Fabian Tract No. 101. 


THE HOUSE FAMINE 


AND 

HOW TO RELIEVE IT. 


SEVEN PAPERS AND A BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

PuBLISHED AND SoLD BY 

THE FABIAN SOCIETY. 

PRICE ONE P 

LONDON: 

THE FABIA:-~ SocrETv, 3 CLEMENT's b:-~, STRA;.JD, W.C. 

APRIL 1900 


Note. 

THE following papers were presented to and discussed by a 
Conference on the Housing Problem, held at the Memorial Hall, 
Farringdon Street, London, on 1st March, 1900, and attended by 
numerous delegates from the London Vestries and District Boards, 
from Urban District and Town Councils in and near London, and 
from Co-operative bodies, Trade Unions and other organizations. 

A series of resolutions were adopted by the Conference, and 
a NATIONAL HouSING CoMMITTEE was formed for the purpose of 
carrying on the agitation. Further particulars of this Committee 
can be obtained from the Secretary of the Fabian Society, 3, 
Clement's Inn, Strand, London, W.C. 

These papers are published with the names of the authors, who 
are responsible for the views expressed. The opinions adopted by 
the Fabian Society can be found in Tracts No. 63, "Parish Council 
Cottages," and No. 76, "Houses for the People." 

Contents. 

I. 
Bad Housing in Rural Districts. 
By CLEMENT EDWARDS. Page 3 
II. 
Laborers' Cottages. 
By Miss CoNSTANCE CocHRANE. 
7

" 

III. 
Facts as to Urban Overcrowding. 
By Dr. EnwARD BowMAKER. 1, IO 
n·. The Existing Situation in London : Statistics of 
the 
Problem. 
By Mrs. R. C. PHILLIMORE. 

" IS 

V. 
Powers of Local Authorities. 
By Councillor W. THOMPSON. 
" 19 

VI. Consideration 
of Practical Difficulties as regards 
Building. 
By Councillor H. C. LANDER. 

" 27 

VU. General Principles. 
By Councillor F. LA\\·soN Donn. 


" 32 

VIII. A Select Bibliography. 
By SIDNEY WEBB, L.C.C. 
" 44 


I.--BAD HOUSING IN RURAL DISTRICTS. 

Bv CLEMENT EDWARDS. 

DuRI:-.IG the autumn of last year, as Special Commissioner for the 
Da£/y iVews, I made a careful enquiry into the housing of the rural 
laborers in the South and West of England. It is upon the facts 
gleaned first hand in that enquiry that I base what follows. I found 
that, with a few exceptional patches of very well managed estates, 
the condition of housing was very bad, but some counties are a 
good deal worse, speaking generally, than others. A great number 
of the cottages are very old and in a state of exceedingly bad repair. 
This particularly applies to the thatched huts, of which I came 
across a large number. Many of them are literally unfit to even 
sty pigs in. In fact, I have no hes.itation in saying that a self-respecting 
farmer, if he was compelled to put his pigs in some of them, 
would be ashamed to let his friends know that he had done so. 
This applies equally to cottages "on farms" and those grouped in 
villages and hamlets. Let me descend to some detail. 

Over and over again I found roofs nearly a yard thick with 
numerous layers of straw, which had been supplemented from time 
to time instead of being replaced with new roofing. I have used 
the expression "layers of straw," for in a number of instances the 
straw had been put on in such a skill-less manner that the term 
"thatching" would really not be justified. Some of the roofs presented 
an exceedingly nasty appearance with morbid growths of 
vegetation. Others were speckled with gaping entrances to rat 
burrows. A great many let in the day ; and over and over again I 
was shown by cottagers bedrooms where the thatched roofs were 
reeking with the moisture that had percolated through, or where 
buckets were placed to catch literal streams of rain-water. Need I 
say that in cases of this kind the smell from the rotting straw and 
the morbid growths which it harbors was most sickly and repulsive, 
and most injurious to the health of the inmates. 

I came across many instances where the walls have manifested 
an open contempt for the principle of unity, and have taken uponthemselves the function of irregularly supplying ventilation. It is 
no exaggeration to say that in a number of instances the term window 
is used by courtesy, for repeatedly did I come upon cases where 
the so-called window was quite paneless, and where, in place of the 
glass, there appeared a strange patchwork of paper, rags, and books. 
These were really striking examples of books being used to preventthe spread of light ! 


4 

Many of the cottages have floors (of the old earthen kind) several 
inches below the level of the threshold. Living-rooms are frequently 
less than five feet nine in height, and a great many of the bedrooms 
are only in the nature of lofts, the floors beginning above the level 
of the eaves, and having the sloping roof for walls. I went into a 
number of cottage bedrooms where it was only possible for me to 
stand upright just beneath the line where the two roofs converged. 
The ventilation was a little overwhelming. It appears to have 
"growed," like Topsy. It is found indifferently between the boards 
of the floors, somewhat broad chinks in the roofs, and still more at 
moments when a high wind has overcome the resisting power of the 
paper "panes."

It is not only that the cottages are in a horrible state of decay and 
disrepair. That is bad enough in all conscience. But even worse is 
the appalling manner in which they are so often overcrowded. Some 
of the facts that I gleaned were positively revolting in themselves, and 
much worse in their obvious suggestion of inevitable social and moral 
results. Insanitation and overcrowding and promiscuous occupation 
of the same bedroom stand, as a great contributory cause, at the 
beginning. Idiotcy and immorality, in most repulsive forms, stand at 
the end, as the fruit and penalty. A word to the wise is sufficient. 

