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16
elusions were issued as the First Report,* which still remains a
classic piece of literature on the Housing Question and an excellent
land mark in the whole treatment of the subject. It is well to
remember that since the issue of that Report, and largely as a result
of it, there have been during the last ten or eleven years very
considerable improvements effected, and an impulse and direction
given to forces tending to improvement. The Housing of the
Working Classes Act, 1890, the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
and the London Building Acts, 1894 and 1898, are all three excellent
examples of the incorporation, by Act of Parliament, of the principles
laid down by that Commission. Under these three Acts much work
has been done.† and there is abundant evidence to show that
London" slums" are vastly better in every way, with one exception,
than were similar places at the beginning of the reign of
the late Queen.‡ The exception is, of course, in the matter of overcrowding,
which has not improved in the same ratio as other
sanitary evils. Under the Housing Act there have been many
clearances and reconstructions. Under the Public Health (London)
Act, 1891, sanitary inspection has been enforced, houses let in
lodgings have been registered, innumerable nuisances have been
removed, and other improvements effected. Under the Building
Acts restrictions have been laid down for controlling the erection of
new buildings. In addition to these extensive improvements there
have been many removals of large factories and of work-people into
the country or into the outskirts of London. As will be seen at a later
stage of the present Report, whilst there has been in Finsbury an
increase of commercial and industrial premises, there has been a
decline in the population during the last decade of 9,000 persons,
and since 1861 of nearly 28,000. In this way the district has been
relieved in some measure. But quite apart from a decline in the
*See First Report of Her Majesty's Commissioriers for inquiring into the
Housing of the Working Classes. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. 1889.
Price 8d.
†See The Housing Question in London. London County Council Report by
C. J. Stewart, pp. 43-67.
‡See records of Dr. Arnott and Dr. Soutlnvood Smith in Fourth and Fifth
Reports of the Poor Law Commissioners; Annual Reports of Dr. Griffith for
Clerkentcell, 1856-1896, etc.