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148
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 institutious 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." For persons
in the lowest ranks of the labouring classes nothing better,
perhaps, could be devised.
The proposed model lodging-house is to accommodate about
320 persons. The whole area, it may be mentioned, was cleared in
1889, under a provisional order confirmed in May, 1887. It comprised
108 houses occupied by 1208 persons. The Home
Secretary, by a confirming order made in January last, sanctioned
a reduction in the number of persons to be provided for to 608,
and approved amended plans for the lodging-house. After competition,
architects' plans have been obtained and approved. The
buildings will have a frontage of 180 feet, a depth of 65 feet,
and a height of about 41 feet, being in four stories. The
quantities will be taken out as soon as the working drawings have
been prepared. The cost of the building, as estimated in April
last, when the Committee made their recommendation for its
erection, will be £11,000 including furnishing, and the net
return, based upon a charge of 4d, a bed per night will, it is
estimated, yield 4 per cent. on the outlay and value of the site.
The Committee have been authorised this month (June) to
issue advertisements, inviting tenders for the erection of the
building.
* Memorandum by Mr. (now Lord) Cross, Home Secretary, in the Supplementary
Eeport 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, 1890, as the result of inspection of this system by members of
the Committee.