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82
Shortly after the Housing of the Working Classes
Act, 1890, came into force, all the London Vestries and
District Boards were called upon to make a special house
to house inspection of their districts for the purpose of
locating unhealthy areas. I then took steps to make
representations as to two unhealthy areas, of which
Brady Street was one and Boundary Street the other;
both were submitted to the Medical Officer of the London
County Council (Mr. now Sir Shirley Murphy). In the
result it was agreed between us that, although the area
now under consideration was almost as ripe for treatment
as Boundary Street, yet it was not likely that the
Council would undertake both, and ultimately I decided
to make a formal representation of the Boundary Street
area with the well known result. Although Boundary
Street was taken and Brady Street was left, the Local
Authority has continued to do what was possible by
means of constant steady inspection. Since 1890 many
hundreds of sanitary notices have been served, many
individual houses have been closed and repaired and
afterwards reoccupied for a few years, but owing to
faulty construction and old age they have again had to
be closed and the worst of them demolished.
Drains have been reconstructed, yards paved,
modern sanitary conveniences provided, and such cleansing
and repairs as were possible carried out; but nothing
in our power can abolish the defects inherent in original
faulty construction or in those resulting from natural
decay. In 1904 I made a formal representation under
the 1890 Housing Act. On receipt of this the London
County Council caused the usual enquiries and surveys
to be made ; and, although they discovered nothing to