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46
Unhealthy Areas.
I made an official representation under Part I of the Housing of the Working
Classes Act, 1890, with respect to two areas in the Borough. The representation
was made to the London County Council, the authority responsible for the administration
of Part I, the area being too large to be dealt with under Part II.
(1) Bell Lane Area.—The official representation was made on December 2nd,
1919, that the houses in the area are unfit for human habitation and dangerous to
the health of the inhabitants of the buildings therein. Further, that in my opinion
the most satisfactory method of dealing with the evils connected with such houses
and the sanitary defects in such area is an improvement scheme for the re-arrangement
and reconstruction of the streets and houses within such area.
The area is situated in Spitalfields to the west of Commercial Street and to the
east of Bell Lane and is bounded on the north by Butler Street and on the south
by Wentworth Street, but includes six houses to the south side of Wentworth
Street. It includes Bell Lane (east side), Bell Court, Tenter Street, Butler Street
(south side), Freeman Street, Palmer Street, Tilley Street, Shepherd Street and
Buildings, Emery Place, Eastman's Court, Katherine Terrace, Wentworth Street
(31 to 73 and 52 to 62), Wentworth Courts, and Ann's Place.
The area covers about 4 acres, and consists of 293 houses with a population
about 1,351 people. 23 houses were unoccupied, 33 were used for business premises
only and the remaining 235 were occupied by members of the working classes.
The houses are not all equally bad—some are much worse than others.
According to a map dated 1799, there were houses in Wentworth Street and
Bell Lane, and in Courts at the back of both of these streets but in the interior of
the area there was an open ground known as Tenter Ground. According to an old
report of the Medical Officer of Health for the Whitechapel District the Tenter
Ground was paved about 1850. In 1858 much satisfaction is expressed by the
Medical Officer of Health in his Annual Report for 1857 for a new sewer which was
constructed in Shepherd Street, where nearly all the houses had cesspools previously,
which have been abolished since its construction, so that at that date every house
was properly drained.
In 1860 sewers were constructed and all the houses in Butler Street, Palmer
Street, Tilley Street, Tenter Street and Freeman Street were in that year drained
into the new sewers.
It is therefore fairly conclusive that most of the houses in Bell Lane, Wentworth
Court, Wentworth Street, were built previous to 1800 and that the remainder were
constructed some time between 1800 and 1850.