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HOUSING.
The census of 1921 gave 66,104 private families occupying 41,419
"structurally separate dwellings," the number of rooms occupied
being 248.529—an average of 375 rooms per family (rooms including
living rooms, bedrooms, and kitchens). These figures
show conclusively that there is a large number of houses, originally
intended for one family, now occupied by two or more families.
In 1922 the shortage of houses for the working classes was not
remedied to any extent owing to the private builder not finding it
remunerative to erect such houses.
The Camberwell Housing Scheme, comprised 448 houses, 296 of
which were completed by the end of 1921, a further 140 were completed
by the end of 1922, and 12 were in course of erection at the
close of the year. During 1922 the Council applied for powers to
enable them to build more houses, but the application was not
granted.
About 65 houses were built by private enterprise in 1922, but
these houses were built for sale and did not alleviate the position
so far as the working-class housing problem was concerned. Altogether
253 new houses and flats came into occupation during the
year.
The census of 1921 revealed, inter alia, the following facts concerning
density of occupation in Camberwell:—
1587 families consisting of 2 persons living in 1 room
903 do. do. 3 do. do. do.
271 do. do. 4 do. do. do.
74 do. do. 5 do. do. do.
26 do. do. 6 do. do. do.
3692 do. do. 2 do. do. 2 rooms
3023 do. do. 3 do. do. do.
1593 do. do. 4 do. do. do.
885 do. do. 5 do. do. do.
360 do. do. 6 do. do. do.
For the purpose of illustration let us consider the figures for
families living in one room, adopting as a standard 400 cubic feet
of air space for each adult and 200 cubic feet for each child for living
and sleeping,. On this basis two adults and two children would
require 1,200 cubic feet of air space, i.e., they would need a room
considerably over 12 feet square and 8 feet 6 inches high to
accommodate themselves and their furniture. Experience shows
that rooms over the size mentioned are not frequently found in
houses in our more crowded areas, and in many instances the rooms
are considerably smaller. Now consider the case of the 1,593
families of four persons occupying two rooms. In a large proportion
of these families the two children are adolescent, and either the
whole family sleeps in one room, retaining the other for living
purposes, or else the parents occupy one room as a bedroom and
the children the other, one room being used both as a living room
and a bedroom.