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but they are also equally destructive—at least some of them, if not
all. From the " clean and respectable working classes with limited
families " there are many graduations in a downward direction to
the lower or lowest grades of the working classes with unlimited
families. The fact remains, however, that all sorts and conditions of
tenants must be catered for, even the lowest grade, the so-called
" submerged tenth," or " undesirables," near whom the other
(better class) workers will not live. This particular branch of the
Housing Question —the housing of the " submerged tenth," or
" undesirables " —would seem to call for attention at the hands of
the Central Authority (the London County Council). Fortunately,
it concerns but a comparatively small proportion of the population
of Lambeth Borough, though in other Metropolitan Districts the
proportion may be much larger. Cleanliness by Act of Parliament
is not to-day a practical suggestion, and even the placing of baths
in all dwelling-houses will not necessarily ensure their use as such
if we may judge by the number of baths that are reported to be at
present actually doing service as receptacles for coals, dirty clothes,
old lumber, etc.
The bearing upon the Housing Question of the " personal
element " of tenants is well illustrated in Lambeth Borough by
such colonies as Waxwell Terrace (Bishop's Ward), Pascal Street
(Vauxhall Ward), Broomgrove Road (Stockwell Ward), and Langmead
Square, Beadman Street, East Place and East Street (Norwood
Ward). They are, undoubtedly, " black spots " in the Borough
in the eyes of the public generally, but, officially, the houses cannot
be condemned as " unfit for human habitation," taking the words
as meant in the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, and the
Housing, Town Planning, etc., Act, 1909. In this connection,
Waxwell Terrace may be compared with Finck Street —a small
Street alongside the Terrace (parallel), and composed of similarly
constructed and fitted houses, but inhabited by very different
classes of tenants from the points of view of cleanliness and destructiveness;
and Langmead Square, Beadman Street, East Place and
East Street may be compared with Dunkirk Street (Change Alley),
a small street in the same actual area, also composed of similarly
constructed and similarly fitted houses, but inhabited by very
different tenants from the points of view of cleanliness and
destructiveness. The difference between the two sets of " colonies "