View report page

VIII
APPENDIX.
"The district generally, is described in Mr. C. Booth's book on
"Labour and Life of the People as having 'a crowded and very
"mixed population," and much of it is marked in his map with the
"dark colours of 'poor' and 'very poor.' Ultimately the bulk of
"this districtlying between Drury Lane and King's College Hospital
"must be rebuilt if only because the houses cannot stand much
"longer, since they are amongst the oldest left in London. Many
"of the persons who now occupy them are compelled by their work
"to live in the district, and it is a question whether the formation
"of a new thoroughfare might not afford an opportunity for the
"Council to undertake a comprehensive scheme for re-housing the
"people displaced. This very difficult question should be at once
"undertaken by the Public Health Committee."
On the 11th July, 1892, the Council instructed "the Public
Health and Housing Committees to consider whether any portions
of the area lying centrally between the Strand and Sardinia
Street should be made the subject of a scheme under Part 1
of the Housing Act, 1890." Apparently this joint Committee
agreed that such a course was necessary, for eventually the
Parliamentary Committee recommended that the Council should
deal with the matter by substituting in a Bill the more favourable
provisions of the Housing Act for those of the Lands
Clauses Consolidation Act, where property was shown to be
insanitary, and in doing so the Committee stated (13th October,
1892):—
"The re-housing under more sanitary conditions of large
"numbers of labouring people displaced by any improvement, is one
"of the public functions of the Council. And thus the new street
"scheme will have the double purpose of giving to the metropolis a
"line of communication most urgently needed, and at the same
"time of dealing with insanitary areas by removing a considerable
"and very poor population from houses and alleys which afford
"them no healthy means of habitation."
"The London Improvements Bill," subsequently introduced into
Parliament in Session 1893, states in the Preamble as one of the
reasons for passing the Bill into law: "And whereas there is
"included within the limits of land which may be required for