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52
Pump Court.—Pump Court is a blind alley lying east of White
Horse Alley and contains 9 houses numbered consecutively from
1 to 9, commencing at the north end. The fronts of Numbers 1 to 8
face west towards the backs of the buildings in White Horse Alley.
No. 9, Pump Court, at the south end of the Court faces north. The
occupants of the court are 20 families, comprising 36 heads of
families, 15 children over ten, and 20 children under ten years—
a total of 71 persons. The total number of rooms is 29, occupied as
follows : for living only, 3 rooms; for sleeping only, 9 rooms; for
living and sleeping, 17 rooms. The weekly rents paid range from
3s. lid. to 5s. 5d. per room. The total weekly amount paid in
rents is £6 9s. 7d. or a weekly average of 4s. 5d. per room. The
rates and taxes are said to be paid by the owners.
All the houses are obstructed in respect of light and ventilation
by the buildings and premises in front of the Court.
The houses are all working class houses of a very poor character.
Numbers 1 to 8 have 3 floors with one room on each floor.
To these rooms there is no ventilation. No. 9 has one room on the
ground floor with no through ventilation, and two rooms on the
first and second floors. These last four rooms have through
ventilation but are obstructed in respect of light and ventilation
by the adjacent wall of the premises of the Danish Bacon Company.
Some of the rooms of these houses are dark, dirty, with floors
shaky, sagging or sloping. Some of the floor boards are broken.
The staircases are steep, narrow, dark or dangerous, and would offer
serious obstacles to rapid egress in case of fire. The walls of the
stairways are in places dilapidated. There is evidence of subsidence
in the bulging of some walls, the sloping of some floors and the
dislocation of door frames, window frames, window arches and the
fractures of window sills. There are cracks in the brickwork.
The window frames are old and dilapidated. Most of the tenants
complain of the presence of bugs, some of the presence of rats and
beetles.
There is no satisfactory provision for the storage of food—
this is often kept wrapped up on the table or in a chest of drawers.
There are two washing coppers in a room adjacent to the ground