- Email: [email protected]
Working-class dwellings
93 2 2
Working.Class
WORKING-CLASS
Dwellings
tr.bu~ ao~th
DWELLINGS. ~
B~" J. S. TEW, M.D., B.S., D.P.H., Medical Officer of Health of the West Kent Combined Sanitary District.
WUEN I tirst became aware that it would be my privilege to deliver a Presidential Address to this Branch of the Incorporated Society, I at once decided' to take the opportunity of choosing as a subject the consideration of "Working-class Dwellings," as the questions of overcrowding and the scarcity of cottages have continued to be pressed upon my attention with increasing persistence for some time past. 1 am only too well aware that there is no novelty in the subject, for it has continually been before the public for more than half a century; but I must claim as an excuse that, in spite of the fact that it has been largely spoken on, written on, and even legislated on throughout that period, we are still a long way from a simple and satisfactory solution of the query, how to provide at rents ill proportion to the rate of earnings decent accommodation for the working classes, of a kind applicable to the local requirements, wl,ero such'accombaodation does net already exist, and where cottages are not likely to be provided by private enterprise. Sections 5, 30, and 31 of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, have specially tended to make the medical inspection of dilapidated and insanitary dwellings imperative. It also appears to be necessary for the medical officer of health at the same time t6 furnish the local authority with su~cient facts to enable the members properly to consider his representation, and to satisfy themselves as to its accuracy. While recognising that this is a very proper procedure, if'throws a great onus on the medical officer of health; and if he is to carefully consider all the conditions in sufficient detail to enable him to decide on the best course to recommend in dealing with insanitary or dilapidated houses, he must have a good knowledge of practical sanitary details and of building construction, and must, in addition, be prepared to spend some considerable time over the examination of each dwelling. The time taken up by these inspections is, however, I venture to think, verywell spent if it leads to the publicity of existing conditions anu any attempts at remedy. Personally, I consider that Presidential Address read before the IIome Counties Branch of the Iucorporated Society of Medical Officers of Health, December, 1899.
r.~,,-..~y, ~oj
Worklng.Ciass
Dwellings
:323
the mosg useful and satisfactory work with which one can be associated is in this direction, even if carried bug on a small scale, and in districts where conditions are not at their worst. The Councils for which I act have shown 11o unwillingness to fully endorse and carry out recommendations contained in detailed reports, and no difficulty has arisen in those cases where repairs and redrainage can be effected while the houses remain occupied. The real difficulty for all parties begins where the habitations are in such a bad state that it is impossible for them to remain tenanted while the necessary repairs are going on, or when matters are still worse and absolute closure is necessary. Under the two latter conditions, where the occupiers are oblige d to quit, if they have work sufficiently remunerative to attract tllem to the neighbourhood they join some other family, to increase the overcrowding which had in all probability previously existed, or they leave the neighbourhood should moderately rented dwellings be scarce and their circumstances permit them to move. The difficulties of providing decent dwellings at rents commensurate witla.the earnings of the classes which most require such accommodation are practically insurmountable if private enterprise alone is to be~rclied upon, and the work of dealing with the worst class of dwellings is retarded or wholly prevented. A practical knowledge of the requirements of tlle working classes can only be learned by continued personal investigation in their own dwelling-places, in the same way as a knowledge of clinical medicine can only be acquired a t the bedside, and to no one are the lmmelives of the poor laid so bare as to medical men. I always think that Chose of us who have attended any considerable number of obstetric cases in the out-department practice of a London hospital have, in the short space e r a month or so, had a lifelong lesson .in the knowledge of the extent to which overcrowding exists, which can never be forgotten. In accentuation of the importance o f this subject, I may quote the words of the President of the British Medical Association, who, in his address to the annual meeting held flits year, said : " T h e great hindrance tO the progress of preventive medicine which we have to overcome is the overcrowded and insanitary condition of the dwellings of the working classes. This is the field on which the great battle with infectious disorders will have to be fought out. Our warfare will not be directly with microbic life, 1,;.\ rather with the conditions in which specific organisms are 6 f O W l l o '~
To whatever" extent the question may be shelved by local authori-
~24
Working.Cl~iss Dwellings
tP.buo ao.~th
ties or by their officials, it continues go reassert itself, and the time has undoubtedly arrived when action must take the place of words in those instances where a real need of increased accommodation has been fully proved. The only course for local authorities to pursue is to face the difficulty, and consider the details of the various schemes and recommendations which have been brought forward, with a view of adopting measures most applicable to the special wants of the district which comes under their jurisdiction. We can only be in a position to advise our authorities on this very intricate and difficult question by making systematic and searching inspections, by correctly gauging the genuine requirements of the classes to be provided for, by mastering the modes of procedure for attempting to obtaifi those requirements, and last, but not least, by forming some idea of the expenses to be incurred and the chances of recoupment. There appears to me no better way of furthering this object than by free discussion at such meetings as the present, and I therefore ask you to adopt the procedure of my two immediate predecessors, and express the wish that this address may be regarded as a paper open for discussion. No one will, I think, seriously question the fact that, while general sanitation has immensely advanced during recent years, the difficulties o! insisting on the provision of healthy dwellings for the poorer classes has been so formidable that action i n this direction has been greatly handicapped, and has lagged behind other improvements, evoking but feeble efforts from the majority of local authorities to cope with the difficulties. / The older classes of cottages have frequently undergone little or no structural repairs for twenty or thirty~years, and are looked upon by many property owners as perpetual investments which are good for all time, and the attempts of local authorities generally, and of flmh" officers in particular, are regarded as unnecessary and unwarrantable interference of a personally offensive character. It is when reporting upon insanitary property, and making recommendations as to action required, or otherwise dealing with such defects, that the position of the medical officer of health and the sanitary inspector i n some cases becomes untenable when not assured by permanent appointment. In the vast majority of instances both officers are subjected to an annual or periodical reappointment at t h e hands of electors; who are not uncommonly themselves, directly or indirectly, interested in dilapidated proper~y, either as owners, agents, builders, mortgagees, trustees, or some such capacity--in short, to put it in a borrowed phrase, " a t the hands of members who have themselves
r~br~a.~z, ~o]
Working.Class
Dwellings
325
axes to grind." This leads to an inert mode of treating the difficul~ies--a position which it is easy and profitable to assume, p a r ticularly where selfish motives exist for doing so, and so-called legal impediments, and the frequently imaginary prospective increase i n the local rate, are magnified, and made standard excuses for continued inaction. I~ may perhaps here be not out of place to express the hope that the fixity of tenure of those officers whose duty it is to practically initiate proceedings against insanitary property owners may not long be withheld, for it is well recognised by those who really wish for improvements that as long as the officers' tenure is insecur e , and not held directly from an actually central source, action will not be initiated or pushed forward as would otherwise be the case. It is contrary to the instincts of human nature, and unreasonable to expect, that men who are in many cases wholly dependent upon their official salaries will often r i s k the chance of losing their position and pauperizing their families by pressing for action in this direction. It is regrettable that local authorities have not seen their way to more warmly support the principle of fixity of tenure for medical officers of health and sanitary inspectors, or, at any rate, for those who have gone through a period oI probation and proved their efficiency, by placin~ them on the solme footing in this respect as their clerks and other officials, who have far less objectionable duties to perform, and are not subject to the ordeal of periodical re-election at the hands of representatives, some of whom it has been necessary to mortally offend if a non-elastic line of action has been observed. It is, I hope, a s i g n o f further activity towards attaining this end that the Incorporated Society i s n o w united, as many of us have alw~-ys recognised and hoped "that it would be, in working for fixity of tenure for all medical officers of health, whether devoting their whole time to public health work or not, and also in the inclusion of sanitary inspectors in any future measures to be adopted. It is not m y intention to a~tempt to deal with the question of small dwellings and housing the working classes in its entirety; even in outline, it would be far beyond the scope of this paper. With the exception of mentioning certain facts which have contributed to cause a scarcity in small buildings in the particular districts with which I propose to deal, I am not attempting to discuss Metropolitan requirements, or the requirements of the immediate suburbs, which must be regarded as of a unique character ; neither am I attempting to discuss the requirements of cities or provincial towns where - "~ditions of size, situation, and prevailing local in-
3-96
Working.Class Dwellings
trublio ae~ath
