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14
Housing of the
Working
Classes Act,
1890
I have been enabled under other enactments to carry on the
year's work, and so this Act has not been used. It may, perhaps,
shortly be necessary to take advantage of it on
account of the difficulty with what is known as
the" Bell Lane Scheme." This area was represented
to the Metropolitan Board of Works in
1877, and was visited at various times by several
committees from that Board. Although under
Cross's Act it was required that a high death-rate should be
present, the abnormal conditions were so apparent, that I have
little doubt but Bell Lane would have been scheduled by the
Metropolitan Board of Works had that body not ceased to
exist.
The attention of the London County Council was directed to
the Bell Lane area very soon after the Council was formed, and
certainly no plea of ignorance can be set up by the Council or its
officers as to the condition of the area. Committees have visited
the neighbourhood and discussed the question ; the Housing of
the Working Classes Committee have received a deputation from
the Whitechapel Board; the medical staff and the valuers and
surveyors have so frequently inspected the houses that these
gentlemen are personally well-known in that part of the
district. Still no action has been taken under Part I. of the
Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890. It has even
reached me that the Council propose by a plan—other
than an improvement scheme—to remove as few of the
houses in Middlesex Street and Sandys Row as will enable
those streets to be widened equally with the southern end
of Middlesex Street, so as to produce a good thoroughfare
into the City. Whilst I am writing the matter is before
your Board. It has been resolved that a memorial shall be
presented to the London County Council, praying the Council to
proceed with the Bell Lane area under Part I. of the Housing of
the Working Classes Act, 1890. What the result of the memorial
may be I cannot predict—but should it share the fate of the
Board's former efforts in relation to the Bell Lane area it then
remains for the Board—if it pleases to do so—to appeal to the
Home Secretary, with whom rests the important question as to
who shall bear the cost of the improvement.
Lists of these places have, as usual, been included in this