Place Name
Miss Barbara Thrupp was the energetic former Mitcham Council housing manager who devoted her life to local authority housing of the poor. She was appointed to the role in 1936 and soon found herself dealing with residents’ wartime housing needs. Originally from London, she had trained as a chartered surveyor. In April 1928 she was employed to run the newly formed house property management department of Chester City Council. The following year she wrote a paper about the council housing arguing the case for the Octavia Hill social housing system and that such an important and increasingly complex role needed specialist staff. She put her theories to the test while at Mitcham advertising, in the Dundee Evening Telegraph in 1948, for “Personality Girls To Collect Rents Mitcham (Surrey) Council looking for girls of 18 or more with pleasant personalities. They are wanted for training in house management, which carries a salary of up to £760 a year. The girls will be paid while they are training. Miss Barbara Thrupp, Mitcham housing manager, explained: “It is something more than just collecting rents. We want girls with the personal touch who can take an interest in the tenants’ comfort, look after repairs and sort out all the housing problems that arise nowadays.” Her work was duly rewarded in 1952 when she was made an MBE in the New Year’s Honours. In June 1972, this street was named after her in a ceremony attended by, among others, Town Clerk of Merton, Sidney Astin, Housing Manager Mr Archie Brown, and Housing Committee chairman Councillor David Chalkley.
