Bricked up “blind” windows are often the result of the very unpopular “window tax”, imposed from 1696 to 1851. Although income tax had been proposed from time to time, it was considered an unacceptable governmental intrusion into private matters, and a potential threat to personal liberty. So number of windows (and therefore size of house) was deemed a good proxy for wealth. The more windows you had, the more tax you’d pay.
It was introduced in 1696, with a flat rate per house of 2 shillings, with an extra 4 shillings for houses with between 10 and 20 windows, or extra 8 shillings for those above 20. But it was perhaps the progressive tax that began in 1747 that will have triggered the most bricking up of windows to avoid tax. For houses between 10 and 14 windows, you’d pay 6d for EVERY window (“d” is pence in old money). And for houses between 15 to 19 windows, you’d pay 9d for every window. Rising to a shilling per window if your house had 20+ windows
Similar to pre-2014 stamp duty, where £1 more on your sale price could dramatically increase your stamp duty if you crossed a threshold, so could your window tax with just one extra window. E.g. The tax on 15 windows cost 60% more than 14 (or 47% more if you include the separate tax for 2 shillings per house). That means there was a huge incentive on a house with say 18 windows like 2 Wilkes Street to reduce to 14, which is, I believe, what happened.
It became known as the “tax on light and air”, with grave consequences for public health. Those living in accommodation without sufficient light and ventilation were more vulnerable to epidemics of typhus, smallpox and cholera.
Legend has it that in 1850 when the first motion was put before parliament to repeal it, MPs cried “daylight robbery!” when the matter was debated, which is supposedly where the saying originated.
After it was finally abolished in 1851, many of those bricked-in windows were reopened (so the full impact of the tax is no longer visible of course) and it’s interesting that 2 Wilkes created these mini windows within the two on the front elevation that you can see on the post’s main photo from 1909 and this one from 1972, and also one in the rear stairwell. Perhaps it was a cheap way to get extra light (when the area was at its poorest) without the expense of recreating the entire sash window.
I wondered if it might’ve been the landlord trying to create two more rentable rooms (the two front ones are for small walk-in closet rooms) during the time when it was in multiple occupation – which peaked in 1891 with 32 people from 8 different families. However Dan Cruickshank remembers these closets as being toilets in the past.
“It always interested me because internal water flushed loos were rare in Spitalfields until recent times. Most had water flushed loos placed in out-houses (as in all the houses on the east side of Elder Street), and these were general located over the cess pit in the rear yard”
Dan Cruickshank
Although there was an outside toilet at 2 Wilkes Street, it would’ve been totally inadequate for such a crowded house share, so additional loos had to be placed inside (perhaps also increasing the rent they could charge). It seems ironic that a house so ahead of the curve with inside loos is now the last one to be saved from dereliction.
Not all bricked-in windows are the result of the window tax. They were also for aesthetic reasons since well before the tax was introduced. E.g. many houses on Elder Street, and here on the 2nd photo (by photographer Paul Whitbread) of the corner of Princelet and Wilkes Street, have blind windows straddling the party wall to retain the rhythm of the windows.
There will be clues as to whether a blind window was original or not. E.g. this photo shows the remaining blind window in 2 Wilkes Street from the inside. Our plan is to reopen this one too.
The other 3 were reopened 10 years ago when work (briefly) started, but never finished. Sean has been busy making new windows for all 3 of them.
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