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and has adequate convenience for only one family, and which is now occupied
by several families in separate lettings. With the exception of a comparatively
small number of working-class flats, such tenement houses are the only
dwellings available for working-class people in the borough, the number of
small houses occupied by one family each being pratically negligible. I
believe that the general statement that the tenement house is at present the
ordinary accommodation for the working-class applies also to many other parts
of London.
Most of the tenement house districts in the liorough have been occupied as
such for many years, the problem not being of recent growth; but the
"making down " process is still continuing and there are a number of streets
wholly or partly sublet, where the houses were all occupied privately until
recent years. The causes which have led to the system are complex, and>
include the following factors:—
(1) The continual migration of the " better-class " population to the more
peripheral parts of the town or suburbs, their houses becoming
occupied by people of a lower class, who for various reasons prefer or
find it necessary to live more centrally.
(2) The districts in question becoming entirely ringed in by built up areas
and consequently incapable of lateral expansion.
(3) The compression becoming still more severe by the abolition of
dwelling-houses to make room for commercial and industrial
premises, places of amusement, town improvements, &c. Such
developments notonly diminish dwelling accommodation, but may also
attract additional population.
(4) The increase in ground values and rentals. This makes it impossible
in many cases for the tenants to pay the rent of a whole house, even
in the case of small houses which were probably orignally let to
people of a similar status to themselves. In this connection it is to
be noted that the rents of the dwellings in the tenement houses are
not lower than those paid for whole houses in towns where the
working class commonly occupy separate houses.
I find that although the evils of the tenement house system are familiar
enough to social and other workers whose labours make them well acquainted
with the internal economy of these places, yet amongst the general public, and
even amongst housing reformers who have not a close acquaintance with
London conditions, there is not a complete appreciation of the real seriousness
of the position. I therefore beg leave to describe the conditions in some
detail.
The type of tenement house most commonly found in the borough is a single
fronted terrace house with two rooms on each floor, one front and one back,
the staircase also being at the rear. There is a ground floor with one, two or
three storeys above and frequently also an underground basement floor. The
arrangement of the houses is satisfactory, as there are pratically no courts
and the streets in general are wide and airy, and the space at the rear of the
terraces not too restricted. There is generally only one w.c. to the house,