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159
These Common Lodging-houses have been visited and inspected
on various occasions during the year. One night inspection of
each has also been made. There are no Salvation Army Shelters
in Finsbury. There is one Church Army Asylum in Banner
Street.
5. Model Dwellings, so called, are numerous in Finsbury.
It has been estimated that about one-fifth of the population in
the Eastern Division of the Borough reside in artizans'
or similar dwellings. There are 31 sets of such residences.
The larger ones belong to the City and Central Dwellings
Company (1,400 persons); the Improved Industrial Dwellings
Company (1,651 persons); the Corporation of the City of
London (1,050) ; Metropolitan Association for Improved
Dwellings (1,075); Guinness' Trust (1,352) ; and the Peabody
Donation Fund (4,487). The total number of blocks of model
dwellings is 92, containing 4,104 tenements and occupied by
17,130 people.
6. Underground Rooms.—Under Sections 96 and 97 of
the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, there have been 27
nuisances abated in respect to the occupation of underground
rooms or kitchens.
General Conclusions.—As we have seen in a previous
report*:—
1. The population of Finsbury reached its zenith between
1851 and 1861.
2. The number of inhabited houses was greatest in 1851.
5. Since these respective dates there has been a steady and
uninterrupted decline both in houses and population.
But tvhereas the population has declined 21 per cent., the
number of inhabited houses has declined 31 per cent.
The chief decline in the houses occurred between 1881 and
1891, whilst the chief decline in the population took place in the
decennium between 1871 and 1881. These changes occurred in
° Report on the Housing Question in Finsbury (1901) pp. 58-67