The Peabody Trust

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13 January 2025Find out more about the Peabody Trust and their housing estates in London within the collections held at The London Archives.

The London Archives hold the records of the Peabody Trust ACC/3445, the majority of which are from the period around 1864.

The Peabody Trust has its origins in gifts totalling £500,000 made by the American Citizen, George Peabody, for the benefit of the people of London, the city where he spent much of his adult life. The gift, which became known as the Peabody Donation Fund, was put into the hands of selected trustees who were to ensure that it should be used to 'ameliorate the condition of the poor' of London. No other stipulations were made, but it was agreed that the provision of cheap, clean housing would best fulfil the intention of the gift. Peabody has been thought of as being the 'founder of modern philanthropy'.

The first housing estate was opened at Spitalfields in 1864 and consisted of 57 dwellings and nine shops. The Peabody estates became an established feature of London's life and built landscape.

The Trust acquired the 1830 Housing Society (The Society for the Improvement of the Labouring Classes) in 1965 and The Westminster Housing Trust Limited in 1972.

Who was George Peabody?

George Peabody (1795-1869) made his money as a dry goods merchant in Baltimore. He moved to London in 1837, the year Queen Victoria came to the throne, where he became involved in merchant banking and established the firm George Peabody and Company.

a photograph of George Peabody sitting in a chair with his arm resting on a table next to a top hat — London Picture Archive - 290611Portrait photograph of George Peabody

Reformers had been agitating for better housing in the large cities of England for thirty years. The Industrial Revolution and the coming of the railways had attracted people to London and greatly increased the population of the capital. Besides, the construction of the railways had made it necessary to demolish large sections of working-class housing.
‘Origin of the Peabody Homes of London’ in George Peabody: A Biography by Franklin Parker, Vanderbilt University Press, 1995 (ref: 61.9 PEA).

Addressing the legacy

In October 2023, the Peabody Institute undertook some research into how George Peabody generated his wealth with a view to understanding whether there were links to slavery. In general, records have not revealed that George Peabody enslaved people directly as an individual, but he did share ownership of enslaved people through his later banking investments.

The full report from the Peabody Institute can be found here and provides a useful summary into their findings.

Housing Estates

The Peabody housing estates are a familiar site to Londoner’s. They have a distinctive cream banding against the yellow London bricks and a somewhat Italianate style which was introduced by the architect Henry Astley Darbishire, who also designed the drinking fountain in Victoria Park, Hackney.

The estates were built as model dwellings to provide a decent form of housing for the working classes. Essentially, the aim of the buildings were to have an arrangement of blocks around an open square, which was a move away from the dark alleys and cramped conditions of the slums that they were replacing. It was hoped that sanitary housing would in turn lower the mortality rates.

A full list of the Peabody Estates are helpfully outlined on Wikipedia. A number of these estates are represented in the collections at The London Archives including some tenant’s registers, plans, photographs of the estates and oral histories. Search our catalogue to find out more.

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