View report page

120
ventilation; and further, that the most satisfactory method of dealing
psrmincntly with the area is an Improvement Scheme by the
rearrangement and reconstruction of the said houses, or certain of the
said houses, within such area.
IV. R.—This Improvement Scheme will be rendered the more
complete by including, in addition, Walnut Tree Place and Richmond
Cottages and Street, in connection with which narrowness, and closeness,
and bad arrangement of the houses as a whole also exist, with
consequent similar ill-effects, due to want of proper light, air and
ventilation, though to a lesser degree than in the case of the other
Courts or Streets, which were alone comprised, at first, in the original
Scheme of the Medical Officer of Health, viz., St. Alban's Buildings,
Karl Place, and China Place (and China Square).
The enlarged China Walk area is bounded by Richmond Street,
Walnut Tree Walk (part), Karl Place, China Place, and China Square,
and Kennington Road (part), and, owing to the addition of Walnut
Tree Place and Richmond Cottages and Street, is sufficiently large to
admit of a satisfactory Improvement Scheme being carried out, as already
stated, the area being, roughly, statute acres and comprising therein
241 houses, with a population (estimated) of 2,260. The displacement
of these tenants would be conditional, and subsequent, to suitable
alternative accommodation (preferably for all displaced tenants to be
rehoused in the neighbourhood, but compulsorily for 50 per cent. of
such displaced tenants being so rehoused). This question of rehousing
will be a matter for the London County Council, and, in connection
therewith, the Prince's Road Workhouse site would be useful for the
purpose, assuming that such site is not going to be used by the Borough
Council for the erection thereon of municipal houses or cottages, under
the Lambeth Borough Council's own housing scheme, or for an open
space. The question of the style of houses to be erected upon the area,
when cleared, is also a matter that will concern the London County
Council, but the Borough Council may think it advisable to offer as a
suggestion that, if the block system of tenements is adopted, such
blocks should be small, i.e., limited to three floors of tenements, and
not planned on the "barracks " system.
The Medical Officer of Health is still of opinion that the first
mentioned area (Linnett Street, etc ), is the more urgent, especially as
the reconstruction of that area would have included the widening of
Oakley Street—an urgent metropolitan improvement. The London
County Council's advisers, however, appear to be unable to deal with
that area at the present time, and consequently, the alternative area (as
suggested by the Lambeth Borough Council) has been selected by the
London County Council.