Let me give you some of the individual cases of overcrowding 
which came to my notice, and which I verified for myself. In one 
part of Wiltshire alone, during my necessarily brief enquiry, I came 
across fifteen instances where more than five people are occupying 
one small bedroom, ten cases where more than six, eight more than 
seven, six more than eight, ~hree more than nine, two more than 
ten, and one where eleven people-mother, father, and nine children, 
eldest a girl of fifteen-are sleeping in a single bedroom. 

In a single district of Somersetshire, in one day, I was shown half 

a dozen cottages with two little bedrooms, accommodating a couple 

of lodgers-single laborers as a rule-in addition to the members of 

the family. In No. 1 the family consisted of husband and wife and 

four children, the eldest or whom was a girl of fourteen. o. 2 was 

husband, wife, mother, and three children. No.3 was husband, wife, 

sister (grown up), and three children. No.4 was husband, wife, and 

five children-eldest a lad of twelve. No. 5 was husband, wife, and 

three children, eldest a girl of sixteen, mentally deficient. No.6 was 

husband, wife, and two children-eldest a girl of eleven. 

A number of the cottages contain two families. 

A few of the cottages occupied by the better-to-do laborers 

boasted three bedrooms. 

This is regarded as a marvel for much comment among the 

laborers. Probably a majority of the cottages I saw had two bed


rooms. There are, however, a very great number with only a single 

bedroom. 

In most cases, the cottages in the villages and hamlets struck me 

as being situated in fairly healthy spots. But in a number of cases 

a snug corner appeared to have been selected at the expense of 

sanitation. Thus, in three or four cases, I found that from the road 


5 

a few yards away, only the roofs were visible. Here the houses had 
been built down in hollows, to which the water from the higher 
ground adjoining seemed to come at its own sweet will and pleasure. 
In one of these cases, the upper end of" the cottage appeared to be 
actually standing in a small bog. 

But one of the most serious defects from the double point of 
view of health and decency is in the matter of privies and drainage.
Only a few of the villages I visited have a semblance of what may 
be called drainage. The ditch, the privy, or even a hollow in the 
ground as you approach the cottage, served as the refuge for the 
culinary filth and garbage. In a great many cases I found that one 
privy had to serve for seYeral cottages. In several instances I found 
these privies without a door, and exposed to view from the highroad. 

Another serious aspect of the cottage question in rural districts 
is the " tied cottage" system. This is the system under which the 
tenant-farmers take the cottages with their farms, and sub-let them 
to the laborers. The tenancy is dependent upon the service contract. 
All the laborers with whom I spoke on this question were very 
emphatic in condemnation of the ''tied" system. "Out of job, out 
of houses," was their epigrammatic way of putting it. I had 
remarked upon the bareness and the slovenly cultivation of the 
cottage gardens. They all agreed with me, and they all gave me 
the same explanation. This was it in effect : if they differed with 
their masters over anything, and had to leave their service st-raightway, 
that is within a fortnight, they had to leave their houses. 
This meant they had to leave their crops and all their fruit trees, 
if they had planted any. They all declared that if they were sure 
of getting a proper notice, they would be glad to spend a bit ~of 
time and trouble in their gardens; but what is the good, if they 
are to lose all, because of one hot word between themselves and 
their masters, who are their landlords? One of my informants 
threw a good deal of significant light upon this point. As showingthe insecurity of tenure, and the frequent ephemeral character of a 
man's employment, he told me of a case in his district where a single 
"tied., cottage had had nine different tenants within a period of 
seven years. He cited other instances nearly as 1:1ad. He also gave 
me a number of cases within his experience where the "tied" cottage 
system has interfered tremendously with the efficacy of allotments. 
In these cases, the laborers have not known from day to 
day when some little quarrel with their employer might compelthem to leave their cottage, and with it the district. Under these 
circumstances they have regarded it as too great a risk to take an 
allotment, in which they might be compelled to waste all their labor 
and expenditure by having to leave their crops.

Let me briefly review the question of remedies for a moment. 
have already said that, in the districts visited by me, there is a 
decided lack of healthy cottage accommodation. The laborers have 
emigrated in crowds to the towns. But the old houses have fallen 
into decay more rapidly than the people have made their exodus. 



6 


The result is that practically all the habitable cottages are occ_upi_ed-and more than occupied. What is more, if the Rural D1stnct 
Councils exercised their authority to close all the houses that are 
not safely habitable, the remaining laborers' cottages would at once 
become impossibly unhealthy by the dishoused crowding in to share 
their accommodation. 

New cottages, therefore, there must be. I think they can best 
be secured by the District Councils being really empowered to build 
them and to acquire land for that purpose. The District Councils 
ought to be able to do this without the sanction of any other 
authority being required as at present. Where they fail in their 
duty, the County Councils should be called upon to spur them, and 
afterwards the Local Government Board should be used for the purpose 
if necessary. If such building is to be done, and the cottages 
are to be let at a possible rent, then the period for the repayment of 
the building loans must be greatly extended. The present period 
makes building impossible. If the loans were to be repayable in, say, 
8o to 100 years, the houses could generally be built to pay without 
costing the ratepayers a halfpenny. The limit to the size of gardens 
allowed under the present Act must also be extended. 

