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60
I should like to draw special attention to the case of twenty-nine
houses dealt with in Collingwood St. This portion of the South
Sub-district is one of the unhealthy areas specially referred to on
page 7, ante.
The usual proceedings were taken and closing orders made on
the whole of the 29 houses. They were in every instance damp,
dilapidated, thoroughly worn out, and, in my opinion, only fit for
demolition. The owner, who had only recently acquired the
property, thought otherwise, and although he could not successfully
oppose the closing order, he made a piteous appeal to the Sanitary
Committee not to enforce it on the whole of the houses at one time,
on the ground that the occupiers would have great difficulty in
obtaining other dwellings. The Sanitary Committee considering
this reasonable agreed to permit the owner to close and repair the
houses in batches of five in accordance with a full specification
which he presented. The repairing, or rather the botching up, of
the first five of these houses was very badly done, the workmen
employed and the materials used being of a most unsatisfactory
description. As the work approached completion application was
made for the re-opening of the houses, but upon examination such
grave defects were still apparent that consent was refused; time
after time the same request was made with a similar result, until
our patience was well nigh exhausted. I should not like to say
upon how many occasions Mr. Foot and I inspected these hovels;
eventually just enough of the cheapest description of work was done
and the houses were so far repaired that we could no longer say
that they were absolutely unfit for habitation, and the closing orders
were withdrawn. The same process went on with the next five,
and I have no doubt will continue to the end of the chapter.
In January my attention was drawn to the condition of Faith St.,
Cambridge Eoad. The houses were carefully examined and the
following report was presented:—
Gentlemen,
I beg to report that I have examined the houses in Faith
Street, Cambridge Road, Bethnal Green, and am of opinion that the