View report page

133
MORNING LANE AREA.
This area contains dwelling houses, factory premises, workshops and stores,
shop property and stables.
The streets, with the exception of the main thoroughfare, Morning Lane, are
narrow, varying in width from 14 feet 3 inches to just over 20 feet.
The properties as a whole have been indifferently maintained and are generally
in a bad state of structural repair, many being entirely worn out, although, as
usually is found to be the case, some have been better cared for and maintained
in comparison with others.
In Morning Lane the properties, although originally constructed as shops,
with living accommodation, are in some instances now used solely for domestic
purposes, having been adapted to their present use without proper consideration
for domestic convenience or comfort—doubtless in many instances by the occupiers
themselves, who are only too eager to secure any kind of "housing accommodation"
in proximity to their work, and at rents within their means to pay—but which
would offer no inducement to occupancy but for the almost total absence of cheap
and satisfactory alternative housing accommodation in the neighbourhood. The
houses fronting this thoroughfare on the north-east corner of the area are cramped
on a triangular building site, so that in some instances no space is available for a
proper window opening in the ground floor back room, where other means for
augmenting natural light and ventilation have to be improvised, and where two of
the houses have one yard and domestic conveniences in common.
The remainder of the area consists mainly of small cottage type properties,
and with one exception, have frontages to the public streets. The condition of
the houses generally is old, and many are in a worn-out condition or rapidly
approaching this state. The majority were built before it was considered necessary
to cover a building site with concrete, or to provide damp-proof courses in the
walls; some have ground floors below the level of the adjoining street or yard,
whilst others originally at the same level have sunk below; all these factors
contributing towards damp and unhealthy living conditions in the houses. A
large number of the houses are of an old, badly-planned type, with the front doors
opening directly from the public footpath into the living room and bedroom, and
with staircases leading out of, and passing through the rooms; these possess no
through ventilation except via the yard door; some have cramped and restricted
upper back rooms where sloping ceilings give a height of less than 5 feet between
floor and ceiling, with a small window having a superficial area considerably
below the minimum required for all habitable rooms in new buildings; and as a
result of these conditions, the rooms must necessarily be very unhealthy for
sleeping apartments, for which purpose they are generally used. In other instances
passages and staircases are so narrow that a person of average size has to proceed
sideways to gain free passage.
A great number of the houses have no sinks, and water supplies in
these cases are obtained from a tapped stand-pipe in the yard. One old cottage
in the area has in the process of time become so surrounded by other properties
that it has no direct access to or from any public thoroughfare, and
approach is only possible by entering and passing through another house.
Many houses in this area have been built on gardens formerly belonging to other
houses. I may add that the practice of building workshops and so forth on
gardens belonging to houses is becoming a usual practice in Hackney, and is a
highly objectionable proceeding in many instances.