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and providing a passenger and goods station at Gale-street and an electricity station
at Halbutt-street. Certain strips of land are to be surrendered free of cost to the
Company for any necessary widening of the approach roads to the railway bridges
on the estate. As part of the arrangement the Company agreed to surrender two
areas (in all about 3.2 acres) adjoining Dagenham station in order to rectify the
estate boundary. By way of equality of exchange a net payment of £6,000 is to be
paid by the Company.
Particulars of certain reductions in the rents of houses and flats at Becontree
are given on page 186.
Pending the completion of houses which are being provided by the Dagenham
Urban District Council, the temporary letting, for a period not exceeding 12 months,
of 5 houses on the estate to employees of the District Council was authorised.
There is need at Becontree for further accommodation at low rents for carrying
on small businesses, and the Council on 19th March, 1929, decided to erect 4 small
lock-up shops for the purpose on the Dagenham (No. 8) section of the estate.
Bellingham.
The total area of Bellingham (Lewisham) is 252 acres, and, under the main
contract, completed in 1923, for the development of the portion of the estate devoted
to working-class dwellings (176½ acres), 2,096 houses and flats have been erected.
A few vacant plots were left, on which 32 additional houses have since been erected.
The last of these houses was handed over in November, 1929, thus completing the
estate, so far as the erection of working-class dwellings is concerned, and bringing the
total of the houses and flats provided by the Council to 2,128.
Downham.
The housing estate at Downham (Lewisham and Bromley), which is about
522 acres in extent, was acquired under compulsory powers. The estate is being
developed by Holland and Hannen and Cubitts, Limited, under a "value-cost"
contract, and the main portion of the estate is nearly completed. On 2nd July,
1929, the Council decided to proceed with the development of a small section of the
estate for which arrangements had not previously been made. About 193 additional
houses will be erected on this section, thus bringing the total number of houses to
be erected on the estate to 6,071, of which 5,878 had been completed by the end of
the year.
During the year a site was sold to the London City Mission for a mission hall
and a strip of land was sold to the Roman Catholic Church authorities for addition
to the site sold to them in 1927 for a church and elementary school. A site was leased
for 99 years for the erection of shop premises with living accommodation over them.
Small strips of land were surrendered for addition to the public way. On 18th June,
1929, the Council decided to carry out at an estimated cost of £8,000 the extension
to Baring-road of Downham-way, which is a tramway route through the estate. Of
this expenditure £5,430 is chargeable as part of the cost of the housing estate,
the remainder, to which the Minister of Transport has been asked to contribute,
being chargeable to other accounts.
St. Helier
estate.
The main portions of St. Helier estate (Morden and Carshalton) were acquired
under compulsory powers obtained in 1926 and 1927. The estate, which now comprises
about 825 acres, is being developed by C. J. Wills and Sons, Limited, under
a "value-cost" contract. After allowing for open spaces and buildings for various
purposes other than dwelling accommodation, the estate will be capable of providing
in all for about 10,000 houses. At the end of 1929 over 1,000 houses, etc., were
in course of construction, a number of which were nearing completion.
A portion, consisting of about 78 acres of the estate lies to the west of the new
Wimbledon and Sutton branch of the Southern Railway. The intervening railway
would have mitigated against this portion of the estate obtaining the full benefit
of the large scale building operations contemplated by the Council for the estate as
a whole, and the 78 acres of land in question were therefore offered for disposal for the
erection of houses by private enterprise. In order that the aggregate area of the