London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Willesden 1936
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Willesden]
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Summary of Families and Persons to be re-housed from Clearance Areas.
| Area. | Families. | Persons. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number estimated in original programme. | Actual Number. | Number estimated in original programme. | Actual Number. | |
| 1. Alpha Place North | (57) | 71 | (225) | 294 |
| 2. Alpha Mews | (37) | 34 | (156) | 141 |
| 3. Canterbury Road | (5) | — | (22) | — |
| 4. Bridge Street | (28) | 15 | (117) | 54 |
| 5. Pembroke Place | (15) | 19 | (70) | 78 |
| 6. Park Mews | (33) | 33 | (146) | 153 |
| 7. Park Road Mews | (10) | 10 | (49) | 45 |
| 8. Stafford Mews | (20) | 20 | (80) | 80 |
| 9. Cambridge Mews East | (9) | 12 | (45) | 49 |
| 10. Cambridge Mews West | (5) | 6 | (22) | 21 |
| 11. Lincoln Mews | (18) | 18 | (94) | 94 |
| 12. Market Place Yard | (3) | 3 | (15) | 14 |
| 13. Canterbury Yard | (1) | — | (5) | — |
| T otal | (241) | 241 | (1,046) | 1,023 |
Modifications Introduced by the 1935 Act.
(7) Improvement Areas.— The Council's programme further provided that during the second
five-year period (1938-43) work on Improvement Areas in Willesden should be commenced.
Under the provisions of the Housing Act, 1935, the procedure relating to Improvement Areas
contained in the Housing Act, 1930, is repealed. A new provision, namely, the Re-development
Area, is introduced.
(8) Re-development Areas.—The Re-development Areas introduced into the 1935 Act are not
on all fours with the Improvement Areas under the 1930 Act.
Memorandum C, page 5, para. 5, deals with the Re-development Area as defined in Section 13
of the 1935 Act. The following conditions must exist before an area can be declared a Re-development
Area :—
" (a) that the area contains 50 or more working-class houses ;
" (b) that at least one-third of the working-class houses in the area are overcrowded or unfit
for human habitation and not capable at reasonable expense of being rendered so fit,
or so arranged as to be congested ;
" (c) that the industrial and social conditions of the local authority's district are such that
the area should be used to a substantial extent for re-housing ; and
"(d) that it is expedient in connection with the provision of housing accommodation that
the area should be redeveloped as a whole.
" Such an area should include all the property within a continuous line. It may include
properties belonging to the authority and properties which the authority cannot, or do not
propose to, interfere with in any way. Such properties might, for example, be churches,
railway property or properties belonging to private owners, the user of which it is not
proposed to change."
Whether and to what extent areas may be declared by the Council to be Redevelopment Areas
will emerge from the enumeration and the overcrowding survey about to be conducted.
In the event of any area being declared a Redevelopment Area the procedure to be adopted is
laid down in Memorandum C. It really amounts to the demolition of the whole or greater part of the
area and re-building or re-developing the area in such a way that overcrowding will be abated.
GEORGE F. BUCHAN,
Medical Officer of Health.