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90
Little Clarendon Street is situated in Ward 6 of the Division of East
St. Pancras, and runs parallel to, and between Clarendon Street and Seymour
Street. At the north end it opens into Johnson Street, and at the south end
into Aldenham Street. It is not a thoroughfare because it leads to no-where
and is not in the line of any particular direction for foot passengers,
consequently the street is traversed by scarcely any one except the occupiers
of it. Near the centre of the east side is a public house, the use of which
appears to be almost entirely confined to the occupants of the street, and which
has been for a long time past under the consideration of the magistrates as to
closure and compensation. When this public-house is closed, it may be
prophesied with some certainty that the character of the street will improve if
the owners of the houses will, at the same time, make some effort to more
effectually control the premises and the occupants thereof.
The street is about 420 feet long, about 24½ feet wide, and the houses on
cach side of the street are only of two stories, and average a height of about 19
feet. Behind the houses on the east side are the backs of the houses in
Clarendon Street at a distance of about 26½ feet from the backs of the Little
Clarendon Street houses; the houses in Clarendon Street being of three stories
and averaging 23 feet in height. Similarly from the backs of the houses on
the west side of Little ('larendon Street to the backs of the houses in Seymour
Street is a space of about 22 feet, and the average height of the houses in
Seymour Street is about 30 feet. From these measurements it will be seen
that the houses in Little Clarendon Street are not over-shadowed, that there is
ample space at the backs of the houses, and that the height of the houses is not
as great as the width of the street. The street is periodically swept and
cleansed, and the house refuse is removed regularly, so that the conditions of
the surroundings of the houses cannot be regarded as unhealthy.
With regard to the structure of the houses themselves, each house consists of
four rooms, two on each floor, with an open back yard, water tap, w.c., and
dust receptacle, and most of them within recent years have been laid with new
drains. The roofs, floors, ceilings, and walls are in fair condition, and as I
have before said, there is no fault to be found with the supply of light and air,
and the water taps are supplied directly from the main.
With regard to the decorative condition of the houses, the premises are
visited every six months by the Inspector, and a large number of notices are
served requiring cleansing, and others requiring minor repairs to roofs, w.c.
apparatus, &c. The number of notices served is very much larger on the west
side of the street than on the east side, the reason for this will appear
presently.
With regard to the occupation of the houses in the street a large number of
notices are periodically served to abate overcrowding, and the experience is
that as fast as overcrowding is abated on one premises it arises on another; this
applies more particularly to the west side of the street, and is due to material
difference in the manner in which the premises are let on the two sides of the
street.
On the east side a considerable number of the houses are let to one family,
and consequently are kept in fair structural and decorative condition, and are
not overcrowded, and those that are let to more than one family are not let in