dustries render any generalization in this respect almost impossible. I only propose to shortly discuss the conditions existing in those neighbourhoods which have recently specially claimed my attention --viz., in, firstly, what I may perhaps be allowed to call "extrasuburban" districts; and, secondly, and still more briefly, in the purely agricultural localities. Although it is useful for some purposes to retain the employment of the genel"al terms of distinction of rural" and " urban " distriers, it is scarcely necessary to mention tl~at these terms are in many cases wholly anomalous, not to say misleading, for many contributory places in rural districts are practically small towns; frequently with populations in excess of neighbouring urban districts. This anomaly is specially seen on all sides of the ~[etropolis, on the outlying parts of many of our large towns, and in many ananulecturing and mining districts: There is no reason whatever, as far as I can see, that any change should be suggested, providing that the small worth of this nominal distinction is recognised, and that the general and sanitary administration of such places is in the hands of a local authority, the members of which fully realize the responsibilities which they undertake. Before passing on to consider the conditions existing in the two classes of locality which I have mentioned, I must briefly refer to the position which the question of the housing of "the working classes occupies at the present time. Looking back nearly fifty years, the passing of the Common Lodging Houses Act and the Labouring Classes' Lodging Houses Act in 1851 mark a time when the consideration of this matter took a tangible form. The year 1855 saw the ~Ietropolis Local Management Act and the Nuisances Removal Act become law, followed in 1866 by a Sanitary Act (extending and amending the Acts of 1855). Following these came Torrens' Act (1868), the Sanitary Law Amendment Act (1874), and Cross' Acts (1875, 1879, and 1889.), and finally ~he Housing of the Worldng Classes Ac~, 1890, with its short explanatory Act of 1894 as regards England. The report of the Select Committees of the House of Commons, appointed in 1881-89, to inquire into the working of Torrens' and Cross' Acts, disclosed in the evidence then taken the extremely bad state of many working-class areas, both in the Metropolis and in provincial towns, and led to the passing of the Artisans' Dwellings Act of 1882, and later on to the appointment, in 1884, of a Royal Commission of Inquiry, which commenced collecting evidence that year, and presented a first (and, I believe, only) report in 1889. The repor~ contains a huge mass of information, and makes "
F~b~.~, ~ O : o
Working.Class
Dwellings
327
many recommendations and suggestions, which are as applicable .to-day as they were when the report was published ten years ago. The eight memoranda attached to the report expressed the individual opinions of well-known men who had given much time and ,4ttention to this subject, and included those of the l~te Earl of Shaftesbury, Mr. Torrens, and Sir Richard Cross, all of whom had been the promoters of measures in Parliament, which, if not as ready of application in practice as one could have desired, had, at any rate, laid a statutory foundation upon which it was hoped enactments of a more generally applicable character might be based. While referring to this extremely instructive report, there are one or two passages which have struck me as being of special interest. At the commencement it states " t h a t the subject of the housing of the working classes is one which has been contfimally before the public for more than thirty y e a r s " (this was written not later than 1889). Also at that time two facts were fully proved: "First, that there was a great improvement (described by one member as ' enormous ') in the condition of the houses of the" poor compared to that of thirty years ago ; yet the evils of overcrowding, especially in London, were still a public scandal, and were becoming in certain localities more serious than they ever were. Second, there was much legislation designed tQ meet these evils, yet the existing laws were not put into force, some of them having remained a dead letter from t h e date when they first found place in the statute book." This appears also to be unfortunately true, to a large extent, at the present time as regards later statutes. It would be tedious for me to dilate on the existing conditions of the very .poor dwellers ill Metropolitan crowded areas, where insufficient air-space, together with precarious wages, dirt, drink, and immorality, raise the local death-rate to an enormous figure, produce excessive infant sickness and mortality, and perhaps what is the worst feature in overcrowding, viz., the production of a general, deterioration in the health and physique of the people. During the last twenty years, and. more particularly during the last ten, the insanitary areas demolished by the City Corporation 9and the London County Council, and by the corporations of very many cities and large towns throughout the country, have been enormous, but it has remained, until quite recently, for purely local authorities to act. The Shoreditch Vestry has, I believe, been the first of Metroloolitan Vestries, or Metropolitan District Boards, to accomplish, after about eight years' work, the demolition'of a large unhealthy area, and the erection on the site of sufficient dwellings
:~28
Working.Class
Dwellings
~P,,bu~H~1~h
to accommodate a population very nearly equal ~o the number of those displaced. W h e n slum property is demolished, even if it is carried out. in sections, and dwellings eventually erected on the site to accommodate as many, or even more, persons than those, displ~ced, s considerable number are sent adrift--certainly for a time--and it is the practical experience that few of those displaced return to take up their abode in the newly-erected buildings. The obvious result is that a general pushing outwards towards the more distant suburbs takes place of those to whom it is not an absolute essential that they should live close to their work, or where location does not materially interfere with their occupation, and this extension is particularly towards those suburbs where the working classes are already extensively located and which are fairly accessible. Many other causes than the distribution of those displaced from condemned Metropolitan areas are, of course, in operation--e.g., displacement of populations by railway extension, those displaced having in many cases only been nominally re-housed; immigration from more rural country districts, cheaper and more ready means of locomotion, and the natural increase of the population. I will at present confine my l'emarks to the "extra-suburban" class of locality. Members of this Branch, several of whom h a v e the charge of districts adjoining the Metropolitan area, say ten to twenty miles out, will appreciate the growth of such localities, which, within the space of a few years, have developed from rural villages into considerable centres of population. A distinct line can be drawn between the requiremgnts of places like these and districts where the cottages are almost wholly occupied l~y agricultural labourers, and to which I will more briefly allude later on. The overcrowding in both classes of districts has been much overlooked, but particularly the former. No one will, of course, for a moment imagine that the overcrowding in these districts approaches that in t.he poorer parts of London ; it is most undesirable that it should in any way approach it, and therefore timely action should not be delayed. I believe that the better housing of the poorer classes will be the chief means in the future of checking the present high mortality among young children, particularly from those diseases which are usually treated at homo, viz., measles, whooping-cough and d.iarrhoca. That the fatality of each of flmso diseases among children under five years ~)f age named under these conditions is out of all proportion to the gravity of the disease is evident from the rarity of fatal
robot, ~l
Working-Class
Dwellings
329
issue in hospitals or among the upper classes. When, however, one considers the insanitary surroundings, the vitiated atmosphere, the damp, the smoke, tlle draughts, and the impossibility of anything like decent living, to say nothing of nursing, in such places, it is even surprising that the mortality is not higher. It is to be hoped that the proposed Congress on phthisis and other forms of consumption will not confine itself entirely to the consideration of tuberculin tests, open-air.treatment and sanatoria, but will give the prominent place it deserves to the all-important question of the housing of the working-classes in relation to that disease. The difference between the death-rates (gefleral, zymotic, and infantile), as shown by the available figures between the overcrowded parts of large towns and average districts, is enormous, but ought to be still greater if more advantage were taken in obtaining better conditions of life in rural areas. The cottages in these "extrasuburban " areas are usually built in rows or terraces of varying lengths, and the worst features I have. noticed, in addit,ion to general dilapidation, are inefficient drainage, defective and improperly flushed w.c.'s, insufficient ventilation, often rendered worse by the small size of the room, dampness of the walls, and badlypaved yards. The most insanitary dwellings are usually of some ago, and where a history can be traced,it is frequently found that they have been put up rapidly during a spurt of development by the speculative builder previous to the adopt.ion of bye-laws, and have since frequently changed hands, undergoing all the time a minimum amount of.repair. Under such circumstances damp courses are rarely to be found, but the amount of dampness of the walls c a u s e d by defective eaves, gutters, and a, bad distribution of the rain-water, which a few shillings would materially alter, is astonishing. Work in connection with such-like defects, viz., testing drains and serving notices under the Public IIealth Act, can be carried on in the less insanitary propert,y to an extent commensurate with the inspecting staff, but, when it comes to a class of house which is past, repairing, the real difficulty begins. If a cottage be certified as unfi~ for habitation and closed, and there are no available cottages near, overcrowding must follow by two families occupying one cottage, as in many cases the father of the family has work close at hand and frequently fair wages. This leads u p to the question of how much rent, a working-man can afford to pay. In London it has been shown on good authority that 88 per cent. of the poor population pay more than one-fifth of their income in
330
Working, Class Dwellings
~p.bli~ ~e~lth
rent; that 46 per cent. pay from one-quarter to one-half; 42 per cent. from one-fourth to one-fiffl~, and that only 12 per cent. pay less than. one-fifth of their income in rent; It is also to be remembered that the poor not only pay more for their houses, but also for many of the necessaries of life, such as vegetables, groceries, coal, and so forth. It is generally agreed that the amount of rent 9paid should not be more than one-tenth to one-seventh of the income, and allowing for t.he fact that the ac~ual la~)ouring classes have not so many additional expenses outside the bare necessaries of life as compared with the requirements of those in only a slightly bettei" position in respect of ificome, who have to spend more on their outward appearance, possibly tl~e higher figure of one-seventh would be a fairly correct estimate of the amount of rent working-class people can reasonably be expected to pay. Speaking in general terms on this basis, , s.d. If a man's
income
s.d.