The position of the Medical Officers of Health must be made 
more secure, and only Sanitary Inspectors whose competence is 
certified should be appointed. To meet the "tied" house difficulty, 
a notice to quit of at least three months should be required.
These are not all the reforms necessary in the law relating to the 
housing of laborers in the Rural Districts. I regard them, however, 
as the most essential ar.d practicable, and I should hope to see 
at least some of them embodied in the present Government's 
Housing Bill. 


!I.-LABORERS' COTTAGES. 

Bv MISS CONSTANCE COCHRANE. 

Chairman of the C.-oxton Pa1·ish Meeting, Cambs.; Membe1' Sanila1')' f11stitute. 

THE London poor have many to plead their cause, and the HousingQuestion is at last attracting the attention of able and thoughtful 
persons. 

But there are very few in the country who care to take a 
prominent part in the same most urgent question there-namely, 
the housing of the agricultural laborer. This work needs more 
courage than some who have not tried it perhaps realize ; the 
would-be reformers living surrounded by individuals, many of them 
local authorities, who imagine their interests lie in leaving bad 
alone. 

During the last sixteen months I have sent out a large number 
of circulars to local authorities and others, all over England, with 
questions as to the sanitary condition of villages. To-day I will 
refer to the evidence as to the scarcity of cottages. Out of IOI 
returns for Rural Districts, in answer to the question "How manygood cottages are unoccupied?" in ninety the answer is "None"; 
and such remarks as the following are frequently added : "More are 
wanted"; "None, either good or bad"; "Many wanting cottages;
and much overcrowding."

One correspondent, a Parish Councillor, writes from Kent, "Fortyapplications have been made for six cottages about to be built under 
Part IlL of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, I 890." 

A clergyman's wife writes from Devonshire : "During the nineteen 
years that we have been here, twenty-one cottages, which were 
then inhabited, are now fallen down in ruins, and no new ones have 
been built. The people in a condemned cottage cannot move, because 
there is not a vacant house. More cottages are sadly needed." 
Again, from Hampshire: "New cottages are rented before they are 
finished." A laborer from Leicestershire writes: "You have to 
stop in them till they are ready to fall down, and then go to the 
town or do as you can." A Parish Councillor from Huntingdonshire: 
"Cottages very small and squalid ; railway carriages sometimes 
used as houses." During last summer, when walking througha village in West Wilts, I was surprised to see a girl standing at the 
door of a cottage of which the roof was partly fallen in, and one of 
the walls appeared to be in a dangerous condition. I expressed mysurprise at finding the house inhabited, and asked if it were considered 
safe. "No," replied the girl," it isn't, but we came out of a 


8 

worse one; a bit of the roof fell on me, and there isn't another to 
be had." Several cottages in a neighboring village were very little 
better, but were all occupied, as there were no others. In both 
villages, several cottages had fallen into decay, or had been condemned, 
and no new ones built. A Parish Councillor from Cambridgeshire 
writes : "Several cottages ought to be closed ; but where are the 
people to go ? " 

A Cambridgeshire lady told me of a family of eleven persons 
sleeping in one room, because of the scarcity of cottages in the 
village. A Rural District Councillor, in Berkshire, writing of six 
villages: "None empty; more are wanted," adds, "the great blot 
in these country cottages is the fact that not one in twenty has 
a third bed room. The sexes sleep indiscriminately in the same 
room.... I have known a cottage with two bed rooms which held, 
on such occasions as Bank Holiday, eighteen persons-four married 
couples, one engaged couple, and the others single." From a 
Sanitary Inspector and Surveyor, in Surrey : "The pressing want 
here; as all over the country, is laborers' cottages." From Norfolk: 
"During the last few years ten cottages have been pulled down 
that were dilapidated and unfit for habitation, and only two built." 
A lady from Wiltshire writes : "A great dearth of cottages here ; in 
some cases people can't marry because there are no cottages." 

Of the eleven villages with empty cottages, the clergyman of one 
writes from Cornwall : "There are twenty empty, only two fit to 
live in, eight inhabited ones unfit to live in." A correspondent from 
Norfolk says: "Seven empty, partly owing to land laid down to 
grass, and other causes ; but the water very bad indeed, only ditch 
water to drink. I go a mile, and sometimes two, for mine ; wish I 
could get to where there is good water." (This man is a baker.) 

Six other correspondents, in answer to the question as to number 
of unoccupied cottages, write respectively: "One tied one empty,
but this farmer is constantly changing.'' " One small one empty ; 
but only one bed room, and no window in back kitchen." "One or 
two empty just now, but will no doubt be occupied directly."
"Three or four, owing to depopulation of village ; but not goodcottages." "Three empty." ''One or two." 

Two correspondents make no answer to the question.

