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tenants shall be members of the working classes, of British nationality,
employed at limited wages in the City of Westminster.
St. John's Westminster Improvement.—The London County Council
in 1900 began the Millbank Improvement Scheme, and have been since
then employed in buying and pulling down the property necessary to
give effect thereto. A syndicate (The-Victoria Embankment Contract
Syndicate) have now obtained an Act of Parliament (6 Edw. 7, ch.
clxxv) whereby in addition to obtaining a lease of the County Council's
surplus land, they will be able to acquire additional property, and will
thus have control of the square block bounded by Wood Street, Horseferry
Road, Millbank and Laundry Yard. The works authorised include a
widening of Marsham Street on both sides for the whole length of the
street, a widening of Wood Street and Great Peter Street on the
southern sides thereof, between St. John Street and the west side of
Laundry Yard, and the formation of a new street from Horseferry
Road to Wood Street. This will necessitate the closing of a number
of small streets and courts, and the demolition of many houses
which have required a very considerable amount of sanitary
supervision in the past—to which reference was made in my Annual
Eeport for 1905.
The area of the improvement includes Nos. 2 and 3 and part of No. 5
Enumeration Districts of the Census Registration District, and at the
last Census in 1901 the whole of this area contained 460 houses with a
population of about 5,250. Probably about 3,000 of these lived in that
part of the area now to be dealt with by the Syndicate; but the
numbers have in the meantime been reduced to some extent. The
County Council state that the number of persons of the working classes
displaced under the Millbank Scheme was 2,242, but that accommodation
for them was provided on the Millbank Estate (the total accommodation
there being now 4,430).
It has been ascertained that the further improvement now authorised
by the above-named Act will have the effect of displacing 1,846 persons
of the working classes. Nothing is said in the Act as to making
provision for these persons, but the Housing of the Working Classes
Act, 1903, requires re-housing accommodation to be provided where as
many as 30 persons of the labouring classes are displaced under the
provisions of any Act.
Vincent Place Buildings.—The Ecclesiastical Commissioners have
completed a block of buildings on a site at Regency Street, Chapter
Street, Frederick Street, and Hide Place, containing 42 tenements, 15
of two rooms each, 9 of three rooms, and 18 of four rooms.
The dwellings are now occupied by 42 families, comprising 148
persons, 51 being children. The site was formerly occupied by 12 small