is 15 0 a week,
his rent ought
not to exceed
2 1
,,
,,
18 0
,,
,,.
,,
,,
,,
,,
21 0
,,
,,
,,
,,
3 0
,,
,,
25
,,
,,
,,
,,
3
' ,, ,,
0
300 ,, ,,
2 7 7
43
35 0
,,
,,
,,
,,
5 0
40 0
,,"
,,
,,
,,
5 8
It appears to me that what is required at the present time in districts of this description is a class of house having, some two and some fl~ree bedrooms, to suit large and small families, which could be let at a rental of from 3s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. a week, as this appears to be about the amount which t]lis class can be expected to pay at a distance out of London. But What do we find? Inferior accommodation of the kind I have mentioned, withrentals of from 4s. 6d. to 7s. 6d. a week, which necessitates two families frequentlyliving in one house, and the taking in of lodgers when the houses are already too small for the present occupiers; and it is no uncommon thing for a man, wife, and four or five children occupying a house with only two bedrooms to take in a lodger.9 It is also a fact that, when cleansing, structural repairs, improved drainage, etc., are insisted on by the local authority--little or nothing having been done for years--the rents are at once raised, and cases have come to my knowledge where the rents have been raised even for the necessary cleansing after a case of infectious illness, or even for the provision of a movable dustbin. Further than this, during the last few weeks I found that rents had b e e n
reb~,
l~J
"
"Working-Class
Dwellings
331
raised about twelve months previously on account of prospectire r~Tairs, which, it was anticipated, would be insisted on by the local authority. Under conditions of this kind I see no available course open but for local authorities to intervene. The extortionate rents obtained from many working-class people even in those cases where excessive overcrowding is not apparent, and where the houses are in fair condition, is detrimental, and leads to many evils ; their food.and clothing are barely sufficient, lodgers are taken in, the mothers go out to work or tak~ work in to do at home amid insanitary surroundings, while they have barely time to attend to the needs of their own families, and a few weeks' loss of work leaves them hopelessly behind-hand in their finances. It is not to be expected that at the present time, when labour in all its branches is very expensive, and when all kinds of building materials are extremely high-priced, that private individuals will do much in the way of building working-class dwellings, as a very small percentage only can be expected on the outlay, and it therefore remains for local authorities to take the matter into their own hands and see what can be done under the Housing of the Working Classes Act. Since.1890 the loans sanctioned by the Local Government Board under the Housing of the Working Cla~ses Act, and the Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act of 1875, have amounted up to the commencement of the present year to s in English provincial towns and districts alone, and exclusive of much spent under local Acts. Urban and Rural District Councils have but in a fdw cases adopted the Act. The Urban District Councils of Barnes, Hornsey, Leigh, Waltham, and Linthwaite are examples of urban districts in which S work has been camed out. Among Bural District Councils the Thingoe ~ural District Council (Suffolk) still appears to be the only Bural Council which has actually built. This was not a financial success. Eight cottages were built there in 1891-92 under Par~ III. of the Housing of the ~Vorking Classes Act, at a cost of s including the land (four acres). The cottages are let at s 5s. a year, and 2d. a rod for twenty-seven rods of land to each cottage. The money was borrowed at 388 per cent., and the term o f repayment was thirty years. The low rent obtained, only a fraction over 2s. per week, and the short period for which the loan was granted, are evidently the crippling factors. Surely the loan for cottage s and land might well be extended over a period of fifty years. It is sin:prising to realize the difference in the annual repayments requirs whether the repayment has to be made in thirty or: in f i f t y years.
332
Working.Class Dwellings
l~blio H~I,~
This is shown in Alderman Thompson's Report on the Housing of the Working Classes in the Borough of Richmond (Surrey). It is there po!nted out very clearly that the difference between a loan for thirty years and one for fifty years is equivalent to nearly 6d. a week in rent, o r s 5s. per annum, on every ~2100 of capital outlay, representing in a s dwelling about ls. 6d. a week. A reduction at the same time ifi the rate of interest might make a saving of as muc.h as 2s. 6d. per cottage per week. It is scarcely to be wondered at if clerks to local authorities are not very enthusiastic in furthering the adoption of this Act, when the Act itself is somewhat intricate, and the time, correspondence, and responsibility in bringing a scheme to a successful issue is so heavy and tedious; yet t h i s is the Act under which we have to work, though in all probability more practice in its application would make procedure easier, or would, at any rate, prove in what particulars amendments are most needed. One of the few rural villages in the country where work is going on under Part III. of the Act is Penshurst in Kent. This is a village having a population, in 1891, of 1,647, with an area of 4,568 acres~ and a ratable value of s It is residential and agricultural in character, and is not rapidly increasing. The chronological stages in the carrying forward of the work are interesting, and for the dates and various particulars I am indebted to fire kindness of the hen. secretary of the local committee (Miss E scombe) : November, 1895.--First proposal made on the subject in the form of a resolution at the Parish Council meeting. The motion was rejected. April, 1896.--A new Parish Council e~ected; pledged to endeavour tO put Part III. of the Housing of the Working Classes Act into force. A committee was formed for this purpose. July, 1896.--Committee reported. This report was printed and issued to landowners, with letter requesting information as to whether the landowners were themselves prepared to build cottages. October, 1896.--The answer to this appeal having proved that private enterprise could not be relied on to supply the muchneeded cottages, the Parish Council called "upon the District Council to take the necessary steps to put Part III. of the Act into force. District Council made inquiry as to the willingness of the landowners to supply the cottages, and received the same unsatisfactory answer as was given to the Parish Council. . . J March, 1897.--District Council held an mqmry at Penshurst to satisfy themselves of the need, and, being satisfied with the evidence produced, applied to the County Council. July, 1897.--The County Council held the public ~nquiri" at Penshurst, granted the necessary certificate, and declared urgency.
r.b~.~,
l~j
Working.ClassDwellings
:338
2r
1897.--Parish Council urged District Council to move forward and appoint a joint committee, nothing having yet been done. December, 1897.--Joint committee was formed, and held its first meeting. March, 1898.--Land secured for site ; competitive plans advertised for.
