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60 Annual Report of the London County Council, 1913.
as was pointed out last year that the removal of small accumulations of manure will probably become
a matter of increasing difficulty, inasmuch as contractors will not find its collection sufficiently
remunerative. The question is deserving of the consideration of local authorities who have power to
act under section 36 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891.
Smoke
nuisances.

Housing
Act, 1890
Part I.
Bradystreet
area,
Bethnal-
green.
Housing of the Working Classes.
On 24th February, 1904, an official representation under Part I. of the Housing of the Working
Classes Act, 1890, was made to the Council by the medical officer of health of the Metropolitan Borough
of Bethnal-green. This representation related to an area of about four acres, on which were 226 houses
inhabited by 1,286 persons. The average death-rate on this area was at that time 28.5 per thousand,
the death-rate for the whole of the borough being 21.3 per thousand. The houses were described as
being almost all in the worst possible condition, and it was alleged that "nothing short of clearing the
area and rebuilding the houses would be effectual."
It appeared to the Committee of the Council which considered the representation of 1904 that
the re-development of the area on more modern lines could be effected by private enterprise, and they
pointed out to the borough council that in these circumstances the re-arrangement of the area at the
public expense was not altogether justifiable and urged the borough council to exercise in the meantime
its powers under the Public Health and other Acts for remedying the evils connected with the
area. The borough council did not accept the view of the Council's Housing Committee, and after
further correspondence the borough medical officer of health made, on 4th April, 1912, a new formal
representation.
This comprised an area slightly exceeding seven acres, the area represented in 1904 being about
four acres in extent. Instead of 226 houses with 1,286 persons, 528 houses and tenements with 3,058
persons were included, so that, in most respects, the area originally represented was more than doubled.
The population on this site was about 430 to the acre, as compared with 169 to the acre for the
borough of Bethnal-green, and 60 to the acre for the whole county of London. The death rate of the
area was stated to be 24.74 per thousand, as against 16.71 for the whole borough, and about 14 for
all London. This death rate was not so high as in the Tabard-street area, but the population to the
acre was much larger in the Brady-street area.
Many, or most, of the houses were in as bad and decayed a condition, and were as incapable
of being made fit for human habitation, and as deserving of destruction as those in the Tabard-street
area. On the other hand, the ground plan construction of the Brady-street area, although very
defective, was not so objectionable as was the case in Tabard-street. The Brady-street area was,
moreover, in the hands of a smaller number of separate owners than was the Tabard-street area,
and for this reason it appeared to the Housing Committee that it would be more practicable
to deal with it under the powers of Part II. of the Act of 1890, and the provisions of the Housing,
Town Planning, etc., Act, 1909, if strongly used.
The borough council was, however, strongly averse from further proceedings under Part II. of
(a) Complaints only.