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2. To provide in the district for the poorest part of the
munity (Class A and B) a municipal lodging house to be
under local control, and the price of accommodation fixed
at the lowest figure, sufficient to cover working expenses
and a contribution to the sinking fund, etc.
3. For Classes C and D, the Borough may
(a) Purchase and convert any suitable large houses in the
borough into tenement dwellings.
(b) Purchase land in the borough and erect suitable
dwellings thereon at the cheapest possible rate.
(c) Purchase land outside the borough (in the suburbs),
and erect suitable dwellings thereon.
There are limitations to the usefulness of this last, as those needing
accommodation most are those who require to live in the district to
be near their work, and the cost of conveyance to and from their
work, if they lived in the suburbs, would probably, with the rent, be
almost equal to lodging in the Borough.
For these last preferential terms might be arranged with railway
companies for the conveyance of the bread winners, lodged in this
way, to and from their work on week days ; and this the companies
ought to grant as the scarcity of accommodation has partly been
brought about by the demolition of many houses during the construction
of the railways which form a network over London.
I do not. pretend in the foregoing remarks to have exhaustively
dealt with the subject of the Housing of the Working Classes ; but I
have endeavoured to treat it sufficiently in detail to enable the.
Committee to grasp the essential features of the problem as it shows
itself in the Borough of Hackney, and have, I hope, while neither
hiding nor exaggerating the difficulties of the task before them,
indicated the lines upon which their efforts should be directed to
house the Working Classes of Hackney.
I am, Gentlemen,
Yours faithfully,
J. KING.WARRY, M.D., D.P.H.
Town Hall, Hackney, Medical Officer of Health.
February 4th, 1901.