that’s all, one outdoors – outside toilet – for both families to use”. Eventually this interviewee rented downstairs in a house where his wife’s sister and her husband rented the upstairs, so that his family could have the garden. 4
4 WFOHW interview reference number 363
5 WFOHW interview reference number 390
Jenny Hammond, later a Labour Party member of Leyton Council, also lived in houses that were split between two households but had not been built for that purpose 1. The Warner Estate maisonettes were purpose-built flats, which was overlooked by the person making the statement quoted above.
Most people, including those in Warner maisonettes, took their baths in a portable metal tub - “we bathed in a tin bath in front of the fire” 5. >>
Warner maisonettes on Clementina Road, Leyton
