The Downham Estate is a housing estate in Downham, south east London. It is mainly in the London Borough of Lewisham and partly in the London Borough of Bromley. The Downham Estate provides an example of the programme of building council housing occurring in Britain between the First and Second World Wars. Among other similar developments around London (for example Becontree), it was developed to help alleviate the chronic shortage of housing in London, partly brought about by the complete cessation of building during World War I. It was intended to show what could be achieved by public-sector house-building: particularly in order to provide better housing for those who had lived in the slums of the city. The building of the Estate attracted subsidies from central government and was constr