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9
Whilst condemning existing dwellings, and using means to
render them less thickly peopled, it is of the highest importance that
means be taken to provide suitable dwellings for the poor.
I should be glad to call your attention to the operations of the
Metropolitan Association for improving the dwellings of the industrious
classes, and of the Society for Improving the Condition of the
Labouring Classes. The former Association has erected one large
building in this parish, called Pancras Square. There are 110 sets of
rooms. Each set of rooms has a separate kitchen range, boiler, and
oven; it has a scullery with a supply of water, a place for dust, and
a separate water closet. The rents of the sets of two rooms vary
from 4s. to 5s. 6d.; for three rooms from 5s. to 7s. This building
has paid very well even as a commercial speculation.
There are also some model buildings near the Bagnigge Wells
Road, built by the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring
Classes. These are small houses with two floors, adapted for 23
families and 30 aged women. The rents of families are from 4s. to
6s. per week; those for single women Is. 6d. per week.
The health of the tenants of these places has been found by
statistics to be very much better than that of those living in the houses
around. The moral and social benefits conferred by these buildings
have been immeasurable.
The Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes,
whose offices are in Exeter Hall, has during the year 1856 been
engaged on the important experiment of determining how far existing
courts, lanes, and alleys can be cleansed, improved, and made fit for
human dwellings at such a cost as to be remunerative. The experiment
has been made in three places of the most unpromising character:
Wild Court, Drury Lane; Clark's Buildings, St. Giles's; and Tyndall's
Buildings, Grays Inn.
So far, there appears to be every probability of the expenditure
being a fairly remunerative one, but sufficient time has not elapsed
to give complete proof on the point.
By the 14th and 15th Victoria, cap. 134, it is in the power of the
Vestry to build lodging houses for the poor, and provision is made
for borrowing the money from the Public Works Loan Commissioners,
and defraying the expenses of the works by an improvement rate.
By another Act of Parliament, 18th and 19th Vic., cap. 132, any
number of persons not less than six may form a corporate company
for the purpose of building such lodgings.