September, 1898.--Tenders for building were invited. October, 1898.--Tenders being in excess of architect's estimates, the plans were revised by the architect. November, 1898.~---Bu{lders revised t'enders accepted by District Council. December 31st, 1898.--Plans sent to Local Government Board, and a loan of s applied for. March 6th, 1899.--Local Government Board held an inquiry. Ju~ze, 1899.wLocal Governmerlt Board demanded that a well be sunk, and drainage-scheme submitted before granting loan. Se2tember , 1899.--Local Government Board sanctioned loan. October, 1899.~Applieation made to Public Works Loan Commissioners, and loan of s granted for forty years. 2%rember 9th, 1899.--Seal of District Council was to be aflixed to deed of purchase of site from Ecclesiastical Commissioners. November 25th, 1899.--The seal of the District Council was to be affixed to builders' contract. Builder ready to commence work. I~ is thus apparent that more than two years elapsed between Lhe time of the holding of the C o u ~ y Council inquiry, when urgency was declared, and the time when building could actually ~ommenee. Provision is made for six lobbied cottages arranged in pairs. The site (88 acre, and freehold) was obtained from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners by arrangemen~ for the sum of ~180. The estimated cost of building the. cottages is s 10s. 9d., or about .s per pair. The loan is for s interest and capital, repayable in forty years, at J24 2s. 9d. per cent. The annual payment is therefore s 9s. 6d., and 'a rent of 5s. a week should produce s leaving a margin of ~8 10s. 6d. for repairs. The mos~ diverse conditions are to be found in the cottages of the purely ggricultural labourer. Many cottages, Particularly those on the large estates of i'csident landowners, are of an excellent ~ype, and let a~ rents impossible to produce but the smallest percentage on the original outlay. Others, though owned by well-to.do persons, may be found in very indifferent repair; but undoubtedly t,he worst kind of cottages are those owned by Persons of small means, who w a n t t o make every penny they can out of ~hem, at [he same time executing a rain':mum of repairs. I~ is impossible, at a rent of about 2s. or 2s. 6d. per week, which [s the average rent the ordinary agricultural labourer can afford to
334
Working.Class
Dwellings
t~b,ie ao~,th
x
pay, for cottages to be built at the present time with a prS~peet of returning a reasonable percentage on the outlay, and any suggestion by which the price of building cottages can be reduced without materially affecting their healthiness to live in must be regarded with favour. The question of building wooden bungalows where land is cheap has been practically brought forward in one part of my district, and a modification of the bye-laws proposed in this respect. The suggestions are not finally approved b y the Local Government :Board, but broadly the conditions are that the buildings must be only one-storied, and comply with the bye-laws as to footings and concrete over the site; the brickwork to reach 6 inches above the ground-level, and be provided with a damp course ; als0 that each dwelling be limited to an area of 600 square feet, with capacity of 6,000 cubic feet, and the buildings to be at least 50 feet from each other. I must say that I cannot see the object of limiting tlle capacity to this extent. Steel-framed buildings have also been sug,gested, something after the skeleton frames of the American ".sky-scraper"; while the Cunnah-Wright system appears to offer several distinct advantages, being easily erected, fireproof, and warm for a minimum of thickness of wall. Well-built brick or stone houses nave certainly a lifo of over 120 years, and the land would in all probability increase in value, so that it seems evident that the periods of granting loans might with safety be considerably extended. It has, I think, been over and over again practically shown that no one set of measures can be applied as a panacea for the defects in the dwellings and the overcrowding among our working classes ; but each locality must be dealt with on its own merits, according as it is metropolitan, suburban, extra:suburban, or distinctly rural, in addition to which cities and large provincial towns with their suburbs will require the most energetic and unselfish consideration at the hands of all local municipalities. The education of the working classes in .sanitary matters to stimulate their desire and appreciation of more healthy dwellings, and the persuasion of local authorities to be more ready to put in motion the extensive powers which they now possess, will not be among the least powerful agents in promoting improvements which are so much to be desired. DISCUSSION. Dr. THRESH said that the subject of the address was one of.great iuterest to him, as it was one which had engaged his attention for many years: There were, however, many difficulties in the way. There was, first, the difficulty of
rebr-~rx,~J
Working.Class Dwellings
335
obtaining the land for building dwellings on fer the working classes ; then many of the requirements of.the Local Government Board were unreasonable, and the Board would not give way on any point. The result was a greater increase iL~ cost, and as in rural districts the rent of cottages should not be more than 8s. a week, the deficit would have to be borne by the ratepayers. In two hlstances where it was proposed to put the Act in force landowners had come forward and built cottages. Some cottages had been buil~ at a cost of /'100 each as the result of private enterprise, t ie had not yet seen the plans, but he was afraid the Local Government Board would hardly sanction this kind of cottage; the walls, he believed, were only bne brick thick. In one of his districts, which used to be one of the most overcrowded, the local authority had put up a number of cottages, and it was now one of the best. The cottages were let at 3s. a week, and there would probably be a deficit of from ~15 to s a year. Dr. 3. 3. CLARKE(Walthamstow) considered that most of the insanitary con. ditions of the houses of the working classes were produced by the people themselves. The first thing to do was to educate the working classes. In two or three years a house was rendered quite unfit for human habitatien. Dr. ]VATERS (Southend.on-Sea) said that until people were given an opportunity of being clean, they could not be accused of being dirty. It was not uncommon to find two families occup$ing one house, ~:ith fourteen or fifteen persons using one w.c., and having no bath-room. IIe quite agreed that the medical officer of health should not devote the whole of his time to hunting the bacillus, but should look to the housing of the working classes. Local authorities should build sets of dwellings for the working classes at different corners of the towns, and certain houses should be kept empty in which families could be placed while their houses iffb which infectious llisease had occurred were being disinfected. The objection to shelters was that people had to be removed from one end of the town to the other, and pcrhaps to a distance from their work. Dr. SANDERSC~Vest IIam) said that in his district they were committed to a very large housing scheme. They were applying to Parliament for powers to acquire land for the purpose of erecting -3,000 houses for the working classes. Twenty houses had been built at a cost of .~400 per house ; these were let at 6s. for the lower part, and 6s. 6d. the upper part of the house. IIe was not in a position to say if they would pay or not. The question of houses for the very poor had not been tbuched upon.
CORRECTION.--We learn t h a t Dr. T h o m p s o n , in his p a p e r o n ' " T h e G u i d a n c e of Public :Efforts t o w a r d s t h e P r e v e n t i o n of C o n s u m p t i o n , " in referring ~ to Dr. l l a n s o m e a s " of N o t t i n g h a m , " should have described t h a t g e n t l e m a n as " o f . M a n c h e s t e r . "
~,IEDICAL OFFICER OF LOCAL"GOVERNMENT Bo.~,l~D.--'lahe P r e s i d e n t of the L o cal G o v e r n m e n t B o a r d has a p p o i n t e d Mr. W i l l i am H e n r y Power, F.R.S., the Assistant Medical Officer a n d Medical I n s p e c t o r for G e n e r a l S a n i t a r y P u r p o s e s of the Board, to t he office of Medical Officer of the Board, in the room of the late Sir :Richard T h o r n e Thorne, K.C.B. Dr. H. F r a n k l i n P a r s o n s has been appointed Assistant Medical Officer and Med i cal I n s p e c t o r for General S a n i t a r y Purposes, and Dr. R. B r u c e L o w has been appointed an Assistant Medical Officer of the Board. See pp. 256 and 257 of this volume (January, 1980). o.q
Working.Class
WORKING-CLASS
Dwellings
tr.bu~ ao~th
DWELLINGS. ~
B~" J. S. TEW, M.D., B.S., D.P.H., Medical Officer of Health of the West Kent Combined Sanitary District.