From Fakenham, in the Walsingham Union of Norfolk-population 
about 3,ooo, but a Rural District with Parish Council: "Several 
good cottages vacant, about 300 yards distant from the town, stated 
to be so because there are no lamps near them and the drainage is 
unsatisfactory." The circumstances connected with this little town 
call for a few special remarks. About a year ago I received a letter 
giving a very bad report of its sanitary condition, and asking me to 
go and inspect it. I sent my deputy (a very able and reliable man, 
holding several official appointments, and I may here say that all the 
work he does for me is entirely unpaid : I only pay his travellingexpenses). He has reported to me both in person and in writing, a 
most deplorable state of affairs, and much overcrowding. The 
Medical Officer of Health lives in the town, and has a large private 


9 

practice and two assistants. The Inspector of Nuisances is an illiterate 
ex-police constable, and is stated to be an inefficient officer. 

Much valuable information as to the condition of villages, etc., 
can be obtained from the various Reports of the Assistant-Commissioners 
for the Royal Commission on the Agricultural Laborer, 1892. 
But as these Reports are now seven years old, and also take a gooddeal of reading, I would advise those who are interested in the 
Cottage Question to obtain one or other of the short reports 
made last year for the Local Government Board by Dr. St. GeorgeMivart, on the sanitary circumstances connected with the Rural 
Districts of Axminster, Devonshire, and of Biggleswade (Beds.). 
These pamphlets can be supplied by Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode 
for 6d. and 9d. respectively, and will give a good idea of the conditions 
of a large number of rural districts in England. All are 
by no means so universally bad as these two; but in all with which 
I am in any way acquainted, there are certain villages and a large 
number of individual cottages in quite as deplorable a condition. 

That no action has been taken by the Government or the Local 
Government Board as a natural sequel to the evidence given in the 
Reports of the Royal Commission on the Agricultural Laborer, 1892, 
and the strong recommendations made by the Assistant-Commissioners, 
is only one more proof of the uselessness of Commissions 
of Inquiry, unless they are backed up by the public demand that 
some action shall be taken. 

Besides the filled-in circulars, I have received a large number of 
letters, some of them from farm laborers and their wives, giving the 
most pathetic accounts of homes falling into ruins, and asking for 
advice and help, and where they are to go, and often urging me to 
"come and see." 

Indeed, the whole question is full of sadness to those who are 
familiar with the lives and homes of the poor, and the publicconscience has yet to be awakened to a realization of how much 
silent and often unconscious suffering is borne in many ways by the 
laborers' wives in consequence of the wretched condition and surroundings 
of their homes. 

It is because I am a woman, and feel for these sister women, 
that I have taken up the cottage question and have ventured to 
address you to-day. 


III.-THE FACTS AS TO URBAN 
OVERCROWDIN G. 


Bv DR. EDWARD BOWMAKER. 

Author of" Housing of tlze Working Classes." 

FIFTEEN years have passed since the late Lord Shaftesbury, in the 
course of his evidence before the Royal Commission appointed to 
enquire into the housing of our working class population, gave it as 
his opinion that, while the improvement in the condition of the 
houses of the poor during the thirty years previous to 1885 had been 
enormous, the evils of overcrowding, throughout the country and 
especially in London, were still a public scandal and were becoming 
more and more serious every year. Since that time we have seen a 
period of unparalleled activity in regard to this problem, public and 
private enterprise have been busily engaged in attacking the evil 
and providing for the necessities of those involved, many large slum 
have been cleared away, thousands of model dwellings erected, while 
in addition, the general sanitary law has been enforced with renewed 
vigor. And now, despite all our efforts, we have to realize that we 
have but touched the fringe of a great problem, that much of our 
effort has but increased the difficulties of our position, and that 
never previously has overcrowding existed in the acute form in 
which we have reason to believe it is found at the present moment. 
On every side we hear the same complaint, from rural as well as 
urban districts, and slowly but surely we believe the country is 
being awakened to the immense gravity of the situation. 

Now it is my duty to speak to you, not so much of the generalhousing problem, but rather of this one aspect of the question-
urban overcrowding-and at the outset let me remark that it is by 
no means easy to arrive at any exact idea of the extent of the evil. 
We are accustomed to use the term "overcrowding" in a general 
way, but what do we mean by it? Our Public Health Acts, even 
including the Public Health Act, London, 1891, while they providefor the suppression of the evil, do not attempt to define the term, a 
noteworthy omission and one which should be speedily rectified. 
As a matter of fact the existing law allows and actually fosters one 
form of overcrowding, that is of persons upon a given area. There 
are, however, two unofficial standards of that form of overcrowdingof which I wish more particularly to speak-the overcrowding of 
persons in houses or room . 

One, which is usually accepted in the compilation of stati tics, is 
that adopted in making up the Census returns, vzz., an average of 
more than two persons per room. Now it must be patent that this 

at the best a rough and ready test, and one which, however u eful 
in giving us some idea as to the general facts of overcrowding, i~ 


II 

almost valueless as a scientific means of gauging the precise extent 
of the evil. The other is the standard of the Model Bye-laws of the 
Local Government Board, usually adopted by sanitary authorities in 
an accurate test of any particular case and in bye-laws regulating 
tenement houses, as in the case of the "ticketed houses" of Glasgow. 
For every person over ten years of age 400 cubic feet of air-space is 
allowed in any room not exclusiveiy used as a sleeping apartment, 
and zoo cubic feet for every child under ten years. In rooms ex-
clusi vel y used for sleeping purposes the amounts are 300 and I so 
respectively. From a scientific standpoint this is by no means a 
high standard. The Army Regulations allow 6oo cubic feet per 
head for barracks, the Metropolitan Police require 450 cubic feet, 
the Poor Law requires soo cubic feet ; while the law relating to 
tenement property and lodging-houses in New York City exacts no 
less than 6oo cubic feet per occupant. Adopting the standard of 
the Model Bye-Laws, it is well to remember that to maintain the 
air pure and uncontaminated requires a much more perfect systemof ventilation than is usually found in better-class houses, let alone 

the dwellings of the poorer classes. 

