ISHA’s role in rebuilding London

Small blocks of flats in a leafy, sunny area.

Thursday, 8 May marks 80 years since the Victory in Europe day, marking the end of World War Two in Europe.

We’re proud to say that part of our 90-year history includes rebuilding London after much of its housing was bombed.

Below you’ll see a copy of a letter written by an ISHA staff member in 1947 to The Lord Mayor’s National Air Raid Distress Fund, securing funding for a housing scheme in Highbury. The plan was to rehouse elderly people who had lost their homes during the war in this new development.

A type-written copy of the letter. — In our early years, we were called Shoreditch and Hackney Housing Association.

At the top of the page you’ll find an image of Aberdeen Park as it stands today where it still provides social homes to Londoners, including Supported Housing units. Aberdeen park is just one of the devleopments ISHA built immediately post-war.

Amongst our archives from the post-war years we’ve found tenancy cards, which were then used to list a resident’s details including the reasons they required social homes. Many of them were for people who had lost their homes in the war. Some homes were for refugees who had survived concentration camps, starting our proud and continuing tradition of housing refugees.