Women's Pioneer Housing

Women's Pioneer Housing is a British housing association founded in 1920, the first dedicated to housing single women.^[1]

History

Women's Pioneer Housing was founded in 1920, to help provide housing for the new generation of single, professional women in London following the First World War.

It was founded by Etheldred Browning a former Irish suffragist who had run the women’s section of the Garden City and Town Planning Association (GCTPA). Other founding members included Geraldine Lennox of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), Lady Rhondda, and Ray Strachey. Sydney Mary Bushell, a member of the executive committee of the GCTPA and hon sec of their women’s section,^[2] was also a founder. They incorporated Women's Pioneer Housing as a public utility company on 4 October 1920 ‘to cater for the housing requirements of professional and other women of moderate means who require individual homes at moderate rents’.

They raised money to purchase its first property, 167 Holland Park Avenue, in 1921.

At the society's 1924 dinner, Mrs. C. S. Peel explained that the association "aimed at providing women workers with houses where there would be scope for individual tastes, and where they could live surrounded by their household gods".^[3] After weathering some financial problems in the 1920s the association was able to expand in the 1930s.^[4] By 1936 they had 36 properties, primarily in west London and one in Brighton, run on a co-operative basis.^[5] Investors included Bertha Newcombe.^[6]

Skilled women contractors were central to the organisation's development, including the architect Gertrude Leverkus and the first woman chartered accountants, Ethel Watts and Miriam Homesham. Etheldred Browning ran the organisation until her retirement in 1938.

Housing provision

Women's Pioneer Housing is still active as a social housing provider for women, with offices at Wood Lane, White City, west London. The Chief Executive since 2022 is Tracey Downie, former Executive Director of Housing Management at Homes for Haringey.^[7]

It is registered as a Co-operative & Community Benefit Society with the Financial Conduct Authority and as a Registered Social Landlord with the Homes and Communities Agency.

It continues to house single women, mostly now nominated by local authorities.

Plans for a new housing development at the organisation's base in Wood Lane were announced in 2019. After public consultation the revised plans were granted planning permission in November 2022.^[8][9][10]

As of 2019, it was exploring a possible merger with Housing for Women.^[11]

The organisation celebrated its centenary in 2020, with an exhibition Pioneering Courage: Housing and the Working Woman 1919 – 1939 based on three years of research into their history.^[12][13]

References

1. "Women's Pioneer Housing". Official website.
2. "#LSEWomen: Sydney Mary Bushel | LSE History". 30 August 2017. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
3. Mullholland, Terri (2016). British Boarding Houses in Interwar Women's Literature: Alternative domestic spaces. Taylor & Francis. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-317-17209-3.
4. Brion, Marion (2002). Women in the Housing Service. Routledge. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-134-89359-1.
5. "Women's Housing Association". Historic England.
6. Crawford, Elizabeth (2003). "Newcombe, Bertha". The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. pp. 448–9. ISBN 1-135-43401-8.
7. "Our executive team". Women's Pioneer Housing. 10 September 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
8. "Partnering Women's Pioneer Housing". Hub Group.
9. "Proposals". 227 Wood Lane. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
10. Spocchia, Gino (10 November 2022). . The Architects’ Journal. Archived from the original on 10 November 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
11. "Joint statement from Housing for Women and Women's Pioneer Housing". Housing for Women.
12. "Update on the Heritage Project - April 2020". Women's Pioneer. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
13. "Our Story". Women's Pioneer. Retrieved 24 October 2020.