Now to apply the latter test involves accurate measurement of 
the room space, and adopted on any large scale would entail considerable 
labor on those engaged, so that the question arises how do 
the results of the two tests compare? My personal experience-
and I am confirmed by other observers-is that to apply the two 
tests to the same area the Census standard understates the amount 
of overcrowding as compared with that of the Model Bye-laws. I 
hope at some future time to be able to publish an extended analysisof some larger areas than I have so far been able to cover, which 
will I am sure confirm my present conviction. 

Now if this is the case, as I firmly believe it to be, the position is 
appalling. In the North country, from which I come, according to 
the Census returns, Northumberland has 38 per cent. and Durham 
34 per cent. of the population living under overcrowded conditions, 
while within a radius of twelve miles we have the three most overcrowded 
towns in England-Gateshead, Newcastle and Sunderland, 
in the order named. Three of the smaller towns of Tyneside, comprising 
an almost entirely working-class population, have even higher 
percentages of overcrowding. Hebburn has 55 per cent. of its population 
overcrowded, Felling has 52 per cent., and ]arrow 46 per cent. 
Now if by this standard the extent of the evil is understated, what 
must be the conditions of life for the poorer classes, more especially 
when we remember the wretched condition of much of the property, 
its faulty accommodation, its ill repair, and the general lack of sanitary 
conveniences. It is at lea t pleasing to think that we are realizing 
the position and beginning to move. 

The Census returns which, as I have pointed out, supply us with 
the bulk of our information as to overcrowding, are now practically 
out of date, and will shortly be supplanted by those of the forthcoming 
Census of I90I, while our knowledge of the actual condition 
of affairs at the present time is limited to scattered investigations 


12 

undertaken by independent observers or local authorities. \Ve have 
at our disposal, however, indirect evidence as to the extent of the 
evil the importance of which it would be foolish to under-estimate, 
and all of which serves we think to point to a very real and serious 
increase in overcrowding. When we read of families seeking admission 
to our workhouses owing to their inability to secure accommodation, 
we certainly get a glimpse of the house famine in our midst, 
and it requires but a slight intercourse with the people themselves in 
order to appreciate the unparalleled scarcity of house accommodation. 
\iVhat these people tell you is fully confirmed by house-agents and 
landlords, who have assured me that never previously have they 
been so deluged with applications for houses. For this scarcity our 
policy in the past has been very largely to blame. We have demolished 
insanitary areas without rehousing, at any rate those displaced, 
and thus driven the poorer classes from one slum only that they may 
create others. We have enforced our sanitary requirements in the 
case of many houses, which have as the result been closed, the 
displaced tenants adding to the original congestion of our slums. 
Unless we change our policy and do something to relieve the tension 
we shall seriously cripple the administration of our sanitary 
authorities. In the area in which I practise extensive demolitions 
for quay improvements and business premises have served to accentuate 
the evil, an experience which has been general and deserves 
our attention. 

An indirect test of the measure of overcrowding is the number 
of single-room tenements, the especial dangers of which haye been 
clearly demonstrated by many observers, and by none more 
thoroughly than by Dr. Russell, the late Medical Officer of Health 
for Glasgow. It is unnecessary for me to add anything to what has 
already been said as to their peculiar danger, it being now well-known 
that the most baneful effects of overcrowding are met with where 
one-roomed tenements are general. In two to\\'ns having the same 
percentage of overcrowding the evil would be greater in the one 
in which the single-room tenement system more largely prevailed. 
In the area of which I have spoken and of which I am familiar with 
eyery house, there has been within the last ten years a very large 
increase in the number of single-room dwellings. Several streets 
are now largely composed of such tenements where previouslyhouses of two or three rooms were the rule and not the exception, 
while a corresponding shrinkage is also to be observed in surrounding 
districts which can hardly be called slums. These houses, previously 
occupied by two families, are now accommodating three or four, so 
that in considering the question of overcrowding we must not forget 

that seemingly respectable property i~ being permeated with this 

cur;,e, and that it is to be found in districts less open to observation 

than the slums of our large towns. As an instance of the terrible 

0\·ercrowding of single rooms, I came across a case a few days 

ago in which a blind man, his wife and five children, aged respec


tively 17, ro, 7, 4, 2 years, were occupying one room in a wretched 

tenement house. The cubic air-space necessary for this family 


13 

according to the afore-mentioned standard should have been 2,200 
cubic feet. On measuring the room I found only I ,o50 cubic feet, 
giving only I so cubic feet per head. Of the other aspects of the 
case I forbear to speak.

