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34
To call this speculative building operation a re-housing scheme is
an utter misnomer. So few of the old tenants have found their way
back to the new blocks, that those who have may be counted on
one's fingers.
Apart from the weary delay in laying out the site and completing
the buildings, I must confess to a feeling of keen disappointment at
the result from a housing point of view. The new buildings are of
course an enormous advance on those displaced. Moreover, the
gloom and barrack-like appearance of ordinary "models" is absent.
But in my opinion too much money has been spent upon the outside
of these houses. They are expensively and attractively built,
but they are not particularly convenient inside; indeed, they
compare unfavourably in this respect with workmen's dwellings
erected by private companies in other parts of Bethnal Green. So
inconvenient were some of the new blocks as originally designed,
that until considerable alterations had been made I was unable to
certify the tenements for relief of taxation, so as to comply with the
requirements of the Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1890 and
1891. Even now the tenements in some of the blocks are not selfcontained;
that is to say, separate w.c.'s and washing sinks are not
provided. I am of opinion that it is not decent that one closet
should be used in common by several families; and the same
observation applies to washing conveniences. The law insists that
factories and workshops shall be provided with separate sanitary
conveniences for both sexes, but unfortunately does not extend this
requirement to the dwelling. It is not unreasonable to demand that
the workman's home shall be at least as private as his place of
business. The London County Council is a body with magnificent
ideas ; they ca,n sweep away slums and make new thoroughfares,
for they have at command the powers, the money and the machinery
for these purposes ; but though they are, by the will of the Legislature,
the housing authority for London, they do not understand how
to provide house accommodation for the working man.
A few weeks ago H.R.H. the Prince of Wales declared the
Boundary Street Estate open. On the day following the ceremony