To “ameliorate the condition of the poor and needy of the great metropolis of London”
Peabody’s first dwellings for the ‘artisan and labouring poor of London’ were opened on Commercial Street, Spitalfields, in February 1864.
It marked the birth of large scale social housing in England. These flats housed sixty-six low-income families and included provision for shops and laundries.
George Peabody may not have realised it at the time, but he was one of the pioneers of social housing as we know it and this marked the beginning of his and our work in London.
