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UNFAVOURABLE CONDITIONS. 19
of St. James's would disappear without further effort. I
commend this question earnestly to the consideration of the
Vestry of St. James's."
In my Annual Report for the year 1898 (pages 33, 34 and
35), I reverted to the subject in the following words:—
"As to conditions in the district of St. James's which are
dangerous to the public health, they continue to exist on the
north-east side of Regent Street. These conditions are due to
the tortuosity of the streets in that district, to the survival of
worn-out and short-leased old buildings now traded in as
tenement houses, and to the influx of Polish Jews and other
workmen. These foreign workmen have never seen a watercloset
before being shipped to St. James's, and their ideas as to
sanitation are utterly rudimentary. The landlords who take
these people in as tenants have the greatest difficulty in reducing
them to order, and in protecting the closets and drains from
being stopped up. Often the landlord is worried by a malicious
tenant, or a reprimanded servant, who purposely stops up a
closet, and then makes a formal complaint to the Sanitary Department.
But the only practical course is to saddle the landlord with
full responsibility for the neglect or misconduct of the tenants
whom he harbours, at large rents, for his own profit; and while
this district remains occupied with old houses built upon
tortuous and narrow streets through which no stranger can
find his way, it is obvious that the sites cannot be properly
utilized, and that they must continue to be appropriated by workmen
of a rough sort. In my annual report for the year 1896
(pages 21, 22, and 23) I submitted a full statement as to the evils
which exist in this part of St. James's, as to the rental value of
this site in the very centre of Western London and within one
minute's walk of Eegent Street, and as to how it could be
opened up and improved. Nothing has been done as yet for
the improvement of this part of St. James's. It is obvious that
a new street—such as Baker Street—carried through from the
north end of the Haymarket to Poland Street would enormously
increase the value of the land in this district, and would profitably
break up and transform this nest of old houses and
tortuous streets."
"The gradual reconstruction of this old quarter is, however,
continuously progressing. Warehouses and workshops are
taking the place of the old tenement-houses; and the Pall Mall
Electric Light Company have, under their new Act, obtained
powertoclear and absorb into their works a considerable area west
of Broad Street, Golden Square. But these rebuildings, while
a distinct improvement, are mostly cast in the old mould of