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77
Report for 1901 (see pp. 74-76), were closed by a magistrate.s order iit
April, 1902. Evidence on behalf of the Council was given by Dr.
Hamer, Assistant Medical Officer of Health of the London County
Council, as well as by Inspector Sanderson and myself. The magistrate
(Mr. Fen wick) personally inspected the houses, accompanied by the
owner and myself. In making the closing orders, the magistrate, on
the suggestion of Counsel (Mr. Bodkin) for the City, allowed each of
the 55 tenants £1 towards the cost of removal, under Section 32
Sub-section 3 of the Housing Act, 1890. The owner found premises
for many of the 187 dis-housed persons in the vicinity.
It is now proposed to utilise the site of Turner.s Court with
adjoining property for the purpose of erecting a theatre. This will
dis-house 170 persons of the working class, mostly hotel servants,
waitresses, theatre employes, office cleaners, and market porters. The
Housing Committee of the City Council are taking steps to ascertain in
what way the owners propose to provide them with new accommodation.
Regency Street Scheme.—I reported last year that the Council had
acquired from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners a piece of ground,
64,000 square feet in extent, for the purpose of erecting buildings
thereon, similar to those erected by the Guinness Trust at Hammersmith.
Good progress has been made during 1902; the site has been cleared
and tenders obtained, the foundations have been laid and the superstructure
commenced. The total cost is estimated at £95,000; this
includes £32,000 for the site (the Ecclesiastical Commissioners sold
it to the City at a reduced price of 4d. per foot, the market value
being M.; at 30 years. purchase 10s. a foot instead of 15s.), £7,500 for
foundations, £51,792 4s. for superstructure, and the balance for fees and
extras.
From a report furnished by the City Engineer, I have extracted
the following particulars of the buildings, which I understand are to
receive the names of the three first Mayors of Westminster.
The buildings are intended to be six storeys high, including the
half-basement and attic storey, the windows of the half-basement beingabove
paving level. The attic storeys will be partly in the roof, but
the slope on the roof will be so slight that the cubic area of the
tenement on the uppermost floor will be immaterially affected.
The general plan indicates the disposition of the three blocks of
dwellings, each 304 feet long, one facing Regency Street, with accesses,
and two blocks parallel with same, divided by a road 40 feet wide, level
with Vincent Street and Page Street, from which roads these two blocks
of dwellings will be entered. At rear of the front block there will he a
sunk playground 40 feet wide, and there will be a further sunk
playground, average 29 feet wide, at the rear of the eastern block.