Fr Andrew Moughtin-Mumbym Anglican priest of the parish of St Peter, Walworth, explained: “The wounds felt by residents on the Octavia Hill estate in Walworth are deep, and anger, betrayal and hurt are laid squarely at the door of the Church Commissioners.
“Residents simply cannot understand why a distribution of fair rents, key worker housing, and market rents could not be established by the Church Commissioners. The terms of the sale and the manner in which it was conducted, have clearly brought the Church Commissioners, the Church of England, and the parish churches in which these estates fall into disrepute,” said Fr Moughtin-Mumbym.
The link is [url=http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/14594]here[/url].
Whatever one’s views about the wisdom of subsidized housing (I see a place for it), there is something galling about the way the intent of the [url=http://www.infed.org/thinkers/octavia_hill.htm]foudnress[/url] has been trampled upon.
The Church of England got into the business of providing adequate housing in a serious fashion between the First and Second World Wars. Foremost of its works was the St. Pancras House Improvement Society (SPHIS), for which the Anglo Catholic Basil Jellicoe of St. Mary’s, Somers Town (William Temple called Jellicoe a saint) was largely responsible. In 1924-25, Jellicoe and the Charity Organization Society acquired the freehold of eight slum houses and then raised £7,000 to buy them outright. In their subsequent work they spoke constantly of the defense of the sacredness of personality that contextualized slum renewal, not merely its humanitarian context.
SPHIS was the prototype for other “public utility†societies, most of which had strongly Christian roots, including the Bristol Tenant Association and Birmingham’s COPEC Housing scheme. In Leeds, Charles Jenkinson (admittedly an avowed Modernist) – Rector of St. John’s and St. Barnabas’s, Holbeck, from 1927 to 1938 and a member of the Labour Party – was elected to the city council in 1930. From this position, he pushed for a major slum clearance effort and after Labour’s election victory in the 1933 municipal elections became chairman of the new Housing Committee.
Jenkinson advocated the construction of five different sizes of house to ensure enough bedrooms for girls and boys to be separated by age 10, and for every house demolished a new one was erected, thus keeping most people in their original locale. Municipal rents were fixed at the amount needed to maintain the property and those unable to afford the rate could apply for relief, which was granted down to weekly minimum of sixpence as long as it was needed. Because of Jenkinson’s effort, the Diocese of Ripon was obliged to create six parishes and build new churches for them between 1930 and 1939.
Apparently, the Church Commissioners don’t seem greatly concerned by this legacy.
I knew this priest (then a seminarian) when I was at Westcott House in England. He name is spelled ” Moughtin-Mumby” not Mumbym.
When articles can’t be bothered to even spell the principle person’s name correctly, I am dubious as to other facts.
Yes, but Archer (if you will allow me a moment of pedantry) you should have written principal not principle.
Very true. Good catch, Terry.