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77
(a) The erection of 198 flats at Lower Clapton Road (Powell
House), where persons displaced from the Banister Street
and other areas were re-housed during 1934;
(b) the commencement of the building of 160 flats on the
cleared Banister Street site; and
(c) the proposal to erect 390 flats on the site to be secured by the
clearance of the Nisbet Street area.
In my Annual Report for 1933 I referred to the Council's
decision to build a chamber in which to carry out the disinfestation by
cyanide gas of the household effects of the families to be transferred
from clearance areas to the Council's new flats, and on page 68 of
this Report a description is given of this building, which was completed
during 1934. This chamber, however, could not be completed
in time to deal with the property of the families transferred from the
Banister Street and other areas to Powell House, Lower Clapton
Road, which was carried out between the 23rd May and 2nd June,
1934. Disinfestation could not be carried out in the houses and
arrangements were, therefore, made with a local firm of removal
contractors to remove the furniture and other belongings to the
Disinfecting Station, where a firm of fumigators carried out disinfestation
by cyanide gas under the supervision of the Public Health
Department.
A preliminary visit was made to each house by a Sanitary
Inspector and the Housing Manager to arrange the date of removal
and to inform the tenants of the arrangements for gassing the furniture
and disinfecting the bedding. These visits were commenced on
the 22nd May, a brief note being left at each house to enable the
tenants to understand what was required, and removals were
commenced on the following day.
Four furniture vans were used and work was started each
morning at 7 o'clock, each van being loaded with the contents of
two or three homes, screens and canvas being used to separate one
family's goods from another. The first van arriving at the Disinfecting
Station each morning was unloaded into a garage, which had
been converted for the time being into a gas chamber, and placed
under disinfection by cyanide gas, the empty van returning to the
area for another load. The four vans, which arrived at the
Disinfecting Station between 9.30 and 11.30 each morning, and the
temporary gas chamber were then treated with cyanide gas and
sealed for four hours. After thorough airing to free the goods from
gas, delivery to Powell House was carried out. Some articles not
entirely free from gas were either retained at the Disinfecting
Station and delivered later by one of the Public Health Department's
vans, or were put into the perambulator shelters at Powell House and
handed over to the tenants next morning. On arriving at Powell