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75
Customs and Inland Revenue Act.
Certificates under this Act were granted during the year to the
London County Council in respect of their buildings at Millbank ami
Duke.s Court, Drury Lane. Certificates were refused for 15 tenements
in a block of buildings in Peter Street, Berwick Street.
Housing of the Working Classes.
Clare Market Scheme.—Considerable progress has been made in the
work of clearing this area, and three blocks of buildings have been
erected in the immediate vicinity, viz., in Duke.s Court, at the back of
Bow Street as well as those on the Millbank Estate. Siddons and
Sterling Buildings, in Russell Court, to accommodate 390 persons, are in
course of construction.
Sheridan, Fletcher, and Beaumont Buildings, Duke.s Court.—Fletcher
Buildings, to accommodate 230 persons, were opened in April;
Beaumont, with accommodation for 190, in May; and Sheridan, also
with accommodation for 190, in June.
The whole of the tenements in Fletcher, Sheridan, and Beaumont
Buildings were at once occupied. The tenements were reserved for
the persons who had been disturbed in connection with the Clare
Market scheme and Holborn to Strand improvement, and the
whole of the rooms have now been occupied by persons actually
displaced in connection therewith. The London County Council state
that these persons are making good tenants, and are paying their rents
regularly, and no disturbance or damage has taken place at the
buildings.
The rents of the tenements were fixed 6d. per week below those that
could have been obtained, and are being paid in the neighbourhood.
The rent for a 1-room tenement is 4s.; for 2 rooms, 6s. 6d.; for 3 rooms,
8s. Of?.; and 4 rooms, 10s. 6d.; and these consequently compare
favourably with the rents paid by the tenants for the same number
of rooms in their old homes.
In the old houses rents varying from 2s. to 6s. were paid in respect
of a single room, a large number being let at 4s. and over; 2 rooms
let for rents varying from 3s. to 8s. 6d.; several being let at 6s. and
6s. 6d.; 3 rooms were let at 7s. to 10s. (id., but in the majority of
cases 9s. and over was paid. Rents varying from 9s. to 12s. were paid
for 4 rooms.
The tenements in Sheridan, Beaumont and Fletcher Buildings are all
self-contained, and the accommodation afforded is superior to that of
the old houses, although in some of them the rooms were larger than
in the new.