East End Dwellings Company

The company was founded in principle in 1882 by, among others, Samuel Augustus Barnett, vicar of St Jude's Church, Whitechapel;[1][2] it was finally incorporated in 1884.

[3][4] It aimed to "house the very poor while realizing some profit",[5] "their particular purpose being to erect blocks of dwellings, to be let by the room, so that the poorest class of laborers could be accommodated".

[6] Unlike many of the model dwellings companies, the EEDC offered accommodation to the casual poor and day laborers.

[7] The company's first venture was Katharine Buildings in Aldgate, followed by several schemes in Bethnal Green, London.

Along the principles of Octavia Hill's schemes, the company used female rent collectors, including Beatrice Potter (later Webb), one of the founders of the London School of Economics & Political Science[8] and Ella Pycroft, who ran the Buildings alongside Maurice Eden Paul.