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I he changes in the character of the City set out in the above extract continued
during subsequent years but with increased intensity. The impelling force was
the development of the commercial spirit which seized England and of which
London was the centre. The above table shows that the number of inhabited
houses was 17,738 in 1801, but in 1851 it had declined to 14,580. At the same time
uninhabited houses, which include shops, offices and warehouses, had increased from
600 to 1,453, and I think it may be assumed th'at the increase was mainly due to
the growth of commercial premises.
In 1847,the first City Medical Officer of Health, Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Simon,
was appointed. His reports, which are now classics in the domain of State Medicine,
direct attention in picturesque and descriptive language to the evils which
then existed. It seems strange to read of the effect on the general health of the
people of the window tax in association with objectionable cesspools, dangerous
overcrowding and extreme deficiency of internal and external ventilation. Closed
courts were obviously the danger centres and, suggesting a visit, he graphically
describes the effects:— "The stranger feels his breathing constrained as though he
were in a diving bell and experiences afterwards a sensible and immediate relief as
he emerges again into the comparatively open street."
The efforts of Sir John Simon both in the City and later at the Privy Council
doubtlessly contributed to the passing of the earlier Housing Acts and considerable
advantage was taken by Dr. Sedgwick Saunders, a later City Medical Officer of
Health, of the powers contained in the Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement
Act, 1875. On December 13th, 1878, the Finance and Improvement
Committee reported to the Commissioners of Sewers respecting 21 areas which had
been scheduled by Dr. Saunders in 1875. The houses affected numbered 582, containing
2,623 rooms, and inhabited by 5,546 persons. Very few of those houses
remained standing at the date of the report referred to.
The efforts of the Sanitary Authority combined with the inroads which demolitions
for business purposes made on houses resulted in the 14,500 inhabited houses
of 1851 being reduced to 6,507 in 1881, and conversely uninhabited houses, again
including shops, offices and warehouses, increased from 1,453 to 4,755. At the
same time the population declined to a total representing two-fifths of what it was
in 1851.
For many years no further demolition schemes were promoted. Private
persons, singly or in combination, in answer to calls, purchased and demolished
dwelling houses in large numbers. In this way courts and alleys disappeared
rapidly, and the efforts of the Authority to rid the City of unsuitable premises
were limited to action in respect of individual houses. Closures were obtained by
invoking the aid of the City Sewers Acts, 1847—51. Concurrent with these demolitions,
various institutions found it advisable to leave the City, the outstanding
example being Christ's Hospital, and to meet increasing needs as a commercial
centre, railway stations made additional calls on the remaining residential property.
It may safely be stated that the decrease of inhabited houses from 6,507 in
1881 to 2,784 in 1911 was mainly due to commercial progress. The population
in the same period declined from 50,652 to 19,657.
During the demolition period a number of buildings designed to house members
of the labouring classes were erected, the chief being the five blocks of Corporation
Dwellings in Harrow Alley and Stoney Lane at present accommodating 880
persons, five small blocks erected by private enterprise in Dean Street, Fetter Lane,
and a few in other places.
POSITION IN RECENT YEARS.—The position at the beginning of the
present century was that there was not a large number of courts or houses presenting
those grossly insanitary conditions recorded in the fifties and even more recently.
Some houses which had been found to be reasonably satisfactory in various courts
had been left when the remainder were demolished, and some courts, which forty or
fifty years ago were not absolutely closed in, and which received a reasonable amount
of sunshine and were fairly well ventilated externally, were also regarded as fit for
human habitation. It is these houses which to-day come under serious review.
The spare land in the courts has been built upon and the whole court surrounded by