12 December

I got back from the Camden Archives at around 4, to fine Bartek and Sebastian still at it. You'd think they had been here all night long. Had they? I asked if they really needed to stay so late, but Bartek said this particular stage had to be completed tonight in order for the next stage to be completed tomorrow in order for the next....

Today I have been reading through all the minutes of the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras, from the year 1955 - when supposedly Jones, Lang, Wootton and Sons were supposed to have auctioned off 300 properties that belonged to Christ Church College, Oxford. And, if you remember (why should you?), the auction scheduled for March 22nd 1955 was suddenly and unaccountably indefinitely postponed.

This is what I think happened. I quote from the Council's minutes of February 10th 1955: "We understand that Christ Church, Oxford, are willing to negotiate for the sale to the Council of the whole of the residential part of this Estate (approximately 800 tenancies)...and that the figure mentioned is one which the Council's Valuation surveyor will be able to negotiate..." The Council wrote this on the understanding that there would be no auction. But this was in February. A few weeks later the auction was being advertised in the Estates Gazette. My guess is that the college thought, ok. We have a fall back, so let's see if we can up the dosh on the open market. But the open market wasn't interested.

In the end the Council applied to central government to lend it the funds, to be paid back over 80 years. The government duly agreed because in those blessed days Council Housing was seen as a Good Thing. The total paid was £275,900.00 to cover the 300 plus houses (some 25 acres of land) and all the attached costs. You couldn't buy a one-room flat in any of these streets now for that amount.

Once the deal was concluded at the end of June, the Council decided to find a way of paying off the loan within 30 years which would ultimately save it money. But can anyone remember what happened about 30 years after that, round about the time the loan will have been paid off?

Meanwhile, having bought the five streets of houses that made up the estate the Council suddenly realised the business of managing them was currently beyond them. They had too many other things to do. Problem. Solution? Get one Allan Booth, who had been doing all the rent collecting etc etc for Christ Church to go on doing it, for the Council. Only for 6 months. Except when the six months were up, he was asked to do another three. If you wouldn't mind.

More later