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63
Re-housing.
The heart of the whole problem is how the poorer classes in
Deptford are to be re-housed in decently roomy and sanitary dwellings,
and yet be enabled to live not too far from their work. Of course the ideal
thing would be that where a slum area is cleared, part of it at least should
be made into an open space, with a much smaller number of houses than
before, around it. But then where is the displaced population to live ?
In London the answer is difficult. In provincial boroughs the answer
is easy ; you can provide new homes in the suburbs within a mile or so,
and in easy reach by tram and road of their working places. In this
district you have to go miles before you can find spaces on which to
build houses. The people of the poorest classes, especially the women,
cannot spend time and money in daily travelling to or from the borders
of Kent or Surrey, and are therefore unable or unwilling to go so far
out. If the factories, workshops and docks could be moved with the
population it would be a solution, but this is not practicable, although a
law might fairly be passed to prevent the erection of new factories in
congested areas. The ideal for future industrial expansion is that it
should be rural ; in the place of so-called " garden cities " it would be
preferable to have industrial villages, whence the factory worker could
reach and be a real sharer in the true country ; in his spare time he
could be a producer from the soil instead of a consumer of cheap
luxuries in the towns. Hitherto, the only solution has either been to
drive displaced poor families into other central districts already overcrowded,
or to erect tenement buildings on cleared sites, or to blend these
two methods.
Clearance of Slum Areas.
During the past nine years there has been a steady demolition of
the worst houses in Deptford, but it has been left to the London County
Council to clear slum areas of considerable extent, and it may be said
that for 20 years it has been the policy of the London County Council
to clear the worst slums and erect high tenement dwellings on the sites
to house a population equal to part of that displaced, and for the
remainder a number of new houses have been built on the outskirts of
London. Other slums have been cleared by private enterprise for
commercial purposes, either without any attempt to provide new houses
or for the purpose of building blocks of tenements. It is the experience
of the London County Council that when they have cleared an ancient
slum and put up new buildings their tenants are not the displaced population,
but people of a somewhat higher class. The displaced persons