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74
Tent Street, Scott Street, Southampton Terrace,
Dixie Street, Brady Street (Nos. 53 to 81 odd), Foster
Street (East side), Cambridge Buildings (Darling
Row), and Lisbon Street Buildings.
Sixty per cent, of the houses in this area are in such
condition, either from position, original faulty construction,
or decay, as to be absolutely unfit for human habitation;
another thirty-three per cent. are more or less bad, but
could be repaired and made habitable at the cost of
considerable expenditure of money.
During the seven years which have elapsed since the
original representation was presented the houses in the area
have steadily deteriorated. Many hundreds of sanitary
notices have been served, Closing Orders on individual
houses have been obtained, and an enormous amount of
work has been carried out. Indeed, the supervision of this
area absorbs almost the whole time of one sanitary
inspector. Notwithstanding these efforts, the result is most
unsatisfactory by reason of the original faulty construction
of the houses, many of which are two roomed huts, built in
the cheapest manner, of inferior and often second-hand
material; these are so decayed that substantial repairs are
impossible, and all that can be done is surface work and
patching up.
I have no doubt that this system of unsatisfactory
repair has been going on for over half a century, for
recently Mr. Foot, our Chief Inspector, having occasion to
make a search at Spring Gardens for some drainage plans,
came across a bundle of correspondence dated 1854,
respecting the removal of some cess-pools and the
re-drainage of certain premises in this very area. The then
Surveyor of the Metropolitan Board of Works recommended