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24
the Officers of the Council advise that tho recoupment and opening up
of the area in Bethnal Green aro materially assisted by including the
small neighbouring area in Shoreditch.
Your Committee have at various times personally inspected the area,
and were especially struck by the narrowness of the streets, the widest
measuring only 28-ft. There is also a great. difference of level between
the streets and the floors of the houses, in some cases as much as 18
inches, and the appearance of the inhabitants indicates to your
Committee a low standard of vitality. In many cases there are no
back yards.
The total area is about 15 acres in extent, and is bounded on the
north by Virginia Road and St. Leonard's Churchyard, on the west by
Boundary Street and High Street. on the south by Church Street, and
on the oast by Mount Street. The streets are 20 in number. The
average population per room is about 2¼, and 107 rooms have five or
more inhabitants each. There are many small courts of a very bad
class.
The area comprises 730 houses, of which 652 are occupied, wholly
or partly, by persons of the labouring classes; the remaining 78 houses
consist of 12 public-houses and boor-shops, 21 shops and factories
2 registered lodging-houses (153 beds); and 43 empty houses. The
population, exclusive of those in lodging-houses, is 5,506—viz, 3.370
adults and 2,196 children, who occupy 2,545 rooms sub-divided as
follows:—
2,118 persons occupying 7.32 single-room tenements.
2,265 ,, „ 500 two-room tenements.
1,183 ,, „ 211 tenements of 3 or more rooms
(781 rooms).
Including those in the lodging-houses, the total number of persons
of the labouring classes displaced will bo 5,719.
The above facts effectually remove any doubts as to the metropolitan
importance of the scheme.
The houses (mostly two-storey dwellings) are generally small, old,
and dilapidated. In many of them, the ground floor is situated below
the level of the street pavement, which renders the lower rooms very
damp. The floors themselves lie on the earth, and there are no dampcourses.
On the eastern side of the area are many ill-ventilated
courts and narrow streets.
The following is a list of the occupations of the inhabitants of the
area, so far as they can bo ascertained.