View report page

HOUSING.
Insanitary Areas.
The subject of Slum Clearance and Improvement received
continuous attention by this Council throughout the year, and
at the time of the preparation of this report the question of declaring
the areas known as Tiger Yard, Joiner's Arms Yard, and Woodland
Cottages, as Clearance Areas under the provisions of the Housing
Acts, 1925 and 1930, was receiving consideration.
The number of dwelling houses in these areas is 33, and the
number of families at present in occupation is 29.
Action has also been taken under Section 19 of the Housing
Act, 1930, in individual cases, where the tenant has vacated the
premises, to secure from the owners an undertaking that such
premises would not be relet for human habitation. In this way
5 houses at Tiger Yard and 3 at Woodland Cottages have been
closed.
Appropriate action was also taken under Section 17 of the
Housing Act, 1930, during the year in respect of one house in the
northern part of Borough.
It is satisfactory to record that the London County Council
in February, 1934, approved a scheme for the clearance of a site
known as the Levant Street Area, comprising about 148 unfit
houses, which is situate to the East of Peckham Park Road at its
junction with Lower Park Road, and includes Levant Street,
Grainger Street, Downes Place, Green Hundred Road, Edwin's
Row, and Shard's Square. It will also be necessary in connection
with this scheme to acquire a number of additional properties in
order to provide a satisfactory site for re-development.
The scheme provides for the erection on the whole site of
dwellings containing 1,215 rooms providing accommodation for
about 2,025 persons on the basis of an average of one and two-thirds
persons per room.
The displacement of about 968 persons of the working class
is included, of whom 765 are in occupation of the buildings on the
Clearance Area, and 203 of the buildings on the additional lands.
Fitness of Houses.
The sanitary condition and the fitness, or otherwise, of dwellings
for human habitation is a responsibility shared by the Local
Authority, through their Medical Officer of Health and Sanitary
Inspectors. In Camberwell there are a number of houses in the
North and North West divisions of the Borough so old that unless
drastic steps are taken to improve them, it will be necessary,
sooner or later, to decide whether they are premises which can be
rendered fit for habitation at a reasonable cost.