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21
The Housing Committee of the Council have considered the
matter during the past year, and have had special reports from my
predecessors and myself on the amount of accommodation available
and being provided in the City for persons of the working classes,
together with replies from employers of labour. In addition, houseto
house enquiries have been made.
In the report submitted by me (21st January, 1901), dealing with
the Strand District, I said that, where circumstances will permit,
persons working in central London should live in the suburbs, but
there are certain kinds of work which render it necessary for those
employed therein to live in the proximity to the places where that
work is carried on. Thus there are those persons whose work is
irregular, or which requires early or late attendance, such as waiters,
policemen, commissionaires, kitchen and other porters, theatre
attendants, charwomen, &c. Then there is a large class of persons
making articles of dress, who work at home for West-end firms;
from the fluctuating nature of the trade, it appears to be necessary
for those employed in it to be in close proximity to their employers'
place of business. From an aualysis of the 1891 Census Statistics,
made by Mr. Charles Booth, it appears that at that date the tailors,
bootmakers, dressmakers, milliners, shirtmakers, and allied trades,
formed 13 per cent, of the population of the district represented by
Soho, St. Giles, and Strand. This figure represents only the heads of
families employed in these trades, but usually other members of a
family take part in it also.
In order to ascertain the class of persons for whom accommodation
should be provided in this neighbourhood, and the rents which were
at present being paid, a house-to-house enquiry was instituted in
Chadwick Street, Great Peter Street, Laundry Yard, Monck Street,
Monck Court, Blue Anchor Court, St. Matthew Street, St. Ann's Court,
St. Ann's Lane, Medway Street, and Arneway Street. 655 tenements
were visited with an admitted population of 2,934; 064 of whom were
men, 781 women, and 789 children. Both men and women appear
to be engaged in earning a livelihood, and all of them work in the
City. 839 were costers and street hawkers, 121 news vendors, 172
labourers, 115 charwomen and laundresses, 11 tailoresses, 17 shop
assistants, 19 bootmakers, 23 were in receipt of parish relief, and the
remaining 94 were engaged in various occupations. A number of
tenements in certain of the streets mentioned are single rooms, and
are let furnished.
Tables VIII and IX show the number of one, two, three, and fourroom
tenements, and the rents paid, together with a note showing
the relation between the weekly wage and rent.