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recent year-;. In 427 houses one room only is so used; in 285, two
rooms are used; in 27, three rooms; in 18, four rooms; and in 3 houses, five
rooms are used. In all, 1,185 rooms are used as workshops in private houses.
Insanitary Areas and Clearing Schemes.—The acquirement and clearing
of a site with subsequent re-housing is slow work. This will be appreciated
by the following account of the present position with regard to insanitary
areas that I have officially represented as unfit under the Housing Acts:—
(a) Bell Lane Area.—I made an official representation on December 2nd,
1919, that the houses in the area were unfit for human habitation and dangerous
to the health of the inhabitants of the buildings therein. Further, that the
most satisfactory method of dealing with the evils connected with such houses,
and the sanitary defects in such area, was an improvement scheme for the
re-arrangement and reconstruction of the streets and houses within such area.
The area is situated in Spitafields to the west of Commerical 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 consisted of 293 houses with a population
of 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 were not all equally bad—some were much worse than others.
Most of the houses in Bell Lane, Wentworth Court and Wentworth Street
were probably built previous to 1800, and the remainder between 1800 and
1850.
The Ministry of Health held a public inquiry at the St. George's Town
Hall on October 29th, 1920. The inquiry lasted three days.
In this area there were nearly thirty houses which were purchased by the
Postmaster-General nearly 10 years previously, for the purpose of constructing
a Telephone Exchange. Sixteen of the houses were unoccupied for many
years, viz., ten in Butler Street, three in Tenter Street and three in Freeman
Street. At the time they became vacant they were in a fair condition, but