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11
Housing of
the Working
Classes Act,
1890.
On the Eighteenth of August in the year of this
Report, a measure to consolidate and amend the Acts
relating to Artisans' and labourers' Dwellings and
the Housing of the Working Classes became Law.
The Bill in its passage through Parliament received
the assent and support of the London County Council. It gives
to that body and the Vestries large powers in dealing with insanitary
and dilapidated property. The chief statutes it amends and
replaces arc those generally known as Cross's and Torrens' Acts.
The former related to the improvement of large areas. It had been
applied in Lambeth by the Metropolitan Board of Works resulting in
the demolition of some ancient and dilapidated blocks of dwellings
situated in the North Marsh Ward and bearing the name of
Windmill Row. The latter was the Act of the District Authority.
It applied to single houses, small blocks, or limited areas. Neither
of the Acts was popular. The compensation clauses were unduly
favourable to the interests of the property owner; and the legal
processes inseparable from their operation, cumbrous and expensive.
The policy of placing a fictitious value on insanitary and
sometimes worthless property by awarding large and excessive
sums of money in compensation was felt to be economically
unsound. A premium was set upon carelessness and neglect.
The very condition, to provide against which the Acts had been
framed, was encouraged by setting the Acts in motion. Several
attempts had been made in Parliament to modify or amend these
defects. But little success attended such efforts. The Vestries
shrank from an expenditure of public money that unjustly burdened
the ratepayers. The Metropolitan Board avoided an outlay
inordinately large and unremunerative. The Acts fell into disuse.
Royal
Commission.
As a result of a popular outcry against the alleged
apathy of the authorities, the Royal Commission on
the Housing of the Working Classes was appointed.
It held many sittings. The evidence of Philanthropists, Ministers
of Religion, Medical Officers of Health, scientific experts, and the