WUEN I tirst became aware that it would be my privilege to deliver a Presidential Address to this Branch of the Incorporated Society, I at once decided' to take the opportunity of choosing as a subject the consideration of "Working-class Dwellings," as the questions of overcrowding and the scarcity of cottages have continued to be pressed upon my attention with increasing persistence for some time past. 1 am only too well aware that there is no novelty in the subject, for it has continually been before the public for more than half a century; but I must claim as an excuse that, in spite of the fact that it has been largely spoken on, written on, and even legislated on throughout that period, we are still a long way from a simple and satisfactory solution of the query, how to provide at rents ill proportion to the rate of earnings decent accommodation for the working classes, of a kind applicable to the local requirements, wl,ero such'accombaodation does net already exist, and where cottages are not likely to be provided by private enterprise. Sections 5, 30, and 31 of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, have specially tended to make the medical inspection of dilapidated and insanitary dwellings imperative. It also appears to be necessary for the medical officer of health at the same time t6 furnish the local authority with su~cient facts to enable the members properly to consider his representation, and to satisfy themselves as to its accuracy. While recognising that this is a very proper procedure, if'throws a great onus on the medical officer of health; and if he is to carefully consider all the conditions in sufficient detail to enable him to decide on the best course to recommend in dealing with insanitary or dilapidated houses, he must have a good knowledge of practical sanitary details and of building construction, and must, in addition, be prepared to spend some considerable time over the examination of each dwelling. The time taken up by these inspections is, however, I venture to think, verywell spent if it leads to the publicity of existing conditions anu any attempts at remedy. Personally, I consider that Presidential Address read before the IIome Counties Branch of the Iucorporated Society of Medical Officers of Health, December, 1899.
r.~,,-..~y, ~oj
Worklng.Ciass
Dwellings
:323
the mosg useful and satisfactory work with which one can be associated is in this direction, even if carried bug on a small scale, and in districts where conditions are not at their worst. The Councils for which I act have shown 11o unwillingness to fully endorse and carry out recommendations contained in detailed reports, and no difficulty has arisen in those cases where repairs and redrainage can be effected while the houses remain occupied. The real difficulty for all parties begins where the habitations are in such a bad state that it is impossible for them to remain tenanted while the necessary repairs are going on, or when matters are still worse and absolute closure is necessary. Under the two latter conditions, where the occupiers are oblige d to quit, if they have work sufficiently remunerative to attract tllem to the neighbourhood they join some other family, to increase the overcrowding which had in all probability previously existed, or they leave the neighbourhood should moderately rented dwellings be scarce and their circumstances permit them to move. The difficulties of providing decent dwellings at rents commensurate witla.the earnings of the classes which most require such accommodation are practically insurmountable if private enterprise alone is to be~rclied upon, and the work of dealing with the worst class of dwellings is retarded or wholly prevented. A practical knowledge of the requirements of tlle working classes can only be learned by continued personal investigation in their own dwelling-places, in the same way as a knowledge of clinical medicine can only be acquired a t the bedside, and to no one are the lmmelives of the poor laid so bare as to medical men. I always think that Chose of us who have attended any considerable number of obstetric cases in the out-department practice of a London hospital have, in the short space e r a month or so, had a lifelong lesson .in the knowledge of the extent to which overcrowding exists, which can never be forgotten. In accentuation of the importance o f this subject, I may quote the words of the President of the British Medical Association, who, in his address to the annual meeting held flits year, said : " T h e great hindrance tO the progress of preventive medicine which we have to overcome is the overcrowded and insanitary condition of the dwellings of the working classes. This is the field on which the great battle with infectious disorders will have to be fought out. Our warfare will not be directly with microbic life, 1,;.\ rather with the conditions in which specific organisms are 6 f O W l l o '~
To whatever" extent the question may be shelved by local authori-
~24
Working.Cl~iss Dwellings
tP.buo ao.~th
ties or by their officials, it continues go reassert itself, and the time has undoubtedly arrived when action must take the place of words in those instances where a real need of increased accommodation has been fully proved. The only course for local authorities to pursue is to face the difficulty, and consider the details of the various schemes and recommendations which have been brought forward, with a view of adopting measures most applicable to the special wants of the district which comes under their jurisdiction. We can only be in a position to advise our authorities on this very intricate and difficult question by making systematic and searching inspections, by correctly gauging the genuine requirements of the classes to be provided for, by mastering the modes of procedure for attempting to obtaifi those requirements, and last, but not least, by forming some idea of the expenses to be incurred and the chances of recoupment. There appears to me no better way of furthering this object than by free discussion at such meetings as the present, and I therefore ask you to adopt the procedure of my two immediate predecessors, and express the wish that this address may be regarded as a paper open for discussion. No one will, I think, seriously question the fact that, while general sanitation has immensely advanced during recent years, the difficulties o! insisting on the provision of healthy dwellings for the poorer classes has been so formidable that action i n this direction has been greatly handicapped, and has lagged behind other improvements, evoking but feeble efforts from the majority of local authorities to cope with the difficulties. / The older classes of cottages have frequently undergone little or no structural repairs for twenty or thirty~years, and are looked upon by many property owners as perpetual investments which are good for all time, and the attempts of local authorities generally, and of flmh" officers in particular, are regarded as unnecessary and unwarrantable interference of a personally offensive character. It is when reporting upon insanitary property, and making recommendations as to action required, or otherwise dealing with such defects, that the position of the medical officer of health and the sanitary inspector i n some cases becomes untenable when not assured by permanent appointment. In the vast majority of instances both officers are subjected to an annual or periodical reappointment at t h e hands of electors; who are not uncommonly themselves, directly or indirectly, interested in dilapidated proper~y, either as owners, agents, builders, mortgagees, trustees, or some such capacity--in short, to put it in a borrowed phrase, " a t the hands of members who have themselves
r~br~a.~z, ~o]
Working.Class
Dwellings
325
axes to grind." This leads to an inert mode of treating the difficul~ies--a position which it is easy and profitable to assume, p a r ticularly where selfish motives exist for doing so, and so-called legal impediments, and the frequently imaginary prospective increase i n the local rate, are magnified, and made standard excuses for continued inaction. I~ may perhaps here be not out of place to express the hope that the fixity of tenure of those officers whose duty it is to practically initiate proceedings against insanitary property owners may not long be withheld, for it is well recognised by those who really wish for improvements that as long as the officers' tenure is insecur e , and not held directly from an actually central source, action will not be initiated or pushed forward as would otherwise be the case. It is contrary to the instincts of human nature, and unreasonable to expect, that men who are in many cases wholly dependent upon their official salaries will often r i s k the chance of losing their position and pauperizing their families by pressing for action in this direction. It is regrettable that local authorities have not seen their way to more warmly support the principle of fixity of tenure for medical officers of health and sanitary inspectors, or, at any rate, for those who have gone through a period oI probation and proved their efficiency, by placin~ them on the solme footing in this respect as their clerks and other officials, who have far less objectionable duties to perform, and are not subject to the ordeal of periodical re-election at the hands of representatives, some of whom it has been necessary to mortally offend if a non-elastic line of action has been observed. It is, I hope, a s i g n o f further activity towards attaining this end that the Incorporated Society i s n o w united, as many of us have alw~-ys recognised and hoped "that it would be, in working for fixity of tenure for all medical officers of health, whether devoting their whole time to public health work or not, and also in the inclusion of sanitary inspectors in any future measures to be adopted. It is not m y intention to a~tempt to deal with the question of small dwellings and housing the working classes in its entirety; even in outline, it would be far beyond the scope of this paper. With the exception of mentioning certain facts which have contributed to cause a scarcity in small buildings in the particular districts with which I propose to deal, I am not attempting to discuss Metropolitan requirements, or the requirements of the immediate suburbs, which must be regarded as of a unique character ; neither am I attempting to discuss the requirements of cities or provincial towns where - "~ditions of size, situation, and prevailing local in-
3-96
Working.Class Dwellings
trublio ae~ath
