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88
empty houses in the Borough in order to house the
remaining five families consisting of 23 persons. I
consider the three Closing Orders to which I have referred
above as being absolutely necessary for the
welfare of the inhabitants. Particularly in the cases
of Aspenlea Road and Jerdan and Vanston Places
the conditions under which the tenants were living
were a disgrace to a Metropolitan Borough. No
closing orders have been made during the year 1925.
Housing Accommodation.—The Borough Council
decided during the year 1925 to embark upon a small
housing scheme. After many very great difficulties
a suitable piece of land was secured in Wyfold Road
and as I write the first block of buildings is nearing
completion. This scheme will provide accommodation
for 36 families in small three and four-roomed flats.
An enormous number of applications have already been
received and, moreover, the whole of these flats could
be filled by families at present living in one room only
in various parts of the Borough. Although this
scheme is naturally a small contribution to the housing
problem it is none the less welcome. As I have stated,
however, in my previous reports, this Borough already
bears upon it a number of persons per acre much in
excess of London as a whole and as much as it should
be called upon to bear. In Fulham we have 93 persons
to the acre as compared with 60 persons to the acre for
London. In this regard I feel I may be pardoned for
repeating what I wrote in my last Annual Report.
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