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THE HEALTH OF BARKING
Neighbourhood Units. The possibility of building a town as a number of
neighbourhood units is a grand idea which sprang up during the war.
The battle on the home front depended fundamentally upon the neighbourliness
of people. It was this neighbourliness which enabled the Civil Defence and other
Services to function without regimentation and I have no doubt it was the success
of these schemes and the possibility of founding them upon the intrinsic neighbourliness
of people which gave rise to the proposal of building the ideal town as a number
of such neighbourhood units.
The possibility of attaining this idea in a new town is fraught with difficulties
but these difficulties can be overcome. The possibility of dividing existing towns
into neighbourhood units brings much greater difficulties, difficulties which can
only be overcome if we say relentlessly they shall be overcome and are willing to
work patiently for many years in order to attain this end.
The whole idea of a neighbourhood unit, founded upon the intrinsic neighbourliness
of people, demands that such a unit shall only be so large that the people within
it look upon themselves as neighbours. At the same time, if those neighbours are
to run their day to day affairs and promote their own cultural and social life it is
obviously wise to make each unit as large as possible, always providing it is only so
large as to ensure that the spirit of neighbourliness is spread over the whole unit
I feel sure it will be found impracticable to create neighbourhood units of less than
5,000, unless we are dealing with a small village in the country. On the other hand,
15,000 represents the largest number of people who can live together to ensure that
all the people throughout the area are, in fact, neighbours.
If, in a town, units of larger than 15,000 were unfortunately created, I feel sure
it will be found that these units naturally split themselves into smaller units which
would be contrary to what it to be understood by a neighbourhood unit.
Fortunately in Barking there are two such areas which can be neighbourhood
units, to wit the Becontree Estate in Barking north of the railway and the Becontree
Estate in Barking south of the railway. Yet they lack one of the fundamental
advantages of a neighbourhood unit, that is that there should be a balanced industrial
‘set up’ in each unit so that the bulk of the people who live there also work locally.
No one could have seen my reports over a number of years without getting the
impression that I was extremely unhappy about the travelling facilities to London
If balanced industries were set up in these units it would greatly relieve the travelling
congestion, do away with much unnecessary fatigue so unpleasant to bear and so
damaging to vital production and improve the health of the citizens by reducing
respiratory diseases. Lastly it would save expense on travel fares which are often a
serious item on the working man's budget.
Employment. It is gratifying to be able to report to you that the Manager of
the Barking Employment Exchange tells me that unemployment has remained at
a very low level, for its effects, admittedly deleterious to bodily welfare, are sometimes
catastrophic to mental health.
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