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degraded and cut up into slices, and sub-let as lodgings for the working classes. Sanitary work, in
the way of reconstructing drainage, the provision of additional water-closets, the repression of overcrowding,
and the enforcement of periodical cleansings, has now been pushed with increasing severity
for many years—as fast as public opinion and new Public Health Acts have supported and given
power to the vestry and its sanitary officers. In this quarter the need for wholesale warehouses and
workshops subservient to the great retail shops of St. James's has caused a gradual process of extrusion
with regard to the worst houses and the dirtiest of the inhabitants. A question for the consideration of the
vestry is whether the time has not arrived for quickening this process of extrusion by opening up a new
street on the eastern side of and parallel to Regent-street.
" Reference to the map will show that in this way the betterment of the eastern section of St.
James's would be secured in combination with a great metropolitan improvement. Starting from the
south, and going north by north-west, such new street might be run in alignment with Waterloo-place,
or with the Haymarket, or with Suffolk-street, or with Whitcombe-street. Taking the Haymarket as
the southern base, a new street running straight through to Poland-street would be of very great use
both to the local property and to the metropolis. It would also add largely to the value of the extensive
site on which the old workhouse now stands. At present the poor of the Westminster Union are
consigned to a deplorable existence, and I earnestly ask whether a small receiving house in St. James's,
with a comfortable and cheerful new workhouse in the country, would not be a great mercy to these
aged people, and a great saving to the ratepayers. The wretched and dingy courtyard in which these
aged people now hopelessly sit and walk, in an atmosphere grimy with the smoke of London, might be
exchanged for pleasant fields and plots of garden ground, in which the inmates could occupy themselves
with the cultivation of vegetables or flowers. Several acres of the most valuable ground in St. James's,
with frontages on the new street, would be released for a splendid block of workmen's model
dwellings, to which might be appended small workshops in which gas, water and steam, or electrical
motor power could be let to the skilled artisans whose livelihood depends upon their proximity to the
retail shops of St. James's. It is not necessary for me now to elaborate this proposal: it was suggested
by me in 1875, but opinion was then adverse, and it was allowed to rest. Now that I am directed by
the Local Government Board to indicate 'the measures of sanitary improvement required in St. James's,'
I bring the idea seriously forward. The advantage of a series of model workshops for tailors, dressmakers,
jewellers, engravers, and other chamber-master workers would conduce immensely to the
prosperity of the splendid retail shops and warehouses which support St. James's. If a new street were
cut through on the line here suggested, the new access would immensely increase the value of the large
block of property lying between the new street and Regent-street, and the old houses on the eastern
side of St. James's would disappear without further effort. I commend this question earnestly to the
consideration of the Vestry of St. James's."
Amendment of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890.
The Housing of the Working Classes Committee had under consideration during 1896 the
question of the amendment of the Act of 1890. A report recommending that the Parliamentary
and Housing of the Working Classes Committees should be instructed to approach Her
Majesty's Government with a view to securing amendments of the Act was adopted by the Council in
October. The amendments recommended by the Committee were as follows—
Part I.
(а) That an amendment of the Act be sought so as to make the period during three consecutive weeks
of which advertisements under the section are to appear, a period of any three weeks running consecutively
during the three months September, October and November.
(б) That an amendment of the Act be sought so as to obtain power to modify a scheme, after
the lapse of three years from the date of the clearance of the improvement area, in order to enable the
Council to sell the land freed from the conditions imposed by the scheme, and with the money so obtained
to purchase other lands to be devoted to the provision of accommodation for persons of the labouring
class.
Parts I. and II.
(c) That an amendment of the Act be sought, so that power may be given to the local authority to
insert in any scheme under the Act a betterment clause either to the effect of section 36 of the Council's
Tower Bridge (Southern Approach) Act, 1895, or to such effect as experience or the circumstances of the
particular scheme may render expedient.
Part I.
(d) That an amendment of the Act be sought by the substitution of a period of six for the period
of thirteen weeks during which placards are required to be published advertising the Council's intention
to take fifteen or more houses in pursuance of a scheme under Part J. of the Act.
(e) That a provision be inserted in Part II. of the Act fixing the date of the service of the notice
upon the person interested, as the date after which alterations to and improvements of property shall not
increase the compensation payable.
Part II.
(/) That a provision be inserted in the Act empowering one local authority to purchase the interest
of the other authority in cases where one contributes towards the cost of a scheme under Part II. which
is carried into effect by the other.
(g) That an amendment of the Act be sought so as to enable the vestries and district boards to proceed
for closing orders in respect of property which cannot be rendered fit for human habitation without
reconstruction, without first serving the owners of property with notice to repair.
(h) That an amendment of the Act be sought by which an authority carrying out or contributing
to the cost of carrying out a scheme under Part II. may be enabled to borrow for the purpose of paying
or contributing to the payment of any expenses of or incidental to the scheme, and carrying the same intoeffect.
(i) That an amendment of the Act be sought so that the contribution by the Council towards the
expenses of the carrying of a scheme into effect by a vestry or district board shall be for such amount and