London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Kensington 1925

The annual report on the health of the Borough for the year1925

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91
The total annual rentals (exclusive of rates) of the new dwellings already occupied is
approximately £14,000, and accommodation has been found therein for approximately 1,660 persons.
The Public Health Committee, on behalf of the Council, have acquired two derelict houses
in Bosworth Road, which have been converted into 12 flats, four houses in Sirdar Road which have
also been converted into 12 flats, and one house in Sirdar Road which has been put into a satisfactory
state of repair and is now occupied by four families. They have acquired a block of 18
dilapidated flats in Virginia Place together with a vacant piece of land adjoining, and at the present
time work is in progress in connection with the demolition of the flats and the erection of two large
new blocks containing 14 three-roomed flats and 24 two-roomed flats.

HOUSING ACCOMODATION OWNED AND MANAGED BY HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS. The Wilsham Housing Trust, the Improved Tenements Association and one or two other smaller organisations own the following properties in North Kensington:-

Single-Family Houses.Self-contained Flats.Tenement Houses Let in Lodgings.Totals.
No. of Houses.No. of Families accommo-dated in Tenement Houses.Houses.Families.
Wilsham Housing Trust1284651193225367
Improved Tenements Association374326273103
Others212278941103

These dwellings, together with the Council's properties in Kenley Street, Hesketh Place,
Runcorn Place, Sirdar Road, Virginia Place and Bosworth Road, are managed on the Octavia Hill
system by a group of women house property managers.
II. A REVIEW OF THE STEPS WHICH HAVE BEEN TAKEN TO MEET THE HOUSING
SHORTAGE EXPERIENCED IN RECENT YEARS.
(1) New accommodation provided by the Council.
The new accommodation provided by the Council through the Special Housing Committee
since 1920, which has been detailed above, has provided homes for approximately 1,660 persons.
(2) The purchase of dilapidated houses and their conversion into flats or improved accommodation
for the working classes.
The dilapidated properties purchased and converted or improved in Bosworth Road and
Sirdar Road, referred to above, are now occupied and when the Virginia Place flats are ready for
occupation additional accommodation will have been found for 170 people.
(3) Additional housing accommodation provided since the War by private enterprise.
The activities of the Wilsham Housing Trust have provided additional accommodation since
the War for 325 persons. The houses purchased by the Improved Tenements Association cannot
be regarded as entirely new accommodation, because they existed previously, but the accommodation
has been very much improved and additional accommodation has been provided for about
30 persons. Private owners have converted two public-houses into 12 flats, providing accommodation
for about 60 persons; and private builders have erected in the Borough since the War 36
new houses, giving accommodation for approximately 220 people.
(4) Unoccupied dilapidated houses.
As a result of the pressure exercised by the Council, about 19 houses which had fallen into such
a bad state of repair during and before the War as to be totally uninhabitable have been in recent
years repaired by the owners and now provide accommodation for about 220 persons.
(5) Rooms out of occupation owing to want of repair.
The absence of men on active service during the War and the prohibitive cost of material
and labour immediately after the termination of hostilities resulted in a number of rooms being
in such a state of repair as to be unfit for occupation. In recent years the Council's Sanitary
Inspectors have taken active steps to secure repair of these rooms which were mainly in tenement
houses and approximately 40 have been brought into a fit state of habitation in the past five years,
giving accommodation for about 80 persons.