dustries render any generalization in this respect almost impossible. I only propose to shortly discuss the conditions existing in those neighbourhoods which have recently specially claimed my attention --viz., in, firstly, what I may perhaps be allowed to call "extrasuburban" districts; and, secondly, and still more briefly, in the purely agricultural localities. Although it is useful for some purposes to retain the employment of the genel"al terms of distinction of rural" and " urban " distriers, it is scarcely necessary to mention tl~at these terms are in many cases wholly anomalous, not to say misleading, for many contributory places in rural districts are practically small towns; frequently with populations in excess of neighbouring urban districts. This anomaly is specially seen on all sides of the ~[etropolis, on the outlying parts of many of our large towns, and in many ananulecturing and mining districts: There is no reason whatever, as far as I can see, that any change should be suggested, providing that the small worth of this nominal distinction is recognised, and that the general and sanitary administration of such places is in the hands of a local authority, the members of which fully realize the responsibilities which they undertake. Before passing on to consider the conditions existing in the two classes of locality which I have mentioned, I must briefly refer to the position which the question of the housing of "the working classes occupies at the present time. Looking back nearly fifty years, the passing of the Common Lodging Houses Act and the Labouring Classes' Lodging Houses Act in 1851 mark a time when the consideration of this matter took a tangible form. The year 1855 saw the ~Ietropolis Local Management Act and the Nuisances Removal Act become law, followed in 1866 by a Sanitary Act (extending and amending the Acts of 1855). Following these came Torrens' Act (1868), the Sanitary Law Amendment Act (1874), and Cross' Acts (1875, 1879, and 1889.), and finally ~he Housing of the Worldng Classes Ac~, 1890, with its short explanatory Act of 1894 as regards England. The report of the Select Committees of the House of Commons, appointed in 1881-89, to inquire into the working of Torrens' and Cross' Acts, disclosed in the evidence then taken the extremely bad state of many working-class areas, both in the Metropolis and in provincial towns, and led to the passing of the Artisans' Dwellings Act of 1882, and later on to the appointment, in 1884, of a Royal Commission of Inquiry, which commenced collecting evidence that year, and presented a first (and, I believe, only) report in 1889. The repor~ contains a huge mass of information, and makes "
F~b~.~, ~ O : o
Working.Class
Dwellings
327
many recommendations and suggestions, which are as applicable .to-day as they were when the report was published ten years ago. The eight memoranda attached to the report expressed the individual opinions of well-known men who had given much time and ,4ttention to this subject, and included those of the l~te Earl of Shaftesbury, Mr. Torrens, and Sir Richard Cross, all of whom had been the promoters of measures in Parliament, which, if not as ready of application in practice as one could have desired, had, at any rate, laid a statutory foundation upon which it was hoped enactments of a more generally applicable character might be based. While referring to this extremely instructive report, there are one or two passages which have struck me as being of special interest. At the commencement it states " t h a t the subject of the housing of the working classes is one which has been contfimally before the public for more than thirty y e a r s " (this was written not later than 1889). Also at that time two facts were fully proved: "First, that there was a great improvement (described by one member as ' enormous ') in the condition of the houses of the" poor compared to that of thirty years ago ; yet the evils of overcrowding, especially in London, were still a public scandal, and were becoming in certain localities more serious than they ever were. Second, there was much legislation designed tQ meet these evils, yet the existing laws were not put into force, some of them having remained a dead letter from t h e date when they first found place in the statute book." This appears also to be unfortunately true, to a large extent, at the present time as regards later statutes. It would be tedious for me to dilate on the existing conditions of the very .poor dwellers ill Metropolitan crowded areas, where insufficient air-space, together with precarious wages, dirt, drink, and immorality, raise the local death-rate to an enormous figure, produce excessive infant sickness and mortality, and perhaps what is the worst feature in overcrowding, viz., the production of a general, deterioration in the health and physique of the people. During the last twenty years, and. more particularly during the last ten, the insanitary areas demolished by the City Corporation 9and the London County Council, and by the corporations of very many cities and large towns throughout the country, have been enormous, but it has remained, until quite recently, for purely local authorities to act. The Shoreditch Vestry has, I believe, been the first of Metroloolitan Vestries, or Metropolitan District Boards, to accomplish, after about eight years' work, the demolition'of a large unhealthy area, and the erection on the site of sufficient dwellings
:~28
Working.Class
Dwellings
~P,,bu~H~1~h
to accommodate a population very nearly equal ~o the number of those displaced. W h e n slum property is demolished, even if it is carried out. in sections, and dwellings eventually erected on the site to accommodate as many, or even more, persons than those, displ~ced, s considerable number are sent adrift--certainly for a time--and it is the practical experience that few of those displaced return to take up their abode in the newly-erected buildings. The obvious result is that a general pushing outwards towards the more distant suburbs takes place of those to whom it is not an absolute essential that they should live close to their work, or where location does not materially interfere with their occupation, and this extension is particularly towards those suburbs where the working classes are already extensively located and which are fairly accessible. Many other causes than the distribution of those displaced from condemned Metropolitan areas are, of course, in operation--e.g., displacement of populations by railway extension, those displaced having in many cases only been nominally re-housed; immigration from more rural country districts, cheaper and more ready means of locomotion, and the natural increase of the population. I will at present confine my l'emarks to the "extra-suburban" class of locality. Members of this Branch, several of whom h a v e the charge of districts adjoining the Metropolitan area, say ten to twenty miles out, will appreciate the growth of such localities, which, within the space of a few years, have developed from rural villages into considerable centres of population. A distinct line can be drawn between the requiremgnts of places like these and districts where the cottages are almost wholly occupied l~y agricultural labourers, and to which I will more briefly allude later on. The overcrowding in both classes of districts has been much overlooked, but particularly the former. No one will, of course, for a moment imagine that the overcrowding in these districts approaches that in t.he poorer parts of London ; it is most undesirable that it should in any way approach it, and therefore timely action should not be delayed. I believe that the better housing of the poorer classes will be the chief means in the future of checking the present high mortality among young children, particularly from those diseases which are usually treated at homo, viz., measles, whooping-cough and d.iarrhoca. That the fatality of each of flmso diseases among children under five years ~)f age named under these conditions is out of all proportion to the gravity of the disease is evident from the rarity of fatal
robot, ~l
Working-Class
Dwellings
329
issue in hospitals or among the upper classes. When, however, one considers the insanitary surroundings, the vitiated atmosphere, the damp, the smoke, tlle draughts, and the impossibility of anything like decent living, to say nothing of nursing, in such places, it is even surprising that the mortality is not higher. It is to be hoped that the proposed Congress on phthisis and other forms of consumption will not confine itself entirely to the consideration of tuberculin tests, open-air.treatment and sanatoria, but will give the prominent place it deserves to the all-important question of the housing of the working-classes in relation to that disease. The difference between the death-rates (gefleral, zymotic, and infantile), as shown by the available figures between the overcrowded parts of large towns and average districts, is enormous, but ought to be still greater if more advantage were taken in obtaining better conditions of life in rural areas. The cottages in these "extrasuburban " areas are usually built in rows or terraces of varying lengths, and the worst features I have. noticed, in addit,ion to general dilapidation, are inefficient drainage, defective and improperly flushed w.c.'s, insufficient ventilation, often rendered worse by the small size of the room, dampness of the walls, and badlypaved yards. The most insanitary dwellings are usually of some ago, and where a history can be traced,it is frequently found that they have been put up rapidly during a spurt of development by the speculative builder previous to the adopt.ion of bye-laws, and have since frequently changed hands, undergoing all the time a minimum amount of.repair. Under such circumstances damp courses are rarely to be found, but the amount of dampness of the walls c a u s e d by defective eaves, gutters, and a, bad distribution of the rain-water, which a few shillings would materially alter, is astonishing. Work in connection with such-like defects, viz., testing drains and serving notices under the Public IIealth Act, can be carried on in the less insanitary propert,y to an extent commensurate with the inspecting staff, but, when it comes to a class of house which is past, repairing, the real difficulty begins. If a cottage be certified as unfi~ for habitation and closed, and there are no available cottages near, overcrowding must follow by two families occupying one cottage, as in many cases the father of the family has work close at hand and frequently fair wages. This leads u p to the question of how much rent, a working-man can afford to pay. In London it has been shown on good authority that 88 per cent. of the poor population pay more than one-fifth of their income in
330
Working, Class Dwellings
~p.bli~ ~e~lth
rent; that 46 per cent. pay from one-quarter to one-half; 42 per cent. from one-fourth to one-fiffl~, and that only 12 per cent. pay less than. one-fifth of their income in rent; It is also to be remembered that the poor not only pay more for their houses, but also for many of the necessaries of life, such as vegetables, groceries, coal, and so forth. It is generally agreed that the amount of rent 9paid should not be more than one-tenth to one-seventh of the income, and allowing for t.he fact that the ac~ual la~)ouring classes have not so many additional expenses outside the bare necessaries of life as compared with the requirements of those in only a slightly bettei" position in respect of ificome, who have to spend more on their outward appearance, possibly tl~e higher figure of one-seventh would be a fairly correct estimate of the amount of rent working-class people can reasonably be expected to pay. Speaking in general terms on this basis, , s.d. If a man's
income
s.d.
