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the structural and sanitary condition of the houses, which
are the concern of the Sanitary Authority, the clerical
correspondents had almost less. And I will only observe
here, with reference to the houses, that if it were possible
to clear them of their present inhabitants, and to substitute
a better class—artizans, labourers, etc., there would be
little cause for complaint, and none probably that could
not be remedied. The streets in question are almost
incessantly under inspection; works of sanitary improvement
have been carried out at many of the houses, and
works of cleansing are always going on, more or less, All
this is known to your Vestry, and especially to the Sanitary
Committee, the Chairman of which wrote to the Daily News
to the following effect:—
"A West-end Avernus.—Sir,—My attention has been called to a recent
article in the Daily News under the above heading, and to certain letters
by the Rev. Dr. Williamson, Vicar of St. James' Norland, and the Rev.
C. E. T. Roberts, Incumbent of St. Clement's, as well as to your leading
article in to-day's issue upon the same subject. Throughout these articles
and letters, there runs an assumption that the Vestry of Kensington are indifferent
to the state of the poor people inhabiting what is known as the
'Potteries' district, Notting Dale. Nothing could be more erroneous.
Within the last few years, the Commissioners appointed by the Vestry have
erected, in close proximity to the said district, Public Baths and Washhouses
at a cost of some £60,000. In 1891, the Commissioners appointed
by the Vestry, established a Public Library and Reading Rooms within a
convenient distance, and only last year the Vestry provided a large public
recreation ground, known as Avondale Park, in the very midst of the
poorest streets in the district. Your Commissioner's article, and the letters
above referred to, go to show that it is not so much the condition of the
houses that forms the subject of complaint as the character and condition of
the wretched inhabitants of the district. This is in very deed the fact.
The locality is infested with tramps, who come nightly from all parts of
the Metropolis to sleep in the numerous common lodging houses which
have been registered by the Police Authorities. It contains, moreover,
many of the waifs and strays of the people driven from other districts by
schemes carried out by the late Metropolitan Board of Works, under
powers conferred by the Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Acts, devised
for improving the dwellings of the poor. The Vestry, as Sanitary Authority,
have no control over the Common Lodging Houses, which they
would gladly see substituted by a ' Parker Street Palace,' should it be the