Further evidence of the increase of overcrowding is to be 
found in the enormous increase in rents generally observed. Here, 
in the metropolis, the press as well as many earnest reformers has 
drawn public attention to the extraordinary condition of affairs, and 
the complaint is general throughout the country. The supply of 
houses has not kept up with the demand, and prices have naturally 
risen, until the position of affairs is now intolerable. Only the 
other day I came upon a case of a house let for ss. a week, and dear 
at that, the rent of which is now to be 9s. a week, an increase fairly 
representing the rise in that locality. It is often amusing to notice 
the alacrity with which landlords, compelled to carry out the 
requirements of the sanitary authorities, compensate themselves by 
increased rentals, and a rise in the rates is similarly placed to their 
advantage by an increase out of all proportion to the extra outlay 
on the property. The natural and logical sequence of high rents is 
overcrowding. Workmen, already paying a much larger proportion 
of their earnings than should be required of them as rent, must, 
perforce, by every rise, be driven to seek accommodation both 
inferior in character and of a smaller area, and, until we have relieved 
the tension and dealt with the deficiency of the supply, we can do 
nothing to check the upward tendency of rents or cope with the 
evil of overcrowding. So long as the present conditions exist, so 
long as a single room, nay even a part of a room, possesses such an 
artificial value, so long must our efforts be foredoomed to failure. 

I have referred so far entirely to the overcrowding of persons in 
houses ; but the overcrowding of people or houses on an area is 
another phase of the evil no less important, and alike dangerous to 
the community. The intimate connection between the density of 
population on a given area with the death-rate has long since been 
clearly established. In the district of which I have spoken the 
number of persons to the acre is 66, as compared with 43 for the 
whole borough; the death-rate for the town is 22·5 per r,ooo, and 
that of the district no less than 32 per r,ooo. In Gateshead I am 
acquainted with two areas having 226 and 284 persons to the acre 
respectively; the former has a death-rate of 30·8 per r,ooo, the 
latter 47"2 per r,ooo, as compared with the borough rate of r8·3 per 
1 ,ooo. The second of these two areas has a zymotic death-rate of 
r6·9 per r,ooo, as compared with 3·5 per r,ooo for the whole town. 
The effect of overcrowding of both forms on the death-rate is thus 
strikingly shown, and serves to illustrate the terrible cost to the 
community of such conditions. This is further borne out by the 
infant mortality rate-the number of deaths under twelve months 
per r,ooo births. The rate for England is 162 per r,ooo, that for 
the Borough of Sunderland 202 per I ,ooo, while that of the district 
of which I am Medical Officer is no less than 265 per r,ooo. 
Neglect, ignorance, and poverty may account for a proportion of 


this terrible loss of child life, but the overcrowded and insanitary 
surroundings are the prime cause of this slaughter of the innocents. 
Large numbers of children are thus annually born into the world 
foredoomed to a premature grave from preventible causes-causes 
that every right-thinking man and woman should be anxious to 
remove. We pay dearly for our overcrowding and its attendant 
evils. Think of the sickness that is not comprehended in official 
statistics, and which means a large loss of wage-earning power to 
the community, to put the matter upon no higher basis. We are 
endeavoring very properly to introduce new methods of dealing with 
the treatment of consumption, a disease nurtured and bred by our 
slum conditions ; should we not with even greater vigor attack the 
fans et or£go of the disease. The waste of human life and the 
preventible sicknesses of our slums are a drain upon the resources of 
our country, and can be represented by a hard cash value. We are 
impairing the physique of our toilers and rearing a sickly and 
unhealthy race. I quote from a report into the condition of my 
district: "The children appear to be naturally of average gifts, but 
many lack stamina, and consequently fail in the time of examination. 
Given a penny meal a day for all the children and they are capable 
of earning the excellent grant." Are the benefits of a free and 
ample education to be wasted to the community through the lack of 
stamina inbred in the children of our artizan classes and fostered by 
the cursed conditions under which they are reared? And to speak 
of the moral loss to the community is but to re-echo what has been 
driven home to us again and again. With home-life virtually an 
impossibility to thousands of the dwellers in our large towns, with 
the lack of decency inevitable under such conditions, is it to be 
wondered at that we find things as they are ; ought we not rather 
to marvel that their lives compare so favorably with those whose 
conditions of life place them beyond the perils and temptations of 

the slums. 

Let me urge investigation. Let us know precisely where we 
stand and be certain of our position. And having done so, let us 
drive home to every member of the community the evil and its 
dangers. It is a matter of education. Once let the working-menof this country realize the conditions under which thousands of 
them are housed ; once let them realize what it means to their 
pockets through sickness and loss of work ; once let them realize 
the terrible waste of human life and the destruction of moral fibre 
that is going on round about and among them, and the solution 
and the remedy is not far distant. They will realize the drain uponlives and strength of the people ; they will realize the cost to the 
community in the maintenance of hospitals, workhouses, asylums, 
and gaols, and will view it in the light of a sound investment. 
Let us each one strive to hasten on this work of education, that 
those to whom the power has now been given-the democracy-thepeople-may apply themselves with singleheartedness to secure the 
possibility of a pure and wholesome home-life to the toiling masses 
of our community. 


IV.-THE EXISTING SITUATION IN 
LONDON : STATISTICS OF PROBLEM. 


Bv MRs. R. C. PHILLIMORE. 

