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145
fronted, and provide accommodation of four rooms. At some subsequent date a
single storey addition has been added at the rear to serve as a wash-house. All
these cottages are aged—somewhere in the neighbourhood of 100 years old—are
badly planned, damp and worn out; the rooms are low, small, badly lighted and
ventilated; the street is narrow, and there is some overshadowing of the front
windows. In the majority of instances the street door opens directly from the
street into the front living room, with the staircase leading out of this room, in some
instances being extremely narrow and cramped. Dampness is particularly noticeable
in the ground floor rooms, and the internal faces of many of these rooms are lined
with wood; some of the floors are considerably below the adjoining street level;
the upper rooms are provided with a small window in the rear wall, which allows
some measure of through ventilation, but these rooms are so low, and the ceiling
so formed, as to deprive the interior of an adequate amount of light and air, and
apart, from this defect these rooms doubtless receive all the vitiated atmosphere
from the lower room, which, due to the arrangement of the interior, must always
find its way into the upper room.
The old semi-detached cottages already mentioned occupy a low site, and
stand apart from other houses. Each provides accommodation of five rooms with
a side addition scullery. The whole structure is extremely aged, most probably
over 100 years, and a portion has necessitated rebuilding; the roof has apparently
developed a weakness and sunk, and the upper half of the building is faced externally
with weather-boarding. All the floors are weak, the levels vary, the
internal arrangement is bad, and although the buildings occupy an open site, the
internal natural lighting and ventilation leave much to be desired.
The owners of Prince of Wales' Terrace recently wrote to the Council pointing
out that the site is not suitable for dwelling houses, and that they are desirous of
demolishing these cottages, but owing to the operation of the Rent Restriction Act
cannot gain possession, also stating they are prepared "to pay the tenants a
sum of about £10 each to meet the cost of moving."
Photographs numbered 24 and 25 show the types of cottages in Otlev Terrace.
PEAR TREE COURT AREA.
The area is made up of sixteen small cottage dwellings, very old, badly
arranged and surrounded by larger and more modern buildings. Ten of the
dwellings are in a cul-de-sac approached through a narrow opening about 4 feet
6 inches wide under a building having frontage to the main road. The type
here is back-to-back with a high factory building, and the accommodation provides
two rooms—one above the other—a primitive type which is incapable of providing
any sort of domestic convenience. The planning is bad, entrance is direct into
the living room, and a narrow, dark and winding staircase gives access direct
into the upper room without a landing. There are no back yards, and no means
of through ventilation. The interiors are small, gloomy, badly ventilated and
damp. The cottages have no individual drainage or sanitary conveniences. A
range of five communal water closets is provided at the end of the cul-de-sac, and
three stand-pipes in the open court provide the general water supply, where also
a hand flushing cistern is provided for cleansing the drain gulley which is obviously
used for the disposal of slops. The open court is used as a drying ground for
the family washing.
The remaining six dwellings consist of three pairs of aged, two-storey cottages
providing accommodation of three rooms and wash-house. These dwellings are
curiously disposed, two, one behind the other at the end of a cul-de-sac, with
another pair abutting, and the remaining pair opposite, the intervening space forming
a rectangular court practically enclosed on all sides by walls 18 to 20 feet high.