Council housing

Despite the appalling slums and overcrowding, public housing made a slow start in Sunderland. The first council housing was conceived in 1892. The infamous slums of Fitters Row and the adjoining Hat Case were declared unfit, and after a series of delays, tenants moved into Harrison’s Buildings on the site in 1904. It was now council policy to replace every home demolished, so the new blocks took a novel style for Sunderland, barrack-like tenements. After the First War, Sunderland council became one of the most active house-builders in the country. Most of the estates developed on the outskirts of town. The Garths, in the east end, were a notable exception.