is 15 0 a week,
his rent ought
not to exceed
2 1
,,
,,
18 0
,,
,,.
,,
,,
,,
,,
21 0
,,
,,
,,
,,
3 0
,,
,,
25
,,
,,
,,
,,
3
' ,, ,,
0
300 ,, ,,
2 7 7
43
35 0
,,
,,
,,
,,
5 0
40 0
,,"
,,
,,
,,
5 8
It appears to me that what is required at the present time in districts of this description is a class of house having, some two and some fl~ree bedrooms, to suit large and small families, which could be let at a rental of from 3s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. a week, as this appears to be about the amount which t]lis class can be expected to pay at a distance out of London. But What do we find? Inferior accommodation of the kind I have mentioned, withrentals of from 4s. 6d. to 7s. 6d. a week, which necessitates two families frequentlyliving in one house, and the taking in of lodgers when the houses are already too small for the present occupiers; and it is no uncommon thing for a man, wife, and four or five children occupying a house with only two bedrooms to take in a lodger.9 It is also a fact that, when cleansing, structural repairs, improved drainage, etc., are insisted on by the local authority--little or nothing having been done for years--the rents are at once raised, and cases have come to my knowledge where the rents have been raised even for the necessary cleansing after a case of infectious illness, or even for the provision of a movable dustbin. Further than this, during the last few weeks I found that rents had b e e n
reb~,
l~J
"
"Working-Class
Dwellings
331
raised about twelve months previously on account of prospectire r~Tairs, which, it was anticipated, would be insisted on by the local authority. Under conditions of this kind I see no available course open but for local authorities to intervene. The extortionate rents obtained from many working-class people even in those cases where excessive overcrowding is not apparent, and where the houses are in fair condition, is detrimental, and leads to many evils ; their food.and clothing are barely sufficient, lodgers are taken in, the mothers go out to work or tak~ work in to do at home amid insanitary surroundings, while they have barely time to attend to the needs of their own families, and a few weeks' loss of work leaves them hopelessly behind-hand in their finances. It is not to be expected that at the present time, when labour in all its branches is very expensive, and when all kinds of building materials are extremely high-priced, that private individuals will do much in the way of building working-class dwellings, as a very small percentage only can be expected on the outlay, and it therefore remains for local authorities to take the matter into their own hands and see what can be done under the Housing of the Working Classes Act. Since.1890 the loans sanctioned by the Local Government Board under the Housing of the Working Cla~ses Act, and the Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act of 1875, have amounted up to the commencement of the present year to s in English provincial towns and districts alone, and exclusive of much spent under local Acts. Urban and Rural District Councils have but in a fdw cases adopted the Act. The Urban District Councils of Barnes, Hornsey, Leigh, Waltham, and Linthwaite are examples of urban districts in which S work has been camed out. Among Bural District Councils the Thingoe ~ural District Council (Suffolk) still appears to be the only Bural Council which has actually built. This was not a financial success. Eight cottages were built there in 1891-92 under Par~ III. of the Housing of the ~Vorking Classes Act, at a cost of s including the land (four acres). The cottages are let at s 5s. a year, and 2d. a rod for twenty-seven rods of land to each cottage. The money was borrowed at 388 per cent., and the term o f repayment was thirty years. The low rent obtained, only a fraction over 2s. per week, and the short period for which the loan was granted, are evidently the crippling factors. Surely the loan for cottage s and land might well be extended over a period of fifty years. It is sin:prising to realize the difference in the annual repayments requirs whether the repayment has to be made in thirty or: in f i f t y years.
332
Working.Class Dwellings
l~blio H~I,~
This is shown in Alderman Thompson's Report on the Housing of the Working Classes in the Borough of Richmond (Surrey). It is there po!nted out very clearly that the difference between a loan for thirty years and one for fifty years is equivalent to nearly 6d. a week in rent, o r s 5s. per annum, on every ~2100 of capital outlay, representing in a s dwelling about ls. 6d. a week. A reduction at the same time ifi the rate of interest might make a saving of as muc.h as 2s. 6d. per cottage per week. It is scarcely to be wondered at if clerks to local authorities are not very enthusiastic in furthering the adoption of this Act, when the Act itself is somewhat intricate, and the time, correspondence, and responsibility in bringing a scheme to a successful issue is so heavy and tedious; yet t h i s is the Act under which we have to work, though in all probability more practice in its application would make procedure easier, or would, at any rate, prove in what particulars amendments are most needed. One of the few rural villages in the country where work is going on under Part III. of the Act is Penshurst in Kent. This is a village having a population, in 1891, of 1,647, with an area of 4,568 acres~ and a ratable value of s It is residential and agricultural in character, and is not rapidly increasing. The chronological stages in the carrying forward of the work are interesting, and for the dates and various particulars I am indebted to fire kindness of the hen. secretary of the local committee (Miss E scombe) : November, 1895.--First proposal made on the subject in the form of a resolution at the Parish Council meeting. The motion was rejected. April, 1896.--A new Parish Council e~ected; pledged to endeavour tO put Part III. of the Housing of the Working Classes Act into force. A committee was formed for this purpose. July, 1896.--Committee reported. This report was printed and issued to landowners, with letter requesting information as to whether the landowners were themselves prepared to build cottages. October, 1896.--The answer to this appeal having proved that private enterprise could not be relied on to supply the muchneeded cottages, the Parish Council called "upon the District Council to take the necessary steps to put Part III. of the Act into force. District Council made inquiry as to the willingness of the landowners to supply the cottages, and received the same unsatisfactory answer as was given to the Parish Council. . . J March, 1897.--District Council held an mqmry at Penshurst to satisfy themselves of the need, and, being satisfied with the evidence produced, applied to the County Council. July, 1897.--The County Council held the public ~nquiri" at Penshurst, granted the necessary certificate, and declared urgency.
r.b~.~,
l~j
Working.ClassDwellings
:338
2r
1897.--Parish Council urged District Council to move forward and appoint a joint committee, nothing having yet been done. December, 1897.--Joint committee was formed, and held its first meeting. March, 1898.--Land secured for site ; competitive plans advertised for.