THE increase in the population of London since the beginning of 
the century is shown in the following table :


Year. Population at each 
Census. I 
Increase since last 
Census. 
Increase per cent. 
since last Census. 
r8or 958,788 --r8rr 1,138,746 179.958 r8·77 
!82! 1,379,08! 240,335 2I" I I 
1831 r,655,099 276,or8 20"0! 
!84! 1,948,563 293,464 17"73 
r85I 2,363,274 4I4,7I I 2!"28 
I86r 2,8o8,862 445.588 r8·85 
I87I 3,266,987 458,I25 I6"3I 
r88I 3,834,I94 567,207 IT36 
I89I 4,232,II8 397,924 !0"38 
1896 4.433,0I8 200,900 4"75 

Though this table shows a lessening rate of increase on the total 
population there is no decrease in the actual number added in each 
period, which since r851 has averaged roughly 4oo,ooo in each 
decennium. 

The number of houses built to accommodate this population is 
shown in the next table.'" 

Increase or Decrease 

Number of houses at 

I ncr ease or Decrease 

per cent. 

each Census. 

since last Census. 

since last Census. 

Year. 

Inhabited. 
Uninhabit'd 
Total. In-Unin-Total. InUnin-
Total.habit'd habit'd habit'd habit'd 
--
-
-
-
-
-
I8oi 
I 36,388 5,654 I42,042 ------
I8II I6I,5I8 5,427 I66,945 2 5,I 30 -227 24,903 !8"43 -4"0! I7"53 
I82I 189,270 9,883 I99,153 27.752 4.456 32,208 I7"I8 82·I I 19"29 
I83I 227,54I I'),298 246,839 38,27I 9,415 47,686 20"22 95"26 23"94 
r8.p 262,778 I 1,325 274,I03 35,237 -7,973 27,264 15"49 -41"32 r r·os 
r8sr 306,064 r6,6ss 322,719 43,286 5.330 48,6r6 r6·47 47"06 17"74 
r86r 36o,o65 15,827 375,892 54,00! -828 53,173 !7"64 -4'97 r6·48 
1871 
r88r 
419,642 
488,885 
32,571 
37,260 
452,213 
5 26.145 
59.577 
69,243 
r6,7+4 
4,689 
76,32 I 
73,932 
r6-5S !05"79 
r6·5o 14"40 
20"30 
!6"35 
r89I 547,120 39,882 587,002 58,235 2,622 6o,857 I I"9I 7"04 r r·s7 
r896 553,II9 42,911 596,030 5,999 3,029 9,028 r·ro 7"59 !"54 

*Both these Tables are taken from Census 1896 Return, London County 
Council Paper No. 379· 


J6 

The most significant fact in this last table is the fall in the rate of 
increase of inhabited houses and the consequent rise in the number 
of persons per house and the number of persons per acre. 

The number per house since 1801 is as follows:


1801 7·03 1841 7"4I 1881 
18II 7"05 185 1 7'72 18.9 1 
1821 7"29 1861 7"80 1896 
1831 7"27 1871 7"78 

I have only been able to work out the numbers per acre since 
1855, as before that date I can find no reliable information as to the 
actual acreage of London. 

Number per Acre. 
1861 37·21 1881 so·82 
r871 43·3o 

The number per house and per acre are of course means for all 
London. In the overcrowded districts the numbers are much bigger.
The following table gives the number for the worst parishes:


Name. 

Persons per acre. Persons per house. 

J 

Old Artillery Ground ... . .. 
Christ Church, Spitalfields .. 
Mile End New Town ... . .. 
St. Anne, Soho ... . .. . .. 
St. Andrew, St. George, Holborn .. 


St. Georg-e the Martyr ... .. 1 
Whitechapel ... .. ... 
St. George in the East .. . .. . 
Newington... ... ... ... 
St. Giles in the Fields ... .. . 
Clerkenwell ... ... .. . 
St. Luke ... ... ... .. . 
Bethnal Green ... .. . .. . 

Chri•t Church, Southwark ... 
Mile End Old Town ... ... 


428'60 
315'92 
3o5·q227'32 
225'12 
212'24 
20I'78 
I9+'69 

19I'l2 
I 79'89 
I74'2 ! 
171'42 
I 7 I '07 

I6g·66 
I54'00 

15'4I 
15'0+ 
1o·8g 
13'73 
I 3'I 8 
I0'93 
I2'56 
g·1 I 
g·Io 
I3'25 
I 1'20 
II'87 
8·65 
I0'32 
7'80 

LONDON ... 

8·oi 

This next table shows the extent of general overcrowding :


The number of persons living in tenements (of r to 4 rooms) is 2,333,152 

Of these, 1,086,537 live less than 2 to a room, leaving ... ... I 246,6r5 
who are living 2 to a room and upwards. 1

762,417 live 2 (but less than 3) to a room, leaving... 484,198 
who are living 3 to a room, and upwards.
299,074 live 3 (but less than 4) to a room, leaving... 185,124 
who are living 4 to a room and upwards. 
r I4,7I4 live 4 (but less than 5) to a room. leaving... 70,4I0 
who are li ving 5 to a room and upwards.
43,443 live 5 (but less than 6) to a room, leaving... 26,967 
who are living 6 to a room and upwards.
I7,934 live 6 (but less than 7) to a room, leaving ... 9,033 

who are living 7 to a room and upwards.
6.I53 live 7 (but less than 8) to a room, leaving... 2,880 
who are living 8 to a room and upwards.
I ,848 live 8 (but less than g) to a room, leaving .. . I,032 
who are living 9 to a room and upwards. 


lj 

My last table grves the effect of overcrowding on the publichealth:


LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS. POPULATION PER ACRE . DEATH-RATES 
AND OPEN SPACE AREAS. 


