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It will be seen from the above table that 194 families, comprising
754 people, would be dehoused by the clearance of the
whole site of seven acres. The London County Council suggest
in their scheme the provision of accommodation for 2,020 persons
in six compact blocks of buildings. The local inquiry with reference
to the scheme was held at the Lambeth Town Hall, by a
representative of the Ministry of Health, on 20th November,
1925, when I gave evidence in support of my representation.
The grounds on which I based the official representation relating
to this area were as follows: —In many cases the floors of the
ground floor rooms are below ground level; the main walls dilapidated
or bulging; the staircases are not lighted or ventilated to
the external air. Many of the rooms in the area are unfit for
human habitation owing to the dampness arising from the ground
or the dilapidated condition of the main roofs. Most of the
dwellings represented in Bowyer Street are so overcrowded that
the washhouses are in use as living rooms, and many of the
bedrooms are verminous. Some of the houses have back bedrooms
of a capacity not exceeding 400 cubic feet. In all the houses dealt
with in this street there are no water fittings within the buildings
and no washing-up sinks provided.
Mayhews Buildings in Wyndham Road consist of a block of
back-to-back houses built almost entirely of wood. The ground
floors of these houses are much below ground level, and entered
from a common yard by doors, in some cases only 4 feet 6 inches
high. The staircases are narrow', winding, insufficiently lighted
and ill-ventilated. The floors of the rooms are worm eaten and
the plastering of the ceilings and internal walls generally dilapidated.
These houses are without coppers and washing-up sinks,
have no water fittings within the buildings, and are provided with
only one water closet and one water stand pipe for the use of
two houses.
Closeness of buildings, interfering with the circulation of air,
and the lighting of the front rooms is the worst feature of the
houses in Pinto Place, the fronts of which are divided by a
yard only 11 to 13 feet across from the much higher buildings of
the wreck of a brewery (which was shattered by an explosion
during the War). Bising dampness is very apparent in the walls
of the ground floor rooms of these houses. The closeness and bad
arrangement of the back additions are the main features in the
unsuitability for human habitation of the houses in Pallador Place
(off Wyndham Road). The distances between the back additions
average less than six feet. The back windows of the houses are
very small and the yard spaces cramped.
The first floor back bedrooms have an average capacity of less