September, 1898.--Tenders for building were invited. October, 1898.--Tenders being in excess of architect's estimates, the plans were revised by the architect. November, 1898.~---Bu{lders revised t'enders accepted by District Council. December 31st, 1898.--Plans sent to Local Government Board, and a loan of s applied for. March 6th, 1899.--Local Government Board held an inquiry. Ju~ze, 1899.wLocal Governmerlt Board demanded that a well be sunk, and drainage-scheme submitted before granting loan. Se2tember , 1899.--Local Government Board sanctioned loan. October, 1899.~Applieation made to Public Works Loan Commissioners, and loan of s granted for forty years. 2%rember 9th, 1899.--Seal of District Council was to be aflixed to deed of purchase of site from Ecclesiastical Commissioners. November 25th, 1899.--The seal of the District Council was to be affixed to builders' contract. Builder ready to commence work. I~ is thus apparent that more than two years elapsed between Lhe time of the holding of the C o u ~ y Council inquiry, when urgency was declared, and the time when building could actually ~ommenee. Provision is made for six lobbied cottages arranged in pairs. The site (88 acre, and freehold) was obtained from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners by arrangemen~ for the sum of ~180. The estimated cost of building the. cottages is s 10s. 9d., or about .s per pair. The loan is for s interest and capital, repayable in forty years, at J24 2s. 9d. per cent. The annual payment is therefore s 9s. 6d., and 'a rent of 5s. a week should produce s leaving a margin of ~8 10s. 6d. for repairs. The mos~ diverse conditions are to be found in the cottages of the purely ggricultural labourer. Many cottages, Particularly those on the large estates of i'csident landowners, are of an excellent ~ype, and let a~ rents impossible to produce but the smallest percentage on the original outlay. Others, though owned by well-to.do persons, may be found in very indifferent repair; but undoubtedly t,he worst kind of cottages are those owned by Persons of small means, who w a n t t o make every penny they can out of ~hem, at [he same time executing a rain':mum of repairs. I~ is impossible, at a rent of about 2s. or 2s. 6d. per week, which [s the average rent the ordinary agricultural labourer can afford to
334
Working.Class
Dwellings
t~b,ie ao~,th
x
pay, for cottages to be built at the present time with a prS~peet of returning a reasonable percentage on the outlay, and any suggestion by which the price of building cottages can be reduced without materially affecting their healthiness to live in must be regarded with favour. The question of building wooden bungalows where land is cheap has been practically brought forward in one part of my district, and a modification of the bye-laws proposed in this respect. The suggestions are not finally approved b y the Local Government :Board, but broadly the conditions are that the buildings must be only one-storied, and comply with the bye-laws as to footings and concrete over the site; the brickwork to reach 6 inches above the ground-level, and be provided with a damp course ; als0 that each dwelling be limited to an area of 600 square feet, with capacity of 6,000 cubic feet, and the buildings to be at least 50 feet from each other. I must say that I cannot see the object of limiting tlle capacity to this extent. Steel-framed buildings have also been sug,gested, something after the skeleton frames of the American ".sky-scraper"; while the Cunnah-Wright system appears to offer several distinct advantages, being easily erected, fireproof, and warm for a minimum of thickness of wall. Well-built brick or stone houses nave certainly a lifo of over 120 years, and the land would in all probability increase in value, so that it seems evident that the periods of granting loans might with safety be considerably extended. It has, I think, been over and over again practically shown that no one set of measures can be applied as a panacea for the defects in the dwellings and the overcrowding among our working classes ; but each locality must be dealt with on its own merits, according as it is metropolitan, suburban, extra:suburban, or distinctly rural, in addition to which cities and large provincial towns with their suburbs will require the most energetic and unselfish consideration at the hands of all local municipalities. The education of the working classes in .sanitary matters to stimulate their desire and appreciation of more healthy dwellings, and the persuasion of local authorities to be more ready to put in motion the extensive powers which they now possess, will not be among the least powerful agents in promoting improvements which are so much to be desired. DISCUSSION. Dr. THRESH said that the subject of the address was one of.great iuterest to him, as it was one which had engaged his attention for many years: There were, however, many difficulties in the way. There was, first, the difficulty of
rebr-~rx,~J
Working.Class Dwellings
335
obtaining the land for building dwellings on fer the working classes ; then many of the requirements of.the Local Government Board were unreasonable, and the Board would not give way on any point. The result was a greater increase iL~ cost, and as in rural districts the rent of cottages should not be more than 8s. a week, the deficit would have to be borne by the ratepayers. In two hlstances where it was proposed to put the Act in force landowners had come forward and built cottages. Some cottages had been buil~ at a cost of /'100 each as the result of private enterprise, t ie had not yet seen the plans, but he was afraid the Local Government Board would hardly sanction this kind of cottage; the walls, he believed, were only bne brick thick. In one of his districts, which used to be one of the most overcrowded, the local authority had put up a number of cottages, and it was now one of the best. The cottages were let at 3s. a week, and there would probably be a deficit of from ~15 to s a year. Dr. 3. 3. CLARKE(Walthamstow) considered that most of the insanitary con. ditions of the houses of the working classes were produced by the people themselves. The first thing to do was to educate the working classes. In two or three years a house was rendered quite unfit for human habitatien. Dr. ]VATERS (Southend.on-Sea) said that until people were given an opportunity of being clean, they could not be accused of being dirty. It was not uncommon to find two families occup$ing one house, ~:ith fourteen or fifteen persons using one w.c., and having no bath-room. IIe quite agreed that the medical officer of health should not devote the whole of his time to hunting the bacillus, but should look to the housing of the working classes. Local authorities should build sets of dwellings for the working classes at different corners of the towns, and certain houses should be kept empty in which families could be placed while their houses iffb which infectious llisease had occurred were being disinfected. The objection to shelters was that people had to be removed from one end of the town to the other, and pcrhaps to a distance from their work. Dr. SANDERSC~Vest IIam) said that in his district they were committed to a very large housing scheme. They were applying to Parliament for powers to acquire land for the purpose of erecting -3,000 houses for the working classes. Twenty houses had been built at a cost of .~400 per house ; these were let at 6s. for the lower part, and 6s. 6d. the upper part of the house. IIe was not in a position to say if they would pay or not. The question of houses for the very poor had not been tbuched upon.
CORRECTION.--We learn t h a t Dr. T h o m p s o n , in his p a p e r o n ' " T h e G u i d a n c e of Public :Efforts t o w a r d s t h e P r e v e n t i o n of C o n s u m p t i o n , " in referring ~ to Dr. l l a n s o m e a s " of N o t t i n g h a m , " should have described t h a t g e n t l e m a n as " o f . M a n c h e s t e r . "
~,IEDICAL OFFICER OF LOCAL"GOVERNMENT Bo.~,l~D.--'lahe P r e s i d e n t of the L o cal G o v e r n m e n t B o a r d has a p p o i n t e d Mr. W i l l i am H e n r y Power, F.R.S., the Assistant Medical Officer a n d Medical I n s p e c t o r for G e n e r a l S a n i t a r y P u r p o s e s of the Board, to t he office of Medical Officer of the Board, in the room of the late Sir :Richard T h o r n e Thorne, K.C.B. Dr. H. F r a n k l i n P a r s o n s has been appointed Assistant Medical Officer and Med i cal I n s p e c t o r for General S a n i t a r y Purposes, and Dr. R. B r u c e L o w has been appointed an Assistant Medical Officer of the Board. See pp. 256 and 257 of this volume (January, 1980). o.q