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At the same time approval was given, on general lines,
to the improvements that the Duchy are gradually making
within the area (e.g., Stamford Street Flats, Aquinas Street
Blocks of Tenements, etc.) To this letter the Duchy replied
as follows:—
Duchy of Cornwall Office,
Buckingham Gate, S. W.
27th May, 1909.
Sir,
Kennington—Prince's Meadows.
In reply to your letter of the 22nd instant, I beg to
inform you that the Duchy of Cornwall is very anxious
to close the places referred to in your letter at the earliest
possible moment, but that owing to the difficulty in obtaining
vacant possession of the houses, due to the
reluctance of the occupiers to move, it has been found
impossible to proceed more rapidly without inflicting
very great hardship on those poor tenants who find it
difficult to find new houses.
The date of the expiration of these leases was the 5th
April last, and already one-half of Aquinas Street has
been pulled down and new dwellings are being erected
of the same kind and with the same conveniences as
those recently erected at Nos. 142-152 Lower Kennington
Lane, adjoining the "Roebuck" Public House, Kennington
Cross.
Peer's Cooperage and Elizabeth Place have already been
closed and boarded up, and the sites will be dealt with
along with the adjoining property. Cage Place will be
closed immediately, and the site of the houses will be
added to the area of the houses in Commercial Road and
Doon Street which will then be improved for occupation
by existing tenants and others who have had to leave the
premises about to be demolished.
The Duchy has acted as rapidly as due consideration
for those families who must be disturbed would allow,
and within a very few months this area will show a vast
improvement to the state in which it was received by the
Duchy in April last.