"to supply proper and sufficient dwelling houses"
Left to right: (a) Guinness Trust Building (1900). (b) Samuel Trust Buildings (1915). (c) Peabody estate Lawrence Street, (1870).
1. Housing charity on this scale was indeed unprecedented — the Sutton Dwellings Trust was ten times larger than Guinness, five times larger than Samuel Lewis and four times larger than Peabody measured by their original endowments. . . . Counsel for the family members who challenged the legality of William Sutton's will stressed the unprecedented and boundless scope of the proposed Trust.
2. The trust was opposed because it did not accord with prevailing rules of charity and its organisation, with the orthodox role of markets, hierarchies and networks in the housing sphere, and with current attitudes towards poverty itself.
3. The William Sutton Trust did not simply join an existing game as an existing player. It provoked a reconsideration of the rules of the game relating to housing provision as a whole.
Bibliography
Patricia Garside, "Game Theory, Nested Games, and Voluntary Housing." The Conduct of Philanthropy, p. 89