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(4) Fitness of Houses.—(a) No special difficulties have been
experienced in dealing with unfit houses under the Public Health
and Housing Acts and the Byelaws made under section 6 o£ the
Housing Act, 1925.
(b) Programme.—A return has been made* to the Ministry
of Health under section 25 of the Housing Act, 1930, setting
out a five-year programme of repair of houses and replacement
of unfit houses.
(c) Water Supply.—There are 58 houses in the Bqrough
which have not an adequate internal water supply. All of these
are included in the five-year programme with a view to their
having the defects remedied.
(d) Sanitary Accommodation.—Forty houses haveno separate
water-closets or other adequate sanitary accommodation. These
difficulties will be made good in the five-year programme of repair
and replacement.
(5) Unhealthy Areas.—A survey of the Borough for the
purpose of making the return required by the Ministry of Health
under section 25 of the Housing Act, 1930, resulted in 86 houses
being regarded as so unfit as to be beyond repair. This number
is made up of seven groups, containing respectively 4, 6, 9, 10,
15, 16 and 26 houses.
It would be quite misleading to refer to these as " slums,"
or even as " unhealthy areas." They are simply nests of old
houses in a state of senile decay. The largest group (26 houses)
was built about 115 years ago on the southern slope of Muswell
Hill.
For the greater part of a century this little hamlet enjoyed
a position of splendid isolation, looking south across cornfields
towards Shepherds Hill, and enjoyed shelter from the north and
east winds by the high ground on which the Alexandra Palace
and modern Muswell Hill are built. The more recent development
of the district has resulted in this old property being
surrounded on all sides by modern houses. The picturesque
hamlet of a bygone age is now sadly out of keeping with its
surroundings, and the time has arrived for it to be treated as
a " clearance area."