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regard as an important health measure —the new " asphalt-paving "
policy as opposed to the old " macadamising " policy, municipal
cleansing being thereby greatly facilitated and more satisfactorily
effected.
So much for what has been done in Lambeth in the past. The
question now is what is to be done in the present and in the future,
having regard to the new order of things and the interest that is today
being taken almost universally in the Housing Question ?
It may be said at once, and the fact cannot be too much emphasised,
for the information of the different Lambeth Housing Associations
and of the inhabitants of the Borough generally, that, in the
opinion of the Medical Officer of Health, nothing radical can be
done. Existing old houses, more or less dilapidated and worn out,
and, in that sense, insanitary and unsuitable for habitation, cannot
be swept away wholesale and at once, and Lambeth, as a Borough
and as an integral part of London, be suddenly converted into a
Garden City by magic. Such an ideal cannot be attained in practice,
however desirable it may be in theory. The Borough of Lambeth is
simply part of the Administrative County of London, which must,
if dealt with at all, either under Part I. of the Housing of the Working
Classes Act, 1890, as an area condemnation scheme or schemes,
or under Part III. of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890,
as a scheme or schemes for the provision of Workmen's Dwellings,
be dealt with, as a whole, by the London County Council, the
Housing Authority under such Act, though under Part III. the
Borough Council has concurrent powers with the County Council.
In either case, whether action be taken under Part I. or under Part
III. of the Act, any scheme must include, as a necessary addendum,
greater and cheaper (much cheaper) facilities in the way of transit
to the dwellings (when provided) from the crowded and overcrowded
inner and central districts, whether in the Administrative County
of London generally or in the Borough of Lambeth in particular.
As the Borough Council has concurrent powers with the London
County Council under Part III. of the Housing of the Working
Classes Act, 1890, dealing with the provision of Workmen's Dwellings
within or without the Borough, a definite line of policy might,
with advantage, be laid down by the Borough Council, so as to be
ready in the event of its opinion being asked by the London County
Council, which, as the Housing Authority for the whole of the