Billie was born on the Boundary Estate in 1932. Her parents, Jack and Alice Sivill, were fully involved in local politics and her mother became the mayor of Bethnal Green. Sivill House is named in honour of Alice and Jack – the Berthold Lubetkin-designed housing block on Columbia Road (in fact, it stands on the site of Nova Scotia Gardens, the site of the Italian Boy killings). Here, Billie recalls her parents and their time on the estate:

“Both Mum and Dad came from Lincolnshire, Mum from Billinghay and Dad from Coningsby. They married there, but when the slump came, Dad tramped down to Stevenage and found work as a navvy. As the years passed he finished up as a clerk of the works. He moved to London and was there for eight years before Mum joined him with her siblings – six brothers and a sister. They had a flat in Hoxton, top floor and bug ridden. Every night the flat-irons came out to squash the bugs as they crept up the walls from the flats below. There was an outbreak of smallpox and the borough medical officer called to see how the family were. He remarked how clean the flat was, with scrubbed floorboards, and said, ‘You’ve done wonders with this flat, but I have a better flat for you in Bethnal Green.’

“So the family (Mum and Dad and the children, David, Dorothy, Jack and Pat) moved to 6 Cookham Buildings on the Boundary Estate. The flat had three bedrooms. I was the first to be born there, on 13 December 1932, and my sister in 1937, two days after the coronation of George VI, and she won a ‘coronation cot’ – all red, white and blue, donated by the basket-maker in Calvert Avenue.

Billie’s mum up at the window of Cookham Buildings, and in the foreground, Billie’s dad and her brother, David.

“After the war, Mum and some tenants restarted the old tenants’ association and they managed to get the London County Council to build them a hut. This was used for meetings, but also as a social club, where people of the Boundary Estate could come and chat, dance, play cards and billiards, and it was also somewhere for people who lived alone to have some conversation and company. They called the hut De Carte House, in memory of the man who started the original tenants’ association.

Billie’s mum and dad at De Carte House.

“An elderly Jewish couple who lived at number 9 Cookham Buildings would ask us to turn on the lights and to light their fire on their sabbath. The Hillers, another Jewish family, who lived at No 1, were friends of ours, and during the war when food was rationed, Mum would knock on the pipe by the side of the kitchen sink to let Sarah downstairs know when a ‘cuppa’ was ready. Sarah would do the same. Sarah’s son, Tony, writes music and won the European Song Contest with ‘Save Your Kisses For Me’, which he co-wrote.

“There was a list on the landing of the flats saying whose turn it was to wash the landing and stairs to the next floor down. Everyone took their turn and it was never dirty. We never saw a broken window or graffiti on the walls. The head porter, Mr Heyho, was quick to spot any children who had chalk in their hands! There were really very few disagreements between neighbours, and any that did happen were quickly forgotten. It was a nice place to live.”

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“Mum was on the Borough Council – she was voted in, in the west ward, in 1935 and she served until the boroughs were merged in 1965. Dad, too, served on the council, I believe initially as an alderman, but later by election in the west ward. They were both on many of the main committees and Mum was also a manager and governor of several schools. Both were very outspoken and didn’t suffer fools gladly or allow themselves to be sidetracked by anyone. In 1957, Mum was elected mayor of Bethnal Green, and my sister Dorothy was her mayoress.

“The Dorset Estate off Hackney Road was opened while Mum was mayor, and it was named after the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Individual blocks were named after the men who were transported to Australia for forming a trades union. At a later date, the tallest block was named after Mum and Dad – Sivill House [below]. Thinking about it now, it seems appropriate, as our own home was always full of people!

“Dad died in February 1970 and Mum ten months later. At both their funerals the members of the residents’ association, some very old, waited outside the hut to pay their respects. At Dad’s funeral all the brothers of Mum who were still alive thanked Mum and Dad for bringing them up. The most touching thing at Mum’s funeral was when our Jewish neighbour, Joe Weinberg, stood up and said, ‘Look around you and you will see a selection of people here today from all religions and colour. It’s like the United Nations, and that’s as Jack and Alice lived their lives.’ I looked around the table, for I hadn’t really noticed – they were all just friends to us – and I found myself feeling very proud of Mum and Dad.

“They were totally dedicated to the work they did in our home, on the council and on the Boundary Estate. I believe they did it with love and hard work, just as they lived their lives. Yes, I am very proud of both of them.”
© Billie Sivill.

To see some photos of the Lubetkin staircase inside Sivill House (Lubetkin also designed the Penguin House at London Zoo – you’ll spot the echoes), go to https://www.flickriver.com/search/sivill+house/recent/