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opportunity now offers to acquire the land necessary to make the roadway at this
constricted part.
Cotton's Gardens run from Hackney Road to the back of Hudson's Court
in Kingsland Road; the houses on the south side and at the end being the ones
dealt with. They are old, damp and dilapidated, and three of them fell down
soon after the residents left them Nothing now remains between Hudson's Court
but a washhouse and two waterclosets, and these form the only conveniences for
the residents in that Court. The houses there are also damp, and have no through
ventilation and no back yards; an improvement might readily be effected here by
opening up Cotton's Gardens so as to make it a through thoroughfare.
Weymouth Terrace.—No. 86 was underground and used both as a workshop
and sleeping room. It was unsuited for either purpose.
Whitecross Place.—No. 15 was a basement suite of rooms in a block of
Artisans' Buildings there. They were quite dark and unfit for habitation.
Lee. s Buildings required a considerable amount of repairs and reconstruction,
necessitating their closure until these could be effected.
Hoxton Square, No. 21.—This is a very old house and will have to be
rebuilt. A number of sanitary improvements were necessary, but in view of the
extreme age and generally dilapidated condition, the owners adopted my view that
it would be better to close the house at once.
St. John's Terrace.—The whole of this Terrace has been occupying the
attention of the Department, and three of the houses were in such a bad condition
that it was impossible to do anything while people were living in them. It was
only, however, on a summons being taken out that the work was commenced.
Marsom Street.—This small street runs across Moneyer Street, and was
included in the 200 houses which have during the whole of the twelve months
been occupying the attention of your Chief Sanitary Inspector. Every one of
these houses was in a bad condition, some more, some less so, and it would have
been well had the whole of them been included in the adjoining Moira Place and
Nile Street Scheme. The work there is approaching completion, and each house
has been put into good sanitary condition. Yards have been opened up, waterclosets
rebuilt and supplied with water, old cesspools removed, many walls have
been underpinned, wet earth removed from below floors and concrete laid down;
many of the houses have had to be almost entirely renewed from roof to basement;
new drains have been inserted in place of those found defective. Only one owner
had to be taken before a magistrate to compel him to carry out the work properly.
The seven houses in Marsom Street were closed under an order of the Housing of
the Working Classes Committee, and with one exception, works have now been