London’s Alleys: Model Cottages, SW14

This is an alleyway in East Sheen that runs down an avenue of delightful 19th-century cottages, the model cottages. Model not because they were small, but because they were the perfect model for how homes for workers should be built.The first of the row of 2-storey cottages were built in 1853 by the Labourers’ Friendly Society, which may have been associated with the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Poor. The east side was the first to be built. By 1862 ownership