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15
In considering the necessity for ensuring such provision the
character of the district has to be taken into account.
It would seem likely that in a few years the population will
lose, to a great extent, its old residential character and will be
largely a population made up of (1) persons engaged in London, and
their families; (2) tradespeople and their families.
As the district becomes filled up and building activities
slacken, many of the working class will undoubtedly emigrate; and
there are few signs of any development of local industries.
As a result of consistent observation of all parts of the
district I am bound to say that it appears to me there is far less
difficulty for the working man in securing housing than there was
five years ago. With perhaps one exception:—the elderly labourer
who, having no children, does not need, or cannot afford a whole
house, is often badly accommodated in lodgings. If new dwellings
are provided by the Council I sincerely trust that some airy tenements
with two or three good-sized rooms each will be provided for
families of two, or at most, three persons.
The question of tenements and flats designed for the social
strata immediately above those of the artizan and labourer is very
important.
Building bye-laws are urgently needed to control the blocking
of suburban areas by rows of double tenements and maisonettes.
As has been ably pointed out by Dr. Sykes and others of late,
in Germany arterial roads are made to widen in passing from the
centres of town and cities to the outskirts. A system of zonification
is in fact enforced, and, as in Paris, the social strata occur
vertically. In this country (as in London) the widest roads are in
the centres of cities, and on the outskirts they are narrowed and