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49
I also urged that it was specially important in this parish to provide against
the further influx of a population of the worst class, because this district is the
most densely populated one in London, and contains 27 more persons to the acre
than Bethnal Green.
On the 7th of April, 1891, the Vestry passed the following resolution:—
"That in the opinion of this Vestry, Goldsmith Square ought to be
preserved as an open space, and that it be an instruction to the Housing
of the Working Classes Committee to open such negotiations with the
County Council and Mr. Scott for such purpose as they may think
desirable."
The Vestry's Housing of the Working Classes Committee sent a deputation to
the London County Council's Housing Committee, and they represented that the
persons displaced from the Bethnal Green area should be rehoused in that parish,
and not drafted into this parish as proposed, for although Shoreditch contains the
large population of nearly 130,000 inhabitants, there were no recreation grounds
except churchyards. They also pointed out that the Council could use for the
purpose of housing 500 persons, an area in Bethnal Green adjoining Goldsmith
Square, containing 3,101 square yards, at a cost of little, if any, more
than that arranged for Goldsmith Square, and as that property was very small
cottage property in a bad condition, the County Council would thus carry out the
spirit of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, which by section 2, subsection
1, requires—
" That the dwellings to accommodate the persons displaced shall be
situate within the limits of the same area, or in the vicinity thereof"
and although a small part of this parish was comprised in the original area, all
the persons displaced therefrom could be accommodated in that area itself.
The deputation also pointed out that the crowding of 500 persons on Goldsmith
Square would be most dangerous and injurious to the public health of this
district, as in the first place it would cause overcrowding, secondly, the class
proposed to be thus accommodated being admittedly ol the worst kind and of filthy
habits, would be the cause of the proposed dwellings (however sanitary thev might
in the first place be) becoming insanitary in a very short space of time, and thus
the scheme would become a menace to the public health of this parish, and thirdly,
such persons would also become a burden on the poor rate of Shoreditch, and
altogether would be a general nuisance to the neighbourhood.
The Council's Housing Committee declined, however, to give up the square as
it was considered necessary for rehousing purposes.
The Vestry's deputation as a last resource then waited upon the Council's
Public Parks and Open Spaces Committee, and after a good deal of negotiation,