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The Company submitted plans* of the proposed new dwellings, showing accommodation for
670 persons in tenements of two, three, and four rooms: two persons to a room, the number of
rooms being 335. They admitted liability to provide for 600 persons, and denied liability to
provide for other 394. The population was assumed to be 994; but it was agreed that to this
number 44 should be added in respect of persons no longer resident in the streets, being rather less
than a moiety of those who on December 15, 1896. resided in houses since acquired by the
Company and now empty; thus raising the population to 1,038.
The Company's building scheme provided a margin of accommodation for 70 persons, in 35
rooms, for any number of persons beyond 600 the Board should require to be re-housed. At a conference
held, subsequent to the public inquiry, between the Company's officials and the officials of
the Council, liability to provide for about 80 persons additional was admitted, and at a further
conference, between the Inspector and official representatives of the Council and the Company, this
number was agreed.
It may be interesting to mention classes of cases which gave rise to divergences of opinion—
some of which were settled, others being reserved for the decision of the Local Government Board.
1. The Company claimed to exclude from the scheme a number of minors of both sexes
earning small weekly wages. It was contended on behalf of the Council that the said persons
were not "independent," their earnings being insufficient to keep them; they, moreover,
residing with their families, and the fathers in several cases working "within one mile" of the
houses. Most of these persons were retained in the scheme.
2. The Company claimed to exclude married women employed as laundresses, charwomen,
&c., "within one mile" from their homes, on the ground that they must follow their husbands
who are employed without the mile, and are the tenants of the rooms occupied by the family.
Dissent from this view was expressed ; it being contended that as bona-fide workers "within one
mile," and "having regard to all the circumstances of the case," these women were
entitled to be provided for, and their families. In more than one such case the father was
unemployed, and children were employed " within one mile " of the house.
3. Some of the Company's servants, who with their families reside in the streets, were
excluded, the "place of employment" stated to be the goods station at Paddington, not being
"within one mile," of their homes. For the Council it was contended that, "having regard
to all the circumstances of the case," these persons should be provided for. It was
proved that several of this class of persons proposed to be excluded worked "within one mile" of
the houses where they live, and these were admitted to the benefits of the scheme.
4. The Company claimed to exclude a number of old inhabitants, admittedly not "working
within one mile" of their homes. It was contended for the Council, that "having regard
to all the circumstances of the case," provision should be made for such persons.
For the Council, it was contended that accommodation should be provided for 749 persons,
or at the least for 705, out of the 1,038 displaced, and the Board ultimately informed the Company
that they were of opinion that accommodation should be provided for 706. The Board, moreover,
required certain modifications in the plans, the carrying out of which will tend to improve the
scheme materially. It is to be regretted that, in any case, not far short of 300 persons
displaced will not be re-housed in the new dwellings. It is a serious matter for the
persons concerned, and there may be worse to follow; for under the "Great Western Railway
Act, 1900," a further scheme has been framed providing for the acquisition, at some
future time, of 128 houses (78 in Southam Street and 50 in St. Ervan's Road) the population
of which, in 1901, was over 2,000. Should these houses be demolished, and the resultant displacement
of persons for whom the Company will not be required to provide new dwellings,
be on the same scale, it is probable that the two Acts will have the effect of displacing,
without re-housing, a thousand persons—including old inhabitants and persons earning a livelihood
for themselves, and, wholly or in part, for their families, but not working "within one mile" of their
homes. The Council have expended many thousands of pounds in providing housing accommodation,
in another part of North Kensington, for less than a half of the number of persons who will
have to leave the neighbourhood of their present homes, or remain to overcrowd it, on being
displaced by these schemes for providing new dwellings for persons of the labouring
CLASS.†
*The plans provide for the erection of two blocks of five-storey buildings on land acquired by the Company between
their carriage sheds, near Ladbroke Grove bridge, and the County Council schools in Edinburgh Road. No single-room
tenements were intended tc be built, but on it being pointed out that in the houses to be acquired there were 41 single-room
tenements in occupation, the Company agreed to provide 30 single-room tenements in the new dwellings.
†At the present writing (March, 1907) the matter has not got beyond the stage of preparation of plans, which, however,
have been approved by the Local Government Board.