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14
of erecting tenement dwelling houses, proposed to appropriate
a large portion of the site for the construction of a
common lodging house with accommodation for about 320
persons. Seeing that at the time in question there were 50
common Lodging Houses in the district capable of accommodating
1,810 persons, and having regard to the necessity that
existed for tenement accommodation in the neighbourhood,
the Board felt it to be their duty to make representations
to the Secretary of State for the Home Department upon
the subject, with a view of inducing him not to sanction
so large a portion of the site being devoted to the purpose
proposed. A letter was accordingly addressed to the Secretary
of State upon the subject, and subsequently a deputation
attended at the Home Office in support of the same.
They were introduced by Mr. Gainsford Bruce, Q.C., M.P.,
who very clearly laid before the Under Secretary of State,
Mr. Stuart Wortley, M.P., the Board's views, but subsequently
a communication was received, in which the Secretary
of State intimated that he did not see his way to withhold
his sanction to the proposed arrangement. In consequence
of this deviation from the original plan for re-housing
the persons dispossessed by the scheme, certain further
modifications were resolved upon by the London County
Council, and they applied to the Home Secretary to make
a Provisional Order, under the Housing of the Working
Classes Act, 1890, sanctioning their proposals. The provisions
were firstly, that Shelton Street should be stopped
up, with the exception of a short length at the western end,
which was to remain the same width, and between which
and Parker Street a new street, 20 feet wide, was to be
constructed. Secondly, that certain strips of land in MackJin
Street should not be devoted to the purpose of Artizans'