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•5.—Purchase land, and build suitable dwellings for the working
classes outside of the district.
It is probable that if judiciously selected, groups of houses in the
Kilburn district might be taken and dealt with by your Council under
No. 4.
The late Vestry of Hampstead had on many occasions put into force,
on the certificate of their Medical Officer, Part II. of the Housing of the
Working Classes Act, 1890,and from time to time some hundred houses
have been condemned.
In 1892 no less than 46 houses were so reported, many of them
situated in the old Town. Most of these were pulled down, others put
into habitable repair. I found, however, that the results were not
altogether satisfactory, as little accommodation sprang up to replace the
bouses pulled down.
In the old Town are to be found cottage properties old, decayed, and
ripe for demolition. They are, however, much preferred by the working
classes to dwellings in flats; many of them shelter small industries,
such as laundries, and most have small garden spaces in front and rear
which are useful as drying grounds, and in which the tenants delight to
cultivate a few flowers. Many of these sites would be available if
building houses for working classes in this quarter were deemed to be
desirable.
General Conclusions.—The general conclusions I have arrived at are:—
(a) That illegal overcrowding exists to a very limited extent in the
Borough.
An examination of the cases of overcrowding reported will
show that the great majority of these could be dealt with by
re-arrangement of the sleeping quarters, they being, in a
word, due to ignorance of sanitary laws.
That the method most applicable to this Borough to prevent
overcrowding is to carry out a systematic and frequent examination
of tenement houses by your Inspectors.