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White Horse Alley, Nos. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 19.
The occupied houses in White Horse Alley, excluding Market
Buildings, for the moment, are Nos. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 19. The occupants
are 13 families, 58 persons in all, made up as follows:—
18 heads of families, 33 children over 10, and 7 children under
10 years.
These houses are all, more or less, of the same type. They are
working class houses, of a very poor character, containing three
floors and a basement. There are two rooms on each floor. No. 19
has one room on each floor. There is no basement in Nos. 7 and 8.
The houses are obstructed in respect of light and ventilation by
adjacent walls and buildings in the back and front. There is very
little air perflation—this was noticed by observing the lack of
movement in flags, pieces of tissue paper, suspended in the Alley.
The brickwork of the houses is bulging in places out of the
vertical. The brickwork has many cracks, some of which have
been filled in.
There is much evidence of subsidence to be seen in the dislocation
of door frames, window frames, and the sloping or sagging
floors. The window sills are sometimes fractured; the copings
are in a state of disrepair.
The back yards are small, have broken and sunken pavings
which allow of the accumulation of stagnant water after washing
in the yard or after rainy weather.
These yards contain a water tap, a water closet, and a dustbin.
There is no other water supply; there is no separate water tap on
each landing. The occupants of the top floors have therefore to
fetch the water for domestic use by descending and ascending the
stairs, 28 steps from the ground floor.
The water for the washing of clothes has to be carried from
the yard into the washing copper in the basement.
In some houses the water closets are dirty, have insufficient
flush from the cistern, and have leaky cisterns or foul pans.
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