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216
PROVOST STREET, MONEYER STREET, CUSTANCE STREET, and
ALLERTON STREET and MARSOM STREET, abutting on the south
side of Nile Street and not included in the Vestry's "Nile Street
Improvement Scheme.''
The insanitarv condition of the above houses numbering 230 was reported to
the Housing of the Working Classes Committee, and following thereon they were
viewed, and referred by that Committee to be dealt with under the Public Health
Act by the General Purposes Committee, by whose order comprehensive notices
were served for the abatement of nuisances, and repair of the premises of one
street after another.
Commencing with those of Provost Street, which are four-roomed cottages,
with small washhouses attached. They were generally damp and very dilapidated.
Those on the west side were provided with extremely small yards—in which the
w.c.'s, dust bins, and sinks left but very little room for movement of air, or for
any other purpose—the back rooms were therefore, and in addition to other
unwholesome conditions, very dark. Between the back of these premises and the
Model Dwellings in Chatham Avenue there was a strip of waste land from 7 feet
to 10 feet wide which extended from one end of the street to the other.
The desirability of adding to each house that part of the waste land immediately
behind it, was pressed upon the attention of the various owners, and the freeholder's
agent, with the result that in each case the owners have been enabled on payment
of 10s. per year to more than double the size of the yards of their houses, and to
secure thereby greatly improved light and ventilation to the back rooms. »
The difficulty of dealing with these houses has been greatly increased by the
circumstance that the leases will expire in a very few years. There was therefore
a very natural objection on the part of many of the leaseholders to execute
substantial works, of which the freeholder would in a few years reap the benefit,
and without contributing anything to the expense of the improvements. There
was a further difficulty in the circumstance that 57 of the houses belonged to 29
different owners each of whom employed their own builder, many of whom were
utterly incompetent for the proper execution of the work they were employed to
carry out.
Nevertheless the work done has made the houses much more fit for habitation.
Dampness, rats, and sewer gas have been removed by the provision of new drains,
the paving of yards, and the provision of broad concrete cills to back and front
doors, and the thox'ough cleansing and repair of the interiors, and the provision of
proper w.c.'s.
The same process, less the addition to the size of yards, has been carried out in
the houses of the adjoining streets, viz.:—Moneyer Street, Custance Street,
Allerton Street, and Marsom Street.