The Crown Estate and Housing: A Potted History

The Crown Estate has been in the business of owning and managing a stock of affordable rented housing as far back as the end of the First World War in 1918. Our first estate was developed out of various wharves, business premises and various run-down tenements around the Cumberland Basin of the Regent’s Canal.

By the end of 1930s some six new blocks of flats had been built, providing over 500 tenancies built to the highest of contemporary standards. The Cumberland Market estate that we see today was the first mass estate directly managed by The Crown Estate. Other estates at Millbank, Victoria Park and Lee Green were taken back into direct management after the Second World War, as leases expired on many derelict and poor quality premises.

The Housing Business Group today consists of approximately 1,300 tenancies let at affordable rents and under a mixture of tenancies and is something we are proud of in social, historical and housing management terms.