Pullens buildings

James Pullen began building these Victorian tenements in 1886 with a vision that defied standard city planning. While the Metropolitan Board of Works only granted him permission for a single block of sixteen flats, Pullen simply kept going for another fifteen years. He charm-talked local officials while he expanded the estate to include hundreds of flats and over a hundred small workshops. By the time he finished in 1901, he had created an entire self-contained neighborhood of yellow brick buildings that still stand today.