Workers' Towns (entry)

Categories / Architecture/Urban Planning
WORKERS' TOWNS. Building complexes which combined housing, educational and service institutions. The construction of workers' towns in Russia started in the 1900s on the initiative of the Association for the Organisation and Improvement of Housing for the Needy, headed by D.A. Dril, an academic, lawyer and public figure. In 1904-06, the Harbour Workers' Town complex, comprising of five 5-story buildings, was erected near the harbour according to designs by civil engineers N.V. Dmitriev and V.A. Fedorov (69/47 Gavanskaya Street). All service institutions were situated on the ground floor (laundry, first aid clinic, shower room, dining room, tea room, shops, school, lecture hall and library). Living quarters comprised of one, two and three room flats on the upper floors. The buildings were erected to improve the everyday life of workers' families, particularly those with many children, but in fact they were inhabited by those who were reasonably well off (the workers' aristocracy), and also by clerks and foremen from neighbouring factories. Another workers' town was erected on Bolshoy Sampsonievsky Avenue for workers from factories belonging to E. L. Nobel. Buildings Nos. 27-31 were erected in 1893-1895 (architect V.I. Schreter); wings 1 and 2 of building No. 27 were erected in 1906 (architect R.F. Melzer). The section was enclosed by the E.L. Nobel apartment house (20 Lesnoy Avenue, 1910-12, architect F.I. Lidval). Thanks to the success of that building complex, the model was widely repeated throughout the 1920s-30s in creating housing blocs for workers.

References: Исаченко В. Г. Николай Дмитриев // Зодчие Санкт-Петербурга, ХIX - начало ХХ века. СПб., 1998. С. 578; Никитенко Г. Ю., Соболь В. Д. Василеостровский район: Энцикл. улиц С.-Петербурга. 2-е изд., испр. и доп. СПб., 2002. С. 84-89.

O. A. Chekanova. Dmitriev Nikolay Vsevolodovich
Dril Dmitry Andreevich
Fedorov Vladimir Alexandrovich
Lidval Fedor (Iogan Friedrich) Ivanovich
Meltzer Roman (Robert-Friedrich) Fedorovich
Nobel Ludwig
Schreter Viktor Alexandrovich
Bolshoy Sampsonievsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 31
Bolshoy Sampsonievsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 27
Bolshoy Sampsonievsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 27, litera корп. 1
Bolshoy Sampsonievsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 27, litera корп. 2
Bolshoy Sampsonievsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 29
Gavanskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 47/69
Lesnaya Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 20
Исаченко В. Г. Николай Дмитриев // Зодчие Санкт-Петербурга, ХIX - начало ХХ века. СПб., 1998
Никитенко Г. Ю., Соболь В. Д. Василеостровский район: Энцикл. улиц С.-Петербурга. 2-е изд., испр. и доп. СПб., 2002