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53
Siddons House.
Following an agreement with the Council under which the Grand Junction Company, Limited,
were to provide accommodation in the vicinity for persons displaced from the Rainsford Street
Clearance Area, a block of workmen's flats was erected on the sites of Nos. 53, 55 and 57, Harrow
Road, the Salvation Army Hall, Nos. 25, 27, 29 and 31, Irongate Wharf Road and other adjoining
land. The flats were completed ready for occupation Dy the 31st December, 1938, and eighteen
families displaced by the operation of the Clearance Order were rehoused therein early in the New Year.
Abatement of Overcrowding.
The overcrowding survey undertaken by the Council in 1935 revealed the existence of 1,998 cases
of overcrowding in 27,212 occupied working-class dwellings, a percentage of 7.34 ; 231 cases of new
overcrowding have since been brought to notice. At the end of 1938 the known overcrowding in
the Borough had been reduced to 887 cases, giving a percentage for the 27,212 occupied workingclass
dwellings of 3.25 per cent., or a reduction of 55 per cent, in the 1935 overcrowding figure. These
figures, however, can only be considered as a means of showing the progress that is being made in
abating overcrowding, as without a full survey of all the working-class dwellings in the Borough
no information on the subject could be regarded as being strictly accurate.
Of the abated overcrowding, 104 families were accommodated on London County Council estates,
while others secured adequate accommodation of a private nature, either by obtaining additional
rooms in the same house or by removing to other premises. In many cases the overcrowding was
abated by natural causes, such as a member of the family leaving home, etc.
It is hoped that the figure of 887 cases will be further considerably reduced during the next year
when the flats now being erected at the White City, Hammersmith, become available for letting.
These flats are conveniently situated for local workers, and it is understood that it is the intention
of the County Council to allocate a considerable portion of the accommodation to Paddington.
Three hundred applications from overcrowded families for accommodation on County Council estates
have already been sent forward to the County Valuer, and it is anticipated that many of these families
will be found suitable for accommodation at the White City.
It is expected also that many other families who for economic reasons, etc., are unable to live
outside of the Borough will become decrowded by overflowing into the accommodation left vacant
Dy removals to County Council estates.
Other factors which will have a strong bearing on the reduction of overcrowding in the Borough
are:—
The proposed redevelopment of the Clarendon Street Area—an area showing 50 per cent.
of overcrowding in 1935 ; the clearance and redevelopment of certain mews areas the subject
of Clearance or Compulsory Purchase Orders ; and the closure of unfit mews and basement
dwellings.
Table No. 1 below shows the distribution of overcrowding according to Wards ; and Table
No. 2 the distribution of overcrowded families in relation to size of family and size of dwelling occupied.