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9
Small houses, such as many in the Westfields, Barnes, and
in part of Mortlake, afford fair accommodation to many respectable
artizans and labourers. But in too many instances weekly
rents of seven, eight, nine, and ten shillings compel subletting with
its attendant evils—insufficiency of closet accommodation and
water supply amongst others.
Houses for the working-classes that have been built under
the bye-laws of the Council are few in number. "Double tenements"
are being built with rapidity, it is true, and many more
are proposed. These, however, do not become occupied by the
working-classes, the overlying social strata providing to the landlord
persons who are desirable tenants, and are yet content with
such accommodation as they can procure at an inclusive rent of
ten, eleven, or twelve shillings a week. "Double tenements"
are erected under bye-laws devised at a time when the demand
for those constructions was not anticipated. It may be doubted
very seriously whether they afford proper cubic space and ventilation,
and whether they will not in the long run prove most undesirable
in a public health point of view. It is not a little curious
to note that the demand for them, and the supply, has followed
closely, for obvious reasons, the adoption by the lower middle
classes of measures which artificially restrict the birth rate.
During 1901 the workmen's dwellings erected under the
auspices of the District Council were completed. All are now
occupied, and the applications from would-be tenants have proved
considerably in excess of the dwellings available. It is open to
question, however, whether these buildings—excellent as they
are—in any way solve the really urgent problem in the housing of
the poor, inasmuch as the tenants are mostly persons with small
families who are earning good wages.
In Mortlake private enterprise has provided a street of
workmen's dwellings, built on the "flat" principle, and let at