Description:Viewed from near the junction with Corporation Street, this photograph shows the two adjacent terraces of housing originally built as 'Municipal Cottages' in 1902.
Municipal housing was social housing for rent provided by a local council. They may have provided homes for tenants of demolished sub-standard housing. The earliest municipal housing in Stafford dated from 1890. Other municipal cottages still exist (2025) in Broad Eye built two years earlier.
These houses were in an extremely poor state by the mid-1970s due to subsidence cracks thought to be caused by brine pumping, together with rising-damp, rotten woodwork and vandalism. A Borough Councillor called it their "Street of Shame', The Council deemed them behind economical repair for the public purse and demolition was suggested. In 1986 the Council offered Nos. 40-58 for sale by tender for restoration or residential redevelopment. They were purchased and modernised by Wolverhampton property developer, Mr Neil Amery. They were renamed 'Westbourne Villas' by Junior Housing Minister, Mrs Marion Roe, in a ceremony attended by Mr Bill Cash, M.P. and Mayor, Councillor Doug. James in 1987.