English to German Other History

I was trying to translate the test on Gengo and i don't know how to translate this phrase properly. I couldn't find it on any dictionary and thought i should ask using this forum.

New Oxford Street had just be carved through the slums to connect the West End to Holborn and the first purpose-built five-storey blocks of flats in London were being built opposite St. Pancras Old Church 'for improving the dwellings of the industrious classes’.