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66
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
prevent other bodies from building in this Borough, and
as in order to make such buildings properly remunerative,
sites suitable and central must be selected, it would appear
to be better for this Borough to take the initiative.
Representatives of the Committee have attended two
Conferences of Borough Councils and the London County
Council on the subject of Housing without any practical
advantage, and a Sub-Committee has visited several sites
and buildings, and in addition several plans and schemes
have been laid before the Committee.
Owing to the high price of land it appears to be
impossible to build small separate houses or pairs of flats
to let at lower rentals than is already done by private
enterprise, and an enquiry of the Local Government Board
as to the power of so dealing with good frontages as to
render it possible to make such buildings remunerative
under the requirements of the Act has been answered in
the negative. The Council is therefore in a worse position
under the Act than private enterprise.
After careful enquiry, the Committee considers that
the solution of the difficulty lies in the building of lodging
houses or of blocks of tenements as erected by the
Guinness trust. At Hammersmith, on ground costing
over £6,000 per acre, the Trust has erected fire-proof
dwellings containing tenements of two to four rooms each,
letting at from 2s. 6d. to 6s. 6d. per tenement per week ;
which rent includes the use of a laundry, hot and cold
water baths, similar to the private baths at the Wandsworth
Public Baths, large playgrounds of about 160 by
50 feet each, boiling water at meal times, hot and cold
water at any time, a club-room, drying-rooms for clothes
at a small charge, and the privilege of buying coals at
cost price. We have been much struck with the completeness
of detail showing a comprehension and experience of
the requirements of those for whom these buildings are
intended. No one earning more than 25s. per week can
be admitted. The dwellings are always full, and appear
to be very popular, and return 3 per cent. clear profit on
the outlay. At Hammersmith on rather less than 2 acres,
costing £12,ooo for the land, are blocks of tenements
housing 364 families.