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is best exemplified by the washing lines. Instead of the traditional wooden posts stuck into
asphalt, which quickly rotted, a circular structure was created in building courtyards, with
twenty-four concrete posts set around one central higher post so the washing lines radiated out
from the centre like maypole streamers. Bayes designed glazed stoneware sculptures to adorn
the posts that reflected the name or purpose of the building: the one outside the block that
included the nursery school had twenty-four posts, on which were placed four and twenty
blackbirds; other designs included ships and fish, thistles and roses.
Jellicoe was a charismatic speaker and a very effective fund raiser, attracting influential
patrons – an early shareholder was Edward, Prince of Wales – and pulling in high-profile
figures to lay foundation stones and open new buildings. He understood the power of visual
communication, staging publicity stunts, such as the ceremonial burning of large-scale papier-
mâché insects, encouraging news teams to come and film the conditions and supporting the
production of documentary films to publicize the organization’s work. One of the most
influential was Paradox City, made in 1932, and free to view.
Beyond Somers Town
Irene and Evelyn moved their offices to Euston in 1926 to be closer to the Somers Town
project but their work went far wider than this. They were employed as estates managers for a
number of housing associations and local councils and gradually built up a small staff. They
also had a portfolio of surveying and valuation work for private clients. However, it was probably
the sixteen surveys of housing conditions, some in London boroughs including Shoreditch,
Southwark, Paddington and Fulham, and others in Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh
that had most impact.
The surviving reports of the Victoria Ward of Westminster and the two poorest areas of
Edinburgh, Canongate and St Andrew’s, show the in-depth approach they took, going into
people’s homes to assess the extent of over-crowding, the state of the rooms, the access to light
and fresh air and the conditions for preparing food. The Edinburgh study was triggered by huge
disparities in outcomes for children across the city: in 1930, the infant mortality rate in
Canongate and St Andrew’s was over 10%, with only 892 babies surviving for every 1,000 born.
In wealthy Morningside, it was 1.3%. (For comparison, in 2021, the infant mortality rate in
Britain was 0.35%). Behind the elegant Georgian terraces of Princes Street, from St James
Square to India Place, they found terrible overcrowding: of the 443 families visited, over half
were living four or more to a room. Their reports mobilized local groups and councils.
During the 1930s, Irene started to speak up more on housing and housing-related issues. In
October 1933, she took part in a radio debate with Sir Edward Hilton Young, Minister of Health
and Local Authorities, challenging the government policy on slum clearance, and after this
made repeated appearances on BBC Radio. Another of her campaigns was against unlicensed
money lending, which she called ‘A Scandal of our Time’. She established a loan club for the St
Pancras community so they could avoid the dangers of taking on debt with punitive repayments.
She was a founder member of the London Soroptimists and in 1936 she travelled to Birmingham
to speak at a lunch of the Birmingham Rotary Club and Soroptimists. There she made the case
for more women in property: in her experience, while men focused on the technical side,
women took a wider view of the personal, social and human side, which was needed for
effective property management.
While Irene was focused on a housing agenda, John had become involved with the Co-Operative
movement and in 1934 was one of the founding members of the Peace Pledge Union, joined by,
among others Vera Brittain, Storm Jameson and Basil Martin’s old adversary Laurence Housman.
Amidst all this activity, Irene and John were also raising two sons, born in 1926 and 1929.
The war years
During the war, Irene often found herself on her own. John was busy with anti-war protests
and trying, not always successfully, to avoid arrest. The boys were sent to boarding school
outside of London and spent their holidays with family in the countryside. Evelyn had married
Douglas Howard, a civil servant, on 14th February 1931 and when he was posted to the USA
around the time of the Blitz she went with him.

16 EMPIRE STATE SURVEYOR / VOL. 61 • NO 2 / 2025 • MARCH/APRIL