Wild Street estate in Drury Lane, opened in 1881 as part of Peabody’s effort to clear London’s slums. So many people needed re-housing that the Trustees built 13 six-storey blocks on the site.

Information about residents’ occupations appears in the 1901 census. It showed that many of those living on the estate were employed in West End theatres, restaurants, Covent Garden Market, the newspaper trade and government offices.

As a result of war damage in 1941 and 1944, two blocks in the centre of the estate were later demolished. We modernised the remaining flats in the 1960s to make them self-contained.