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is generally no responsible caretaker. In the older portions
of the Borough both these kinds of houses are old, worn
out, damp, or have no means of ventilation. In half-adozen
different quarters such houses exist back to back,
and without any through ventilation whatever.* In these
and some other cases it would appear that closure is the
only remedy, and for insanitary areas a more or less
thorough clearance. Much of this kind of property is
held on building leases granted in the first half of last
century, and many of them are now falling in. Opportunities
for reconstruction are therefore becoming frequent.
Without entering further into details, it may be said that the
Borough of Finsbury house property is characterised by the
following general features :—
1. Houses are overcrowded on the land without sufficient open
space.
2. There is overcrowding of the people in the houses. By this
is not meant overcrowding per cubic space, but that houses
meant for one family are now inhabited by more than one
family.
3. There are many small ill-ventilated living rooms.
*Back to Back houses are such as are built in double rows with only their
front porlion exposed to the open air. Ventilation is impossible, and the access
of light is greatly retarded. The rooms are generally both dirty and dark in
consequence. The incidence of disease amongst the inmates of back to back
houses has been investigated by a number of observers. For the Local Government
Board, Dr. Barry and Mr. Gordon Smith reported that in such houses
pulmonary diseases, phthisis and diarrhoea caused an abnormally high number
of deaths. As far back as 1879, Dr. Tatham published statistics of certain
districts in Salford, and Dr. Niven did the same for Manchester in 1891, both
arriving at similar results. Dr. Niven showed that in such houses there was not
onlv a higher incidence of disease and mortality, but that such higher incidence
particularly affected infants and old persons. It has further been shown by Dr.
Herbert Jones that the mortality per 1,000 from all causes is more than one-third
greater in back to back houses than in "through" houses, from lung diseases
nearly one-half greater, from zymotic diseases over one-half greater, and from
diarrhoea alone more than two-thirds greater.