View report page

7
opinion that a two-room tenement does not necessarily hold its full complement
with four people, or a three-room tenement with six people, or a four-room
tenement with eight people.
Indeed it would not be possible to enforce such a restriction, either by
legal means or moral suasion.
The houses in Islington are, as a rule, larger than those to be found in the
majority of the districts in London. Indeed, it is a rare circumstance that a
room contains less than 1,000 cubic feet, especially in the older houses, which
were formerly occupied by families of good position in life, but are now let
out as tenement dwellings.
A room of this size, on the basis of the Local Government Board's Model
By-laws, would accommodate three adults for sleeping purposes alone, or two
adults, and two children, or six children under 10 years old, for two children
count as one adult. Consequently some greater allowance than that defined
by the Registrar-General must be made when dealing with overcrowding as a
practical question. If this be granted, then, if two persons be allowed to a
one-room tenement, five persons to a two-room tenement, seven to a threeroom
tenement, and nine to a four-room tenement, and these figures are low,
it is found that whereas in 1891, 44,187 persons were overcrowded, there were
still in 1901, 36,771. Nevertheless, 7,41(5 persons were living in comfort in the
latter year ivlio previously had been living in discomfort. Thus there has been
a reduction of 16.8 per cent. in the overcrowded residents, but there remain,
however, 11*0 per cent, of the population living in overcroivded tenements.

I think the reduction in the overcrowding is eminently satisfactory,
especially recollecting the great demand that there is at all times in Islington
for the tenements, and the consequent temptation to property owners to let