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(46) "That the Conference, taking note that the Metropolitan Asylums Board are prepared
to extend the operations of their ambulance service so as to include the transport of medical,
surgical, and mental cases, respectfully requests the Local Government Board to obtain for the
Managers the requisite legal authority to enable them to do so.
(47) "That the Conference desires to express the opinion that should the London County
Council not be able to provide a street ambulance service, the duty should be undertaken by the
Metropolitan Asylums Board."
The County Council were at the time considering the question of providing a street
service.
THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES.
In the report for 1905 reference was made to the Council s scheme for improving the housing
of the working classes in Kenley Street, one of the five streets comprised in what is popularly known
as the Notting Dale "special area," a scheme initiated by Sir Seymour King, the first Mayor of the
Royal Borough of Kensington. With a few exceptions all of the houses in the street were
acquired; most of those on the north side, 26 in number, have been remodelled, (two were rebuilt)
and provision made of 58 self-contained suites, of two and three rooms, now occupied by persons of
the working classes in receipt of incomes not exceeding thirty shillings a week. The houses on
the south side were demolished and replaced by six blocks of residences of three storeys, each
containing 6 suites of two rooms, which at the present writing are completed and nearly ready
for occupation. In Thomas Street and Hesketh Place, moreover, two considerable blocks containing
26 single room tenements have been erected which will prove a great boon, and supply to
some extent a much felt want.
The Housing Sub-Committee of the Public Health Committee, in a report published last
year, gave a full account of their proceedings, with details of cost of acquiring the several properties,
amount expended in remodelling and building, with estimates of incomings, &c., to which reference
may be made for details of the scheme which cannot fail to have an excellent effect in raising the
character of the district.
Railway Companies and Housing.—A scheme of a very different sort was initiated last year,
under powers conferred on the Great Western Railway Company, by their Additional Powers
Act, 1897, which enables the Company to acquire houses in certain streets at North Kensington for
the purpose of widening their line. The subject was referred to in my thirteenth report for 1901,
wherein it was stated that the houses proposed to be acquired under the Scheme were 95 in
number (60 in Wornington Road, 11 in Admiral Terrace, 15 in Admiral Place, 9 in Admiral Mews)
and tenanted by about 1,150 persons, mostly of the "labouring class." It was further stated that
the Company had acquired land in the vicinity with a view to compliance with their statutory
obligation to provide new dwellings for such number of persons as the Local Government Board
should, after enquiry, deem necessary, "having regard to the number of persons on or after"
December 15th, 1896, residing in the houses to be acquired, "and working within one mile therefrom,
and to the amount of vacant suitable accommodation in the immediate neighbourhood of
such houses, or to the place of employment of such persons, and to all the circumstances of the
case." The Act requires that "the new dwellings to be provided under the scheme "shall be
"completed fit for occupation before the persons residing in the houses are displaced."
Sub-section (15) reads as follows:—
"For the purposes of this section the expression 'labouring class' means and includes
mechanics, artizans, labourers and others working for wages, hawkers, costermongers, persons
not working for wages, but working at some trade or handicraft without employing others
except members of their own family, and persons other than domestic servants, whose income
does not exceed an average of thirty shillings a week, and the families of any of such persons
who may be residing with them."
The Local Inquiry necessarily precedent to sanction to a scheme for providing new dwellings
for the number of persons displaced, and entitled to be re-housed, was held at the Town Hall, on
the 6th February, by an engineering inspector of the Local Government Board; the Council,* the
County Council, and the Railway Company being represented thereat, and a considerable number
of inhabitants interested—as owners or tenants of the houses—being present.
It was agreed that, substantially, there was no "vacant suitable accommodation in the
immediate neighbourhood" of the streets named for the persons to be displaced.
*The notice from the Local Government Board intimating that a local inquiry would be held, was referred by the
Council (30th January) to the Law and General Purposes Committee, who (February 2nd) appointed His Worship the Mayor
(Alderman Henry Robson, J .P.) and Councillors Craies, Freyberg, and Williams, with the Town Clerk and the Medical Officer
of Health, "to represent the Council with a view to securing the adoption of a satisfactory scheme for the re-housing
of persons who will be displaced."