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85
Housing Accommodation.—The Fulham Borough
Council has at present no Housing Scheme. During
1924 the Housing Committee, which had previously
ceased to function, was reconstituted. This Committee
has been engaged for several months in examining
possible sites which might be suitable for a Housing
Scheme even on a small scale. So far their search
lias proved unavailing and no suitable site has been
acquired. It should be remembered that Fulham is
already largely built up. There are extremely few
pieces of open land left, and already this Borough
bears upon it a number of persons per acre much in
excess of that for London as a whole and probably
as great as it should be asked to bear. In Fulham we
have 93 persons per acre compared with an average
of 60 persons for London. As I pointed out in my Report
for last year, previous efforts to obtain part of the
Hurlingham Polo Ground proved abortive. We must
not, however, lose sight of the fact that a very large
number of people in Fulham are living under grossly
overcrowded conditions, not possibly so bad as many
areas in the East End and other parts of London,
but nevertheless quite sufficient to call for remedy.
The figures which Dr. Sullivan has supplied in his
report on tuberculosis, while by no means conclusive,
certainly tend to show that the overcrowding in some
parts of Fulham is getting worse. Fulham is a
borough lying on the outskirts of the Metropolitan
area and as persons get squeezed out of their houses
in the more central parts of London owing to the
increase of shops and businesses, so they tend to
gravitate towards the periphery, of which Fulham
forms a part. This being the case it makes one hesitate
to some extent to put further houses on our already
limited area. If such houses are erected will they,
in effect, diminish the overcrowding in Fulham or
will they merely provide accommodation for some
overcrowded people in Fulham whose places will be
immediately taken by people coming into Fulham from
outside ? The housing problem in Fulham is only
part of the greater problem in London as a whole and
the London County Council are, to some extent, dealing
with that. It appears to me, however, that many of the