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47
whereon a few houses or blocks of flats could be erected
and the possibility of using any such spare land is
engaging the close attention of the Borough Council.
The Diss Street area, which has been partly cleared and
which is an unhealthy area, is likely to be the first area
utilised for providing new housing accommodation.
In considering the provision of additional housing
accommodation the possibility of converting existing
buildings into flats or tenements must be also explored.
The Council has fully considered the question of converting
the premises known as "Bethnal House
Asylum" into separate dwellings, but it is doubtful if
the scheme is practicable owing to the heavy initial cost
of the necessary structural alterations.
The Bethnal Green Workhouse in Waterloo Road
might also appear to lend itself to adaptation. At the
end of the year the possibility of renting a portion of the
premises from the Bethnal Green Board of Guardians
and converting it into dwellings was under consideration,
and at the time of writing the scheme would appear
to be about to materialize.
In many parts of London there are numerous large
houses standing vacant which can be converted without
much expense into flats or tenements. In Bethnal
Green such vacant houses are almost non-existent.
To sum up, beyond converting such buildings as
the Workhouse, and apart from slum-clearance, little
can be done in Bethnal Green to provide new housing
accommodation.