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Perambulator sheds will be provided in the grounds, also a drying room
for clothes, and a constant hot water supply at the boiler house. The
area is admirably adapted for the erection of working class dwellings.
The construction of these is being proceeded with rapidly and it is hoped
that the additional housing facilities thus soon to become available will
be of material assistance in meeting the needs of a large section unable
to pay the rents at Hortensia Road.
(3) Manor Street Site Scheme.
This site comprises an area of 1 acre, 16 poles, situated centrally in
the Borough, in close proximity to the Town Hall. The frontage is on
the western side of Manor Street, its northern and southern boundaries
being Wellington Street and Grove Buildings respectively. It was
purchased by the Borough Council towards the end of 1928 at a cost of
£19,000.
With the consent of the Minister of Health, the Borough Council has
leased the site to the Peabody Trust for a term of 99 years at a nominal
rent and the Trust has agreed to erect working-class dwellings thereon,
in accordance with plans to be approved by the Borough Council, the
London County Council and the Ministry of Health.
Details of this Scheme were under discussion at the close of the year
and further reference to them will be made in this report next year.
Reviewing the history of the past 30 years, it would appear that the
housing policy of the Borough Council has been firstly to preserve,
where possible, in areas threatened with demolition, such working class
accommodation as was of reasonably good type ; and secondly, to provide
accommodation by means of new buildings in an accessible situation
within the Borough for those persons of the working class who are average
representatives of their class, and for whom the necessities of their trade
or calling render residence within the Borough desirable or necessary.
It cannot be disputed that at the present time in Chelsea, as in other
Metropolitan Boroughs, there is considerable dearth of accommodation
both for the working classes and for the classes in receipt of small salaries
or earnings and that, as elsewhere, this situation is primarily due to the
restrictions imposed upon the building trades during the war and the
economic disturbances which have succeeded it.
It will, however, be evident from the details already given that the
existing shortage of housing accommodation in Chelsea is being most
adequately dealt with and that the extremely difficult problems which
confronted the Borough Council subsequent to the war are gradually
being overcome. In this connection the invaluable services rendered
by the present Mayor. (Mr. Alderman C. B. Clapcott, O.B.E., J.P.), and
the present Chairman of the Housing Committee (Mr. Councillor E. B.
Baggallay) will always be remembered with appreciation in the municipality.
Overcrowding.—Overcrowding ,where it exists, is mainly confined
to the western district of the Borough. There has been comparatively
little improvement in its prevalence during the year. Many of the