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House. The dwellings will be of four storeys of the simplified type of construction,
and will contain 40 tenements comprising 95 rooms with accommodation for 190
persons. The tender of Messrs. R. Woollaston & Company, amounting to £14,867 3s.
for the building work was accepted, and at the end of the year the excavations and
concreting for the foundations were in progress.
Prusom-
street
scheme.
The scheme made by the Council for dealing with the Prusom-street area in
Wapping (8½ acres), as confirmed by the Minister of Health, involves the displacement
of 2,601 persons of the working classes and the confirming order requires the provision
of accommodation for an equal number, of whom not fewer than 1,000 are to be
accommodated on certain defined lands within the area. Certain houses in Watts
street and Old Gravel-lane which were of a slightly better class than the other property
included in the scheme as submitted to the Minister of Health were omitted by the
Minister on confirmation. The effect of this exclusion was to leave the Council
with an irregularly shaped plot of land to be developed for housing purposes, and
consequently negotiations were opened up with the owners of the property in question
with a view to the Council pin-chasing the property, and on 19th January, 1926,
the Council agreed to the acquisition of the property for a sum not exceeding
£1,000. The name Wapping estate has been selected for the area when
reconstructed.
The first block of dwellings to be known as Willoughby House, containing 31
tenements with accommodation for 184 persons, was completed towards the end of
the year.
On 26th October, 1926, the Council approved a capital estimate of £1,500
for preliminary expenses in connection with the development of the remainder
of the estate, and by the end of the year preliminary plans of blocks Nos. 2 to 5 had
been approved and the working drawings were in hand.
On the basis of the rents charged for accommodation at the Council's dwellings
in Cable-street, Shadwell, situated about half a mile from Wapping estate, and
after making allowances for amenities and the difference in the size of rooms, the
Council, on 27th July, 1926, fixed the net weekly rents (exclusive of rates) for
accommodation at Willoughby House according to the following scale:—Ground
floor—two rooms, 7s. 6d. to 8s.; three rooms, 9s. 6d. to 10s.; four rooms, 12s.
First and second floors—two rooms, 8s. to 8s. 6d.; three rooms, 10s. to 11s.; four
rooms, 12s. 6d. Third and fourth floors combined—three rooms, 9s. 6d. to 10s. 9d.;
four rooms, 12s. to 12s. 6d.
Offers were accepted during the year of (1) the Stepney Metropolitan Borough
Council to instal electric lighting free of cost to the Council in dwellings on the estate ;
and (2) the Commercial Gas Company to instal a gas service for cooking purposes,
etc., at a charge of £1 14s. a tenement.
Owing to the extreme difficulty experienced in the clearance of the Prusomstreet
area, the Council, on 29th June, 1926, decided to appropriate for housing
purposes the disused casual wards in Raymond-street, originally acquired
as a site for the erection of a new elementary school, and selected a site,
comprising the northern part of the adjoining open space (Wapping Recreation
Ground) for the erection of the new school. In consideration of the portion of the
recreation ground to be surrendered for the erection of the new school, the Council
decided to add to the open space a portion of the Prusom-street area of slightly
larger area than that proposed to be appropriated for the school. It is proposed to
erect on the Raymond-street site, a five-story block of tenement dwellings with
accommodation for about 260 persons. This proposal has the advantage of providing
housing accommodation on the area without involving any displacement of population.
Watergate-
street
scheme.
A scheme for dealing with an unhealthy area in Deptford and Greenwich, known
as the Watergate-street area (7.38 acres) was made by the Council on 10th February,