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147
perty in which they were interested was wrongly included in the
insanitary area. In June, the Council received from the Home Secretary
copies of the provisional order confirming the scheme. The
Bill confirming the provisional order has received the Royal assent.
The next step in the procedure is that of serving copies of the
provisional order upon the owners, lessees, and occupiers, as provided
by the Act of Parliament.
MUNICIPAL LODGING-HOUSES.
In my Annual Report for 1888, I observed that it would be
well should it be possible for the County Council to enter into
competition with the owners of insanitary houses, by providing
decent houses for the working classes at a moderate but remunerative
rent, under Lord Shaftesbury's Act. The Council,
shortly afterwards, resolved to make the attempt on the "Hughes
Field Area," at Deptford, some seven acres in extent, which had
been acquired by the Metropolitan Board of Works, under Cross's
Acts. 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, 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 Council have been more successful in their
attempt to provide Municipal Common Lodging-houses, having
obtained the consent of the Home Secretary to their proposal to
erect one such on a part of the Shelton Street (St. Giles) area, which
was acquired and cleared by their predecessors. The scheme
will be carried out on the lines so successfully adopted at Glasgow.
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,