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IV
APPENDIX.
disposal is too small for the purpose. On the other hand, the
closure of a large number of dwellings, without the possibility of
their being rebuilt would deprive a large number of people, whose
work is in the neighbourhood, of a home. Recently the pulling down
of the premises between Drury Lane and Catherine Street in the
parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, as well as the closing of houses in
this District, has led to the persons displaced crowding into the
adjoining courts and alleys; thus the population of the Area marked
A on the plan appended has increased from 1,605 in 1889 to 1,811
in the middle of 1895. This has been effected partly by the
displacement of families who were able to rent several rooms
each, by the addition of others only able to rent one or at most two
rooms, and partly by overcrowding, which has constantly occupied
the attention of your Sanitary staff, with the result that while it
was abated in one part it re-appeared in another.
The Strand Board of Works having no power to provide now and
healthy dwellings for those displaced, or to re-arrange the streets,
alleys and courts so as to provide for more air and light, it appeared
to me that the proper course to pursue was to bring the matter
under the attention of the London County Council, who have the
power to deal with it in a permanent and satisfactory manner.
In order, therefore, to bring the question officially before that
body, I have prepared the following statement (called the "Official
Representation") under Part I. of the Housing of the Working
Classes Act, which, having reported to the Strand Board, I
forwarded to the County Council on the 23rd November, 1894,
with a map showing the parts of the District to which the
Representation relates:—
Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890.
LONDON (STRAND DISTRICT) IMPROVEMENT, 1894.
To
The London County Council.
I, Francis John Allan, of 5, Tavistock Street, Covent
Garden, in the County of London, Doctor of Medicine and
Master in Surgery of the University of Edinburgh, Diplomate in
Public Health of the University of Cambridge, Medical Officer of