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immigrants continually pouring into London, the suburbs are being
built upon to a very great extent. It is therefore most desirable
for the maintenance of the public health, that any new Building Act
should apply, not only to the Metropolis, but to the entire country.
I may here remark that the rents of the wretched houses which
are now standing in some parts of the District of Whitechapel are
very high; so much as 5/0 per week is demanded for three small
rooms, and these rooms are usually sub-let at 2/6 each. A single
room is sometimes obtained for 2/0 per week. Other houses, of a
similar description, are let at 6/0 per week, and the cost for two
rooms varies from 4/0 to 7/6, while the rents of the rooms in the
Peabody Buildings, in which the comfort and convenience of the
tenants have been studied are infinitely better, and are not nearly
so high.
It has generally been supposed that the greater number of the
people living in the densely crowded courts are engaged at work in
the vicinity of their dwellings, but on inquiry I find that it is not the
case. Many work at the river side as wharf and dock labourers, and
on the river as stevedores and coal whippers. I was further informed
that this class of persons, if they had to move further eastward would
not be inconvenienced, as a number of them are employed in the
East and West India Docks, and even as far as the Victoria Docks.
The coal whippers have to go to various places down the river,
sometimes as far as Gravesend.
In my evidence recently given before the Select Committee of
the House of Commons, on the subject of the working of the
Artizans' Dwellings Act (1875), I stated that it would be much
cheaper to many of the working classes, and infinitely better for
their health, if they were to live in the suburbs, and ride either by
rail or tram-car into London and back every working day. Not only
by so doing would their health be improved, but their comfort would
be greatly increased, and the additional expense which they would
incur by riding into town would be recouped by the lower rent that
would be incurred by lodging in the country.
It appears from the Table of Fares published by the Great
Eastern Railway, that Third Class Return Tickets for Workmen are
issued daily on Week-days to Liverpool Street at 2d. each from all
the intervening stations on the Great Eastern Line as far as Enfield.