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101
present housing shortage in Lambeth Borough. There are new
suitable sites available upon which could be built houses for the
working classes, at an expenditure considerably below what it cost
in 1920-22, when the Norwood Houses and Redan Terrace Houses
were erected, and when building materials and labour were more
expensive. The time is fast approaching when the house shortage in
Lambeth Borough will become even more urgent, on account of the
extension of buildings of existing, or of new, business premises. In
the Inner Districts especially, the need for additional dwelling-house
accommodation will be felt, in view of the business changes that
are taking place. An economic, though not necessarily (owing to
existing conditions) an economical, building Scheme should be
attainable in the Borough, where (as elsewhere) the provision of
dwelling-houses for the working classes is needed.
No report on Housing within the Borough of Lambeth would
be complete without reference to the Estates of the Duchy of Cornwall
and the Eccelsiastical Commissioners, and the assistance that
is being rendered to the Council's Housing Problem by those two
Bodies—the former in connection with the Marsh and Kennington
Districts, and the latter in connection with the Marsh and Brixton
Districts. It is true that actual building and re-construction are
proceeding very slowly, but everything helps in a crisis, such as the
Housing Crisis through which London is passing at the present time.
It may be noted that the Duchy Policy in the Stamford Street
and Whitehart Street areas is, indirectly, increasing the house
shortage in those particular districts, in that large business premises
are displacing dwelling-houses, e.g., Government and other printing
works in Stamford Street area, and the Navy, Army and Air Force
Institute in Whitehart Street area.
Wightman & Co., Ltd., "Old Westminster Press," Regency Street, S.W. 1