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should construct for the Council a length of the new road on the north-east side of
the open space. The work, estimated to cost £4,680, is being carried out on the
basis of actual cost. The borough council is also, on the same terms, widening
Pardoner-street and a portion of Tabard-street, the estimated cost being £3,436.
Brady street
scheme.
On 1st February, 1922, the Minister of Health confirmed with certain modifications
the scheme made by the Council under Part II. of the Housing Act, 1890,
for dealing with the Brady-street area, Bethnal Green (7 acres) at an estimated cost
of £101,000, excluding the cost of new dwellings. About 1,875 persons of the working
classes will be displaced and the confirming order requires the provision of accommodation
for 1,600 persons on the cleared site and for 265 persons elsewhere. A
site at Goldsmith's Row, Shoreditch, had been appropriated for the purpose and the
foundations for a block of dwellings to contain 12 tenements with accommodation for
90 persons were commenced in 1921. On 22nd February, 1922, the Council accepted
the tender of Messrs. Allen Fairhead and Son, amounting to £8,725 for the erection
of the superstructure and by the end of the year the dwellings, which are known as
Whiston House, were practically completed. The Shoreditch Metropolitan Borough
Council is installing electricity for lighting, cooking and water heating at an initial
charge of £15 a tenement. This is the first occasion on which electricity has been
adopted for cooking purposes in the Council's dwellings and useful and interesting
results are anticipated from the experiment. The initial weekly net rents proposed
are:—Three rooms, 12s. to 13s.; four rooms, 14s. and 14s. 6d. ; and five rooms
15s. 6d. and 16s.
The Minister of Health has approved a plan for the lay out of the rehousing
site within the Brady-street area and an exchange of lands has been agreed with
Mann, Crossman and Paulin, Ltd., by which an outlying part of the area adjoining
their premises will be retained by or transferred to them, and they undertake to provide
at Walthamstow not fewer than 35 cottages to be approved by the Council
for the accommodation of at least 175 persons, which is the number of those to be
displaced from that part.
Arrangements were made for obtaining early possession of the site for the first
block of dwellings on the Brady-street area, which is intended to accommodate 274
persons, and on 11th October, 1922, the Council accepted the tender of Messrs.
Rowley Bros., amounting to £22,444, for the erection of the building to be known
as Bullen House. For the area when reconstructed the name Collingwood estate
has been selected.
Ware-street
scheme.
On 20th June, 1922, the Minister of Health confirmed, subject to modifications,
the scheme made by the Council for dealing under Part I. of the Housing Act of 1890,
with the Ware-street area, Hoxton of about 9¼ acres and including some 386 dwelling
houses and other buildings. About 2,648 persons of the working classes will be
displaced and accommodation has to be provided for that number, not fewer than
2,160 being provided for within the area. The cost, excluding the cost of erecting
dwellings, is estimated at £93,500. The property on the site required for the erection
of the first block of new dwellings is being acquired, but clearance must proceed
gradually owing to the general housing shortage. The clearance of the second section
will probably be deferred until the new dwellings on the first section are completed.
Included in the scheme are certain licensed premises, and in view of the expenditure
involved in the acquisition of such property in the ordinary way the Council, on
12th December, 1922, decided to enter into an arrangement with the owners of the
“Crown and Sceptre” in Ware-street, whereby the Council will obtain possession
of the site of the premises in exchange for an equivalent site forming part of the surplus
lands under the scheme. This arrangement will facilitate the re-development
of the area.
Hickman's
Folly scheme.
An official representation under Part I. of the Housing Act of 1890, was made to
the Council in January, 1920, by the medical officer of health of Bermondsey with
reference to an insanitary area known as the Hickman's Folly area of about 15½