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37
Nevertheless, community atmosphere did exist in the parts of
the Borough where there is a concentration of smaller properties.
Although over a number of years these properties have more usually
been divided into two or three flats they were generally occupied
by families indigenous to the neighbourhood, with the same interests
and backgrounds, with certain communal attitudes and who more
usually knew each other.
More recently community atmosphere in this district is tending
to diminish because as soon as a house or a flat in a house becomes
vacant it is put up for sale, and more and more of the new owners
and occupiers are people who are new to the district.
As we know, Paddington is a densely populated area, and yet
over the last few years large numbers of newcomers have been
attracted to it.
There are reasons for this. 1. The type of work which newcomers
are largely performing in this country is convenient to
Paddington, and because the work so frequently involves shift
duties, it is necessary for them to live as close to it as possible.
2. Houses which are so frequently appearing for sale are at a
figure which is not out of the reach of working class people, and they
are also large enough to lend themselves to multi-occupation, an
added attraction to newcomers as it enables them to let off rooms to
members of their own families and other people from their own
countries who have accommodation problems.
3. Accommodation is probably the greatest problem in London
at the present moment, even for indiginants. The problem is much
greater for an immigrant who has the additional handicap of being
patently different. He is more likely to be accepted in areas where
there is more tolerance or indifference, less parochial atmosphere,
and where most of the accommodation is of the furnished bedsitter
variety.
4. It is natural that strangers to the country will wish to gravitate
towards each other—indeed most people prefer to live among
people they understand, and whose patterns of behaviour and
attitudes are very similar to their own.
From the point of view of a Welfare Officer trying to assist with
the problem of absorbing newcomers into our society, I feel there
are two disturbing aspects of this situation.
The first is that these houses will inevitably become almost
completely multi-occupied on a temporary bed-sitter basis, which is
not conducive to building up a stable community atmosphere, and
secondly, because as this type of accommodation is the only type
available to immigrants unable to buy property, there must follow
a very heavy concentration of newcomers in this particular district.
We recognise that towns in all parts of the world have social
class areas, but here we have the possibility of finding ourselves with
racial areas, and while it is argued that, providing there are equal
opportunities this situation is not segregation, it cannot be denied