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143
houses habitable within the meaning of the Public Health and
Housing Acts.
Area C is Providence Place, a blind court on the east side of
Baker's Row, Farringdon Road. It consists of ten houses, five
on each side. In the front of each house is a small fore-court,
railed in. There is a central passage down the middle of the
court, and the entrance into Baker's Row is open and the same
width as the court. A high wall exists at the end of the court
opposite to the entrance. The houses contain two rooms, one
above the other. There are no back windows and no through
ventilation of any of the houses. At the back of each house
stand business premises. The water-cistern is at the end of the
court, opposite the entrance, and at its side stand two metal dust
boxes. These are for the common use of all houses in the court.
In the forecourts, which are unpaved, there are small subterranean
cellars with approaching stone steps. I n these places are situated
the sanitary conveniences for each house. The only means of
light and ventilation is derived from the staircases which lead
down to them. There are about 50 persons resident in Providence
Place.
The structural conditions of the houses in this Place are of
such a nature as to make palliative alterations of no avail. The
only improvement that can be made is closure and demolition,
which the owners themselves propose to carry out at an early
date, of which they have given me notice.
Area D is Easton Place, which opens to the South-west end
of Easton Street. The entrance is under two arches, passing
under Nos. 2 and 3 of Easton Place. The court in front of the
houses is about 90 - 100 feet long and 7 feet wide. The small
yard at the back of each house is about 3 feet by 11. In these
back yards stand the sanitary conveniences, but the dustbins
stand in the front yard. There are nine houses, consisting in the
main of a ground floor of one room, and a first and second floor,