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144
and inconvenience must arise on every occasion when these facilities are put to
use. The bad features here are the sloping ceiling of the wash-house, and the
badly situated position of the small window and door in the low wall, which provide
no effective means for the escape of steam, heat, or washing odours,
which normally rise into and are distributed through the back room and up the
staircase into bedrooms above, giving rise to a large amount of condensation, and
general internal dampness; furthermore, it would be true to state that some of
these wash-houses are so cramped that no general use is made of them, and in
some instances this defect is so pronounced that it is difficult for a person above
average size to get through into the yard.
These houses were apparently of poor original construction, and have consistently
suffered from indifferent maintenance. The majority of the roofs are in a
very bad condition, and all the houses show marked effects of hard wear and tear,
which, in view of the indifferent attention to general maintenance over a long
period, has left them in a generally deteriorated condition, and it is a matter of
great difficulty in some instances to keep the rooms free from vermin.
The houses in Crozier Terrace are of a somewhat better type compared with
the foregoing, but here in some instances the sanitary and domestic conveniences
are placed in the back yard in such a manner as seriously to interfere with the
entrance of light and air into the interior of the dwellings. In other houses in
this street the ground floor room at the rear suffers from restricted internal
lighting as a consequence of the bad arrangement of the addition buildings. Here
again it is obvious that initial construction was of poor quality, and that general
maintenance has been well below a standard necessary to maintain working-class
property in a reasonably fit and habitable condition, and as a consequence these
properties have reached the end of their effective life. Generally they possess
somewhat improved domestic and sanitary convenience as compared with those in
Nisbet Street, but even so, they show varying degrees of sanitary defects, and lack
ordinary domestic conveniences.
Bones Cottages consist of two extremely aged cottages built in an enclosed
court, access to which is from a narrow opening between Nos. 6 and 7, Crozier
Terrace. Both of these dwellings are of the single-back type, and possess no
means of through ventilation and no sort of modern domestic convenience, the
occupants being required to use the open fire for cooking and oil or candles for
lighting, as gas or electricity are not laid on. There is a communal wash-house,
water-closet and water supply. The cottages are deficient in natural light and
ventilation, and the structures themselves are extremely aged and damp.
Some idea as to the structural condition of these houses and the planning of
Bones Cottages may be gathered from photographs Nos 21, 22 and 23 : the situation
of Bones Cottages may be noted on the extreme right of photograph No. 22.
OTLEY TERRACE AREA.
This area consists of two terraces of old cottage tvpe dwellings of two floors,
together with a pair of old semi-detached cottages standing apart and occupying a
low site.
The dwellings forming Prince of Wales' Terrace are situated actually on the
towing path of the River Lee, and in view of flooding which occurs from time to
time, some of the structures are built on a series of vaulted arches, but in the case
of three of the dwellings this is not so; four out of the eight dwellings forming
this terrace are unoccupied, and there is no doubt that all are unfit for habitation.
The cottages in Otley Terrace appear to have originally been constructed as
two-roomed single-back type, but three are what may be described as double-