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26
Tree Court, and a Scheme prepared, which was confirmed by the
Secretary of State, and subsequently received the sanction of
Parliament. No active proceedings have yet been taken in
regard to the demolition of the houses, and their replacement by
new ones.
Several of our worst courts and alleys, most of which were
included in my "Representation," have been pulled down within
the last few years, viz., Caroline Court, Goswell Road; Lamb
Court and Lamb Square, Bitt Alley, Fryingpan Alley, Rose
Alley, Broad Court (for the most part), Eagle Place, Albert
Place, and Ledbury Place, under the New Streets Act, and to
make room for the new "Compton Buildings," also for the
Board Schools and other new buildings. Altogether about 700
or 800 poor persons have been displaced by those "improvements."
At the same time, the new Farringdon Road Buildings
have been constructed, containing about 1,200 inhabitants, and
the Compton Buildings, containing about 1,700; so that the
accommodation provided by the new buildings would exceed
that destroyed by the removal. But there can be no question
that the inhabitants of the courts, &c., have not entered the new
buildings, but have taken refuge in some of the remaining
courts, such as Bishop's Com-t, &c.; but a large number have, I
believe, gone to Holborn and St. Luke's. And it must be
remembered that for some years past houses which used to be
occupied by a single family are now let out in tenements, a
family frequently occupying one or two rooms only.
Undoubtedly this breaking up of the old haunts and slums in
which many of these people lived, and the distribution of the
latter among a better class, will ultimately be a boon to them and
their rising families; for the Vestry, and the Sanitary Committee
especially, will well remember the endless trouble, and the very
numerous inspections of those courts, especially those in Turnmill
Street: where no closet could havo a pan, closet-fittings, traps,
and metal-pipes of all kinds were immediately stolen and sold;