View report page

Insanitary Areas.
Below will be found particulars of Representations of Insamtary
Areas made during the year.
At first a representation was made to the London County
Council, which included 7 areas. It was then thought advisable
to amalgamate Areas 3 and 4 into one larger area, which included
some farther houses, and it was thought advisable that only this
large and important area should be taken up under Part (1) by
the County Council. The remaining areas, five in number,
were withdrawn from the original representation to the County
Council, and transferred under Part (2) of the Housing of the'
Working Classes Act of 1890 to the Borough Council.
The County Council are at present engaged in completing
their enquiries as to the first area for proceeding to the acquisition
of the houses and land with a view to its reconstruction.
The Borough Council decided to proceed at present only with
two of the areas, namely Leroy Street and Salisbury Street, and
plans and estimates have already been submitted to the Ministry
of Health for the latter.
The great, and one might almost say, insuperable, difficulty
in dealing with insanitary areas at the present time is the want
of alternative accommodation where the displaced inhabitants
can be housed during its clearance. The other difficulties are
mainly financial. In an industrial Borough like Bermondsey,
where there is practically no vacant land or houses, the difficulties
of the preliminary stages of the re-housing are extremely difficult.
The Council, therefore, pending the erection of alternative accommodation
in other less crowded parts of London, have adopted
the temporary expedient of getting the worst defects in some of
these areas remedied, so that the inhabitants can remain in them
a little longer without serious prejudice to their health. This, of
course, is only a temporary expedient, and will merely postpone
the more drastic methods which must be undertaken to improve
the housing of the Borough before many years are past.