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114
Works under the Artizans' Dwellings Acts, and under a Provisional
Order confirmed in July, 1885. But, at a later period, the Housing
of the Working Classes Committee, having inspected the site—
the Home Secretary, moreover, having refused his sanction—they
arrived at the conclusion that the decision of the Council should
be reconsidered; and on their recommendation (in December), it
was resolved to advertise the land in the usual way, subject to the
condition of the erection, in a manner approved by the Council, of
buildings affording accommodation for the number of persons
fixed by the Home Secretary, and to dispose of the remainder of
the site as surplus land.
The Housing Committee in the same report (December 9th)
informed the Council that after full consideration they had
resolved that it was desirable that municipal common lodginghouses
should be erected by the Council in approved situations,
and would report on the whole matter as soon as they were in a
position to make a specific recommendation. Accordingly, in
March last, they did report in favour of the scheme, on
the lines of the system in vogue at Glasgow. For persons
in the lowest ranks of the labouring classes nothing better,
perhaps, could be devised. In that city " the lowest class of
the population, the waifs and strays, too poor or too improvident
to be able to rent houses, are provided with furnished,
airy lodging-houses, with large day rooms, lavatories, &c.,
where each has a separate clean bed, at the charge (including
use of cooking range and utensils) of 3½d. per night;
and these institutions are so managed as to be self-supporting,
including 5 per cent. interest on the capital."* This would be
an improvement upon our common lodging-house system,
administered under the supervision of the police, and which I
once heard Lord Shaftesbury commend as " the perfection of
sanitary administration as applied to the housing of the poor."
* Memorandum by Mr. (now Lord) Gross, Home Secretary, in the Supplementary
Report of the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working
Classes, 1885 (page 66). The facts stated are more than borne out by the
Housing of the Working Classes Committee of the Council in their report,
dated 31st March last, as the result of inspection of this system by members of
the Committee