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Buildings (Lollard Street), etc. —some under private management,
others under Philanthropic Trusts, Labourers' Duelling Societies or
the Duchy of Cornwall. These large tenemented Blocks are, or
were at the time when they were first erected, sanitarily constructed
and sanitarily fitted, and otherwise up-to-date, to the standards
then required. These standards have altered since, and been
improved, with the result that the Blocks are not, unfortunately,
to-day sanitarily up-to-date, and in many cases the management is
unsatisfactory, and certainly not as it should be, requiring constant
supervision at the hands of the Council's official Sanitary Staff.
The Blocks are certainly not now " models " in any way, except
in name, but, on the other hand, they meet an urgent local want,
comparatively limited though it may be, viz., dwelling accommodation
for workers near to their work, at times an important consideration.
Contrast these Blocks with those that have been built by the
Railway Companies for tenants whom such companies have displaced
in connection with their widening and extension schemes.
These latter Blocks are really " models," and Lambeth has reason
to be proud of them. They are situated in Marsh, Bishop's and
Vauxhall Wards, and are known as Campbell Buildings (Maudslay's
site, Burdett Street), Stangate Buildings and Russell Gardens (Felix
and Boniface Streets site), and Coronation Buildings (South Lambeth
Road and Miles Street site). Briscoe Buildings (Brixton Hill site)
and Peabody Buildings (Rosendale Road site) may also be mentioned
as examples of real " models" situated in Tulse Hill and
Norwood Wards respectively.
It is unnecessary to remind the Council that new dwellings,
when erected, are never inhabited by the actual displaced tenants
for whom they were, presumably and legally, built, but by workers
in a better grade of life. The personal element of tenants comes in,
and the Owners, or their agents, select what they call " clean and
respectable working classes with limited families." The word
" cleanliness " is capable of many different interpretations by different
people, and all people are not equally " clean," as shown by
the states of newly decorated houses after they have been inhabited
by certain members of the working classes for a few months, or
even weeks. Not only are such tenants wanting in domestic and
personal " cleanliness " (as generally understood by the word),