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of the structure, but cannot show the actual lack of domestic amenities. These
"buildings" are a block of cottages, each of two floors. The cottages, individually,
possess no sanitary or other domestic conveniences, and have no drainage. Local
verbal history claims that the structure was originally a cowshed. In addition to
the absence of all sanitary conveniences, the only provision for cooking or artificial
lighting is the open fire, oil or candles. There is one communal water supply and
wash-copper, which is situated in the communal wash-house, where the dustbins
are also kept. The water-closet accommodation is situate on the opposite side of
the narrow street. The cottages have no yards, and the public thoroughfare is
normally used as a drying ground. The internal planning is extremely
bad; floors are below ground level; there are no back windows, and a
total absence of through ventilation, which is aggravated by the cramped, shut-in,
and overshadowed nature of the site; these factors definitely producing bad living
conditions. This structure is weak, decayed and worn out; a damp-proof course
has at some time or other been inserted in part of the main front wall, probably
when the walls were condemned as dangerous structures and rebuilt.
The properties in Banister Street comprise 2, 3 and 4-roomed cottage-type
dwellings, with a single-storey wash-house at the rear. This wash-house is used
as a living room in some instances.
The dwellings are old, and the interior planning—if it may be so described
—is crude. The majority have floors below street level, no forecourts exist, and
one steps down from the street paving directly into the front room; the staircases
in these dwellings lead out of either the front or back room, or up the centre of
the house between these rooms, and in almost every instance are winding,
dangerous, unventilated, dark or gloomy, cutting direct into the upper room; the
ground floor rooms intercommunicate; the upper back room in many instances is
cramped, low, ill-ventilated and lighted, having a sloping ceiling to the rear wall
which provides a height from floor to ceiling of a bare 5 feet, and permits of no
head-room, apart from the serious impediment to adequate ventilation that is so
essential to a sleeping apartment. A number of these rooms are also furnished
only with a window of inadequate size.
All the houses are damp in some degree, in the majority of cases due to the
age of the property and consequent absence of damp-proof courses in the main
walls, the lack of concrete over site, and the poor; general maintenance; most
possess little convenience, the majority have no sinks, and the water supply is
derived from a tap fixed in the open yard, and in some cases the water-closet is
situate at the far end of the yard—a distance of approximately 40 feet from the
house. The general internal arrangement or planning results in a deficiency
of natural light and ventilation in the dwellings.
The dwellings in College Street and Homerton Row are generally somewhat
better planned, and provide better accommodation than others in this area, but
are all structurally in poor condition. The majority are provided with sinks, and
have an internal water supply, but some of the) water-closets are very inconveniently
placed at the far end of the yard; many of the floors are below street
level, and the structures are generally damp, and sub-floor ventilation not always
efficient. The principal factors attributing to dampness appear to be the general
absence of damp-proof courses and concrete over site, the houses having been built
at a time when these measures were not generally adopted, and certainly not
enforced in all building construction. Damp-proof courses, however, exist in
certain isolated instances, nearly always only in the case of walls whose condition
necessitated entire rebuilding, when the District Surveyor would enforce the provision
of a damp-proof course.
Many of these houses have the addition structure at the rear badly arranged,
and with a low-built chimney stack from the wash-copper flue—the whole effect of
which is not only to deprive the lower back room of a sufficiency of light and air,