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109
practice, providing some reasonable kind of standard
of hygiene and domestic comfort and amenity, did not
operate and consequently we find dismal rooms whose
ugliness is only equalled by their discomfort and lack
of provision for healthy life within them. Obviously
a large part of Bethnal Green housing ought to be
demolished and replaced by modern houses. This
would involve great expenditure of money and disturbance
of population and seems, urgently desirable
as it may be, rather utopian a prospect at the moment.
Nevertheless it is well to remember that a great deal
of the work of the sanitary inspectors is created by
these old bad houses which we can neither demolish
nor put right. All we can do is to remedy sanitary
"nuisances," i.e., defective roofs, dirty walls and
ceilings, defective w.c.'s., etc. The equally real
defects of insufficient light and air, of absence of
convenient hot water, bathrooms and lavatory basins,
of no properly ventilated larder, lack of privacy, still
remain. The present patching and repairing of these
old houses is carried on in an atmosphere of uncertainty
whether they may or may not be included in a clearance
area this year or next. In any case it is futile, except
as a temporary postponement of the decay of the
property and the rendering a little more tolerable the
life of the unfortunate residents. Sanitary work under
these conditions requires great courage and cheerfulness.
The Council is to be congratulated on a
sanitary staff which quietly and persistently carries on
its duties in spite of discouragements.
While these remarks mainly apply to dwelling
houses, it must be confessed that some of the older
schools and workplaces in the borough are sadly
behind modern ideas with regard to lighting and air
space. So far as the schools are concerned, although
they are open to the sanitary inspection of the local
sanitary authority their sanitary supervision is in
practice left to the education authority—the L.C.C.
No doubt that body has in mind the desirability of
reconstructing some of these dismal, prison-like