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Working Classes Act, 1890, for the clearance of an unhealthy area in the district, we are not prepared to
recommend the Council to embark upon any building operations which would compete with private
enterprise and we have accordingly given instructions for a reply to this effect to be sent to the applicants.
We trust, however, that having regard to the demand which exists for working-class dwellings in
Plumstead, the attention of the artizans' dwellings companies may be directed to the matter, with a view
to the erection of suitable dwellings as suggested.
Millbanh-prison site.
In December the Council sealed the agreement with Her Majesty's Commissioners of Works
For the sale and purchase of the land on this site which the Council had decided to acquire. The
Housing of the Working Classes Committee had estimated that accommodation could be provided
on the land for 4,400 and that of this, accommodation for 1,500 persons would be required for those
displaced from the Clare-market, Strand, area.
Areas specially described in the reports of medical officers of health.
Special reference is made in the reports of medical officers of health to particular localities in
districts.
In the report of the medical officer of health of Kensington account is given of an area in Nottingdale
comprising St. Katherine's-road, William-street, Bangor-street, Crescent-street and part of
St. Clement's-road. A special committee was appointed by the Vestry of Kensington to consider the
causes of the high death rates in this locality which had been discussed in previous reports of the
medical officer of health. This Committee reported in July, and the medical officer of health thus
writes concerning their conclusions—
In July the committee presented their report, in which, to put the matter briefly, they attributed the
bad condition of the houses, and the evil state in which the inhabitants were found, or represented to be,
to the vicious proclivities and evil habits of the people themselves. They stated that they did not find the
area in question to be " an insanitary or unhealthy area;" they regarded " the situation as a healthy one; "
the high death rate being " due to the habits and conditions of the people themselves " the " filth and dirt
of the people " being " at once the cause and effect of the filth and dirt of their abodes," though " the
houses as structures are not bad." . . The committee were of opinion that the necessity of sanitary inspection
" can hardly be overstated," but they qualify their opinion by adding that " this does not necessarily
mean an increase to our permanent staff of sanitary inspectors," which, in fact, had been reduced a few
days prior to the appointment of the Committee. " A sufficient staff of sanitary inspectors " is stated to
be "absolutely necessary " between April and August, when " under No. 7 of our by-laws, there is to be
thorough cleansing " of houses let in lodgings or occupied by members of more than one family and
registered—as " the evidence clearly shows that this cleansing is often done in the most perfunctory and
unsatisfactory manner, even if it be done at all." It was " satisfactory to note that in the judgment of
several witnesses, an immense amount of good could be done if the (said) bylaws were stringently and
rigidly enforced," which I may add is not possible in present circumstances.
The question of the sufficiency of the staff of sanitary inspectors in Kensington was during the
year under the consideration of the Public Health Committee of the Council who had decided that
inquiry into this matter should be made on behalf of the Council. Before, however, this inquiry had
begun, the Council was informed that the Local Government Board had consented to a reduction of the
staff for twelve months. It was obviously impossible for the committee to proceed further in the
matter, the Local Government Board, before inquiry by the Council, having arrived at a decision.
The committee therefore addressed a communication to the Local Government Board expressing the
hope that at the end of the twelve months the Board would by inquiry in the district ascertain its
needs in respect to the number of sanitary inspectors which should be employed.
The report of the medical officer of health of Holborn contains reference to a special
report presented by him in 1896 on the subject of an area in the neighbourhood of Union-buildings,
Leather-lane, having a population of nearly 1,000 persons. The conditions existing in the
area are described by the medical officer of health, who points out the powers of the d istrict board
for reconstruction and rearrangement of the houses under Part II. of the Housing of the Working
Classes Act, and expresses the opinion that this is " the only way of effecting a satisfactory and permanent
improvement." The district board, however, decided that the sanitary defects in the houses in the area
should be dealt with under the Public Health (London) Act. The subject is receiving the attention
of the Council's Housing of the Working Classes Committee.
The annual report of the medical officer of health of Plumstead contains a description of an area
on the Reidhaven-road from which it appears that the death rates in this district have been high, that
the area was occupied by a poor class of inhabitant, that the drainage was defective, the structural
condition of the houses defective, and that there was overcrowding. He adds that some of the houses
probably a large proportion, are built on a deposit of house refuse of recent date.
The medical officer of health of St. James, Westminster recommends the construction of a new
street parallel to the east side of Regent-street. His report contains the following paragraphs on this
subject—
" If a line be drawn from St. James's Palace diagonally across the parish to the junction of Oxfordstreet
and Wardour-street, it will be seen that south of Regent's-quadrant the line traverses a rich and
fashionable district, while north of Regent's-quadrant the line traverses a labyrinth of small streets,
through which ordinary strangers would be unable to find their way. This northern area is covered to a
great extent by old houses which have passed into the hands of tenement-mongers, and are let out as
lodgings to the working claases who are dependent upon the splendid shops and busy warehouses of
Regent-street, Bond-street, Piccadilly and St. James's-street. In these old tenement houses the rents
paid by the working classes are high, while the conditions under which they live are bad. The houses are
largely held by tenement-mongers on short leases, a tenure which practically shuts out both freeholder
and leaseholder from re-building or substantial improvement. The houses are cramped, often with
basement buildings covering their entire sites ; routes through the district are tortuous, and the streets
are narrow. These houses, in fact, are old-fashioned gentlemen's dwelling houses, which have been