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forms part of a new thoroughfare between Camberwell Road and Camberwell
New Road, the rents are certain to go up in consequence of the
alteration, and the people who are unable to pay the increased amount will
be driven into the other streets adjoining and render them more overcrowded
than ever.
Mr. Booth talks about bad building, bad owning, mismanagement
on the part of the Vestry, and apathy on the part of the Church. On this,
last point of course I am not qualified to speak. The houses, as a rule, so
far as the building is concerned, are, with the exception of Thompson's
Avenue, as good as many others. As regards bad owning, there are of
course instances in which landlords do not do their duty; but, on the
other hand, I must say that I have known many instances in which a
house has been put thoroughly into repair, and on a subsequent visit being
made within the space of a few months it has been found to be just as bad
as before; in such cases there is but little encouragement to landlords to
keep the places clean. As regards the mismanagement on the part of the
Vestry, it is so vague a statement, that I should like to know more what
is meant before attempting to answer it.
Certain statements have been made, especially in regard to Beckett
Street, that people keep donkeys in their back rooms I am bound to say
that in the whole of Beckett Street I found but one instance of this, and
the people assured me that the donkey was only there temporarily. The
donkeys are usually kept in the back yards, and it is true that in order to
get them into the street they have to bring them through the living rooms.
This is, of course, not a healthy state of affairs; but we are met by this
fact, that if we do not allow the people to keep donkeys under these condition
we are practically doing away with their means of livelihood, and I
should certainly say that it is better for them to be allowed to keep the
animals under existing conditions and be able to earn their living, than
that the keeping should be prohibited on sanitary grounds, and the people
consequently thrown into great want and distress.
The roadway of Beckett Street is almost invariably dirty, but I
think it can well be maintained that the cleansing of the street is rendered
practically impossible by the fact that the costermongers' barrows are
stored in it, there being no other place where they can keep their vehicles.
It will also be useful if we examine the statistics of the notifications
of infectious diseases and the mortality in this area for 1895, and for this
purpose I have taken the following streets, together with the courts
opening out into them —Beckett Street, Crown Street, Sultan Street,
Hollington Street, Toulon Street, Pitman Street, and last, but most
certainly not least, Thompson's Avenue.
xiii.