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148
was more than one-and-a-half times, and that from phthisis nearly
one-and-a-half times, and that from epidemic diseases more than
two-and-a-half times the corresponding death rate of Bermondsey.
The Council was greatly impressed with the necessity for
drastic action being taken to remedy the evil conditions prevailing,
and on 8th November, 1910, it decided to make an improvement
scheme under Part I. of the Housing of the Working Classes Act,
1890, in respect of all three areas. The Grotto Place and Crosby
Eow areas were the subject of official representations in 1899 and
1904, and although the Council had then felt a difficulty in dealing
with these areas separately on account of their limited size, it was
thought that if a scheme was proceeded with for the clearance of
the larger (Tabard Street) area the opportunity should be taken of
reconstructing the two smaller areas at the same time.
As regards the limits of the scheme, the only departure which it
was found necessary to make from the exact areas described in the
official representations was the inclusion of certain property on the
north side of Staple Street to enable that thoroughfare to be widened
to 40 ft. This had the effect of increasing the population of the
Tabard Street area to 3,596 persons. The numbers of persons of
the working class occupying the houses on the three areas are as
follows:—Tabard Street, 3,517; Grotto Place, 567; Crosby Row,
468; or 4,552 in all.
In order to decide the amount of accommodation which the
Council should provide on the areas themselves for rehousing the
persons who would be displaced, inquiries were made to ascertain
the number of vacant working class rooms in the neighbourhood.
These inquiries were made within a radius of approximately one
mile from Tabard Street on the south side of the Thames, the
district covered including the whole of the Metropolitan Borough of
Southwark and about one-half of the Metropolitan Borough of
Bermondsey. The total number of houses and tenements found to
let in the whole area was 1,784, containing 5,977 rooms, of which
1,807 may be described as in good condition and 3,707 as in fair
condition. The total number of empty rooms, viz:—4,764 in
Southwark, and 1,213 in Bermondsey, is equivalent to about 5 per
cent. and 3.5 per cent. of empties respectively, and there is
apparently vacant accommodation in the vicinity of Tabard Street
for a larger number of persons than will be displaced from the
represented areas.