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Sidwell-place, which adjoins Victoria-place, is a cul de sac entered by a 7 ft. passageway under a
house in Broadwall; it contains twelve two-storey houses with small yards at their rear (six houses on
each side of a court about 12 ft. wide). The houses in this court were in a dilapidated condition at
the time of my visit, but works of improvement were said to be under contemplation.
To the north of these courts there was, until recently, a court known as Mitre-court, in which there
were eight houses. The owner of these houses on being served with notices by the vestry, elected to
demolish the houses rather than to spend money upon them. It is to be regretted that matters appear
to be taking a different course in Victoria-place and Sidwell-place.
2. Commercial-buildings.—This row of buildings is approached from a roadway on its eastern aspect,
but the block really consists of the two-storey basements of houses which rise four storeys above pavement
level in Waterloo-road. It is into the areas of these houses that the back rooms of Commercialbuildings
open, and at the bottom of the said areas, some 30 feet below the level of Waterloo-road, are
situated the " yards " of Commercial-buildings.
The buildings are numbered 1 to 10, and each front door gives access to four rooms. The two rooms
on the side of the buildings remote from Waterloo-road are fairly lighted. The two rooms opening into
the area on the Waterloo-road side are quite dark. The enquiry whether it was under any circumstances
possible to see to read in these rooms without artificial light was received by one of the tenants with
a smile.
The staircases are narrow and dark and the walls are damp. At the time of my visit many other
defects were noted, and overcrowding was found in nine of the ten houses. These buildings are quite
unfit for human habitation, and there is need for the institution of proceedings with a view to
closing them.
3. Fountain-court, Paved-court and Francis-court, Lambeth-walk.—These courts are badly arranged,
narrow and confined, and the cottages in them are in a very neglected condition; dampness of walls,
dilapidated conditions, dirt and overcrowding were repeatedly found to exist. Faults of original
construction and planning render it difficult to believe that the houses in these courts can be made fit for
habitation, and suggest the need of application being made for closing orders.
The bad arrangement of several courts in the neighbourhood of Cornwall-road, and their
general condition of dampness, has led to particular attention being directed to them on many occasions.
As long ago as 1878 a representation was made to the Metropolitan Board of Works with regard
to an unhealthy area including Bond-court, Bond-street, John-street, Cottage-place, Elizabeth-place,
Henry-place, James-place and Perry-place, and also with regard to an adjoining unhealthy area
including Salutation-place, Peers-cooperage and a portion of Cornwall-road.
In 1891 the Sanitary Committee of the Vestry recommended that Cornwall-place, Le Grandplace
and Cornwall-mews should be dealt with by a scheme under Part II. of the Housing of the
Working Classes Act.
In 1893 the Public Health and Housing Committee of the Council made a similar recommendation
with regard to Salutation-place and Peers-cooperage.
None of these schemes have been put into execution, and the areas in question remain with
their original faults of bad arrangement and dampness of site substantially unaltered, while additional
defects become manifest as the general state of repair of the buildings deteriorates.
In the first group of courts referred to above, there are a number of houses without through
ventilation, and in Bond-place (Bond-court it appears to have formerly been called) there are 32
cottages which front upon a cul de sac, and have no open space or means of ventilation at the rear.
Inquiry was made at several of these cottages with the result that in every instance the rooms were
found to be overcrowded.
Le Grand-place and Cornwall-place presented numerous instances of overcrowding; conditions
of dilapidation were particularly abundant in Cornwall-place.
Salutation-place and Peers-cooperage I inspected house by house in 1893, antecedent to the
recommendation of the Public Health and Housing Committee referred to above, and on re-inspecting
them recently, found them in even worse condition than was the case two years ago. Overcrowding
existed in the large majority of the cases investigated.
In nearly all the localities referred to in the list on page 6, dirty conditions and overcrowding
were conspicuous. The need of enforcement of by-laws relating to houses let in lodgings was
particularly apparent in such instances. I visited a number of other streets and courts in Lambeth,
containing houses let out in tenements, in which similar defects were of frequent occurrence, but some
of the most striking instances of the need of enforcement of by-laws dealing with overcrowding, &c.,
are included in the above named list. A few examples may be quoted.
No. 5, Walce-street.—A two-storey house with four rooms, two of which are overcrowded ; a man,
his wife and three children occupy the ground floor front room, 900 cubic feet in capacity. A man, his
wife and two children occupy the first floor front room which is about 1,000 cubic feet in capacity. The
dust-bin is dilapidated, there is an accumulation of dust, the roof is defective, the staircase is dirty.
The water-closet is stopped up.
No. 16, Laud-street.—An eight-roomed house in a dirty condition. Two of the rooms are occupied
by a man, his wife and seven children; it is admitted that both these rooms are overcrowded and the
family is going to leave. Two other rooms are occupied by a man, wife and six children, the two adults
and three children sleeping in a room of less than 800 cubic feet in capacity.
No. 15, Portland-cottages.—Staircases and rooms dirty. Sink waste-pipe defective. Water-closet
stopped. A man, his wife and six children all sleep in a room of 940 cubic feet capacity. The family
rents two rooms, but only occupies one, as in the other the plaster has come away, exposing the brickwork
; moreover the laths are bared and the condition is one of great dilapidation. In an adjoining house
overcrowding resulted in a somewhat similar manner from the tenant's unwillingness to put his
children into one of the rooms, as the walls were, to use his expression, " swarming with living vermin."
No. 5, Victoria-place, Lower Norwood.—The ground floor front room, which is less than 1,000 cubic
feet in capacity, is occupied as a living and sleeping room by a woman and her grown-up son, aged 18,
two daughters 15 and 14, and three younger children.
The above are given as examples of some of the more striking cases met with, but evidence of
the need of putting into execution by-laws relating to houses let in lodgings was forthcoming in
almost every house occupied by members of more than one family in the localities referred to in the
list already given.