London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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London County Council 1928

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

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193
(Moffat House)—2 rooms, 9s. to 10s.; 3 rooms, 11s. 3d. to 13s. 6d.; 4 rooms
13s. 6d. to 14s. 6d.; 5 rooms, 15s. 6d. to 16s. 6d. Shore-estate (Grendon House)—
2 rooms, 6s. to 7s.; 3 rooms, 8s. to 9s. (Kendal House)—2 rooms, 8s. to 9s. 6d.
3 rooms, 10s. to 12s. 6d.; 4 rooms, 11s. 6d. to 13s. 6d.; 5 rooms, 14s. 6d. to 16s
Wapping-estate (Chancellor, Flinders, Frobisher and Franklin Houses)—2 rooms
5s. 6d. to 7s.; 3 rooms, 7s. 6d. to 9s.; 4 rooms, 9s. 9d. to 11s. Whitmore-estate
(Stringer Houses—Blocks 6 and 8)—1 room, 5s. 9d. and 6s. 3d.; 2 rooms, 7s. 3d
and 7s. 9d.; 3 rooms, 9s. 3d. and 9s. 9d. (Fletcher House)—2 rooms, 9s. 6d. and 10s.
3 rooms, 11s. to 12s. 3d.
During the year 1,459 families were displaced by the Council in connection
with the carrying out of slum clearance schemes. Of this total, 802 families
(55 per cent.) were provided with accommodation in the Council's dwellings,
453 (31 per cent.) were transferred to premises belonging to the Council and maintained
temporarily pending demolition for the purpose for which they were acquired;
and the remaining 204 families (14 per cent.) removed to property not belonging
to the Council. The families housed temporarily will in due course be offered permanent
accommodation on the Council's estates.
During the year the Council made grants not exceeding £150 in all, out of
interest on deposits paid by tenants on taking up tenancies, for prizes for the best
kept gardens and window boxes on the Council's estates, and contributions to the
local funds for judging the various competitions. The Council also made a contribution
of £20 towards the judging expenses of the London Gardens Guild.
During the year the Council accepted the offer of the Bethnal Green Metropolitan
Borough Council to supply electricity to tenants at the Council's Boundarystreet
estate who so desired; permission was also given, on certain conditions,
to the Fixed Price Light Company, Limited, to wire the Council's existing dwellings
in Poplar so as to render available electricity for lighting purposes to tenants who
desired such a supply.
One of the results of the disastrous Thames flood of 7th January, 1928, was that
considerable damage was caused to the property of some of the Council's tenants
at Millbank-estate, Westminster, and of the tenants of some old property in Bermondsey,
which had been acquired by the Council for demolition in connection with the
Hickman's-folly improvement scheme. The superintendent's quarters at Millbank
were also flooded and his furniture and other property injured by the water. Considerable
distress and suffering were occasioned to the tenants concerned and
immediate steps were taken by the Council to ameliorate their condition by the
provision of temporary sleeping accommodation, supplies of bedding, and of coal, etc.,
to enable them to dry their tenements and effects affected by the flood waters.
The actual losses sustained by the Council's tenants (and by the superintendent)
through the effects of the flood were also made good by the Council, the payments
to tenants being made in the first place out of the local voluntary relief funds
established to deal with the matter, the amounts so paid being reimbursed by the
Council. The total outlay was about £525 in the case of Millbank-estate and about
£159 in the case of the Hickman's-folly area. There was no loss of life among the
Council's tenants, and no material damage was caused to the structure of any of the
dwellings erected by the Council itself.
Considerable distress was also caused by the flood to many dwellers in riparian
metropolitan boroughs, a number of houses being rendered either permanently or
temporarily uninhabitable, and the Council made arrangements for preferential
treatment to be granted in the allocation of accommodation on its housing estates
to families so displaced.
The average number of workmen employed by contractors on the Council's
housing development operations at the end of the year was about 4,100. About 800
men, including 41 workmen caretakers, were continually engaged during the year on
Rehousing.
Prizes for
gardens and
window
boxes.
Council's
dwellings—
Supply of
electricity.
Thames
floods—
Housing
estates.
Staff.