Women's Pioneer Housing
Women's Pioneer Housing is a British housing association founded in 1920, the first dedicated to housing single women.History
Women's Pioneer Housing was founded in 1920, to help provide housing for the new generation of single, professional women in London following World War I.
Early supporters included the suffragettes Etheldred Browning and Geraldine Lennox of the Women's Social and Political Union, Lady Rhondda, and Ray Strachey. They incorporated Women's Pioneer Housing as a public utility company on 4 October 1920 ‘to cater for the housing requirements of professional and other women of moderate means who require individual homes at moderate rents’. Other supporters included Lily Carre, Helen Archdale, Sydney Bushell, Dorothy Peel, Agnes Miall, Annabel Dott, and Mabel Bruce.
They raised money to purchase its first property, 167 Holland Park Avenue, in 1921. By 1936 they had 36 properties, primarily in west London and one in Brighton, run on a co-operative basis.
Women's Pioneer Housing employed women including the architect Gertrude Leverkus and the first woman chartered accountants, Ethel Watts and Miriam Homesham. Etheldred Browning ran the organisation until her retirement in 1938.Housing provision
Women's Pioneer Housing is still active as a social housing provider for women, with offices at Wood Lane, White City, west London. The Chief Executive since is Denise Fowler, formerly the Government's Housing Ombudsman.
It is registered as a Co-operative & Community Benefit Society with the Financial Conduct Authority and as a Registered Social Landlord with the Homes and Communities Agency.
It continues to house single women, nominated by local authorities. There are plans for a new housing development at the organisation's base in Wood Lane.
As of 2019, it was exploring a possible merger with Housing for Women.