Name. 
" 0.;·-....~ u 
~...: 
::l ...c.., 
~0.. 
bii ., c 
~-> . 
e::::.=~ 
~8~ 
~ o_~ ., ~Q 
.....,
0.. 
-.,., 
.... ..c: 
~«~ 
C\S cu ~ . 
~ ~:o ~ 
-5:8~ ~ v O_ooQJ "''....., HQ c .... ::l .,
0.. 
.,u"' .,;o..cd~(/) ., u 
c.<< ., c 
0.. ·0 
8 
~ o_ ci 
"' ~ 0 
0.. 1-o ·(
f)'-'~ 
C-~ c., ::l 
O.>bi>C0..
«0 
0~0... 
u...: 
Strand District ... 
St. George in the East ... 
St. Luke ... ... ... 
St. George the Martyr ... 
Limehouse District ... 
Holborn District ... 
St. Giles District ... 
St. Martin's in the Fields 
Clerkenwell ... ... 
St. Olave District ... 
Whitechapel District ... 
Bethnal Green ... ... 
Newington ... ... 
St. Pancras ... ... 
Mile End Old Town ... 
St. James, Westminster... 
143"26 
I94"69 
I7I"42 
2I2"24 
I25"42 
I86·24 
ISTII 
49"22 
I7-PI 
93"84 
2I7"I9 
I7I"07 
rg r· I 2 
go·Io 
15+"00 
141"41 
30"0 
29"9 
29"3 
28"5 
28"0 
27"7 
26"2 
25"5 
25"5 
25"+ 
24"9 
24· I 
23"5 
2I ·8 
22" I 
2 ["0 
202 
I93 
I 50 
I 88 
I89 
205 
I 52 
I99 
173 
I75 
I64 
I6I 
170 
I 59 
rsr 
I62 
5 
6t 
7 
I 
II! 
I! 
8;} 
!20 
7t 
21;Io% 
go~ 
+t 
291 
Io-h 
-"
2 I 
·I3 
·r6 
·or 
·rg 
"04 
"2 I 
g·I6 
·ro 
"38 
"I4 
·6g 
"04 
!"20 
·og 
--
LO NDON ... ... s8·76 2I"O rss 6,osoH ! .36 

I shall have to state my conclusions as to the cures of overcrowding 
briefly and dogmatically, as I have not space enough to 
elaborate them. 

The cause of overcrowding in London is the conflict for room 
which is always going on between the inhabited house and the business 
premise. There is not room in Central London for the two, 
and one or other must go to the wall. The test as to which is the 
weaker is of course a rent one, and so far the victory remains 
with the business premise, which is surely pushing the other out. 
The area of the conflict is extending, and if London continues 
to grow the inhabited house will be pushed further and further 
out from the centre. This conflict is accentuated by the lack of 
means of communication, in which London is disgracefully deficient. 


The first municipal cure for overcrowding is one which will not 
be disputed-the provision of adequate means of communication. 
More trams ; more workmen's trains ; a clearing house for traffic in 
the centre; any and every means by which transit can be made 
easier and quicker must be adopted if the present congestion is to 
be cured. 


r8 

The next remedy is in two parts, both of which may be disputed. 

(r) Municipal houses to be provided only in places where they 
can be built at a fair profit. No municipality to be allowed to build 
at a loss, no rents to be artificially lowered. 
(2) Municipalities to rigidly enforce the Public Health provisions 
against overcrowding. 
The reasons why building is not to be at a loss are, of course : 

(r) High rents ought to be met by high wages. Building at a 
loss would be a bounty in aid of wages. 
(2) Building at a loss means adding to overcrowding. 
Districts where the land is so dear that it is impossible to house 
at a profit are districts where the conflict between the inhabited 
house and the business premise is acute, and the interference of the 
municipality will only drive the business premise to another part of 
the district or to a new district to continue the fight there. Everyinhabited house erected in such a district means the pulling down of 
inhabited houses in another part, and thus leads to displacing more 
than it houses. Also such building attracts fresh people to the 
district and discourages others from leaving it. 
The administration against overcrowding is necessary in order to 
weed out those people who could live in the suburbs or in the 
country round London. These people are taking up room which 
ought to be left for those who have to live near their work, and it is 
socially immoral for them to continue in the centre. If it were 
generally understood that the overcrowding provisions were enforced, 
people would deliberate morP about moving to London, and the 
result would be that only those persons would be left in the centre 
who ought to be there. 
I see no municipal cures for overcrowding but those I have mentioned. 
Rating unoccupied houses might do some good here and 
there, but would not have much general effect. Rating site values 
might force landlords to sell or let at once, and not hold for a rise, 
but in London the buildings erected would not necessarily be inhabited 
houses. In the suburbs and outside London this measure 
might lead to more land coming on to the market, but it would be 
difficult to convince the House of Commons of its justice or utility. 
Taxation of ground values, as advocated by the Progressives, would 
procure more revenue but fail to touch the causes of overcrowding. 


V.-POWERS OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES. 

Bv CouNCILLOR W. THOMPSON, of Richmond. 
. ltdhor of the Richmond Housiug Report. 

IT does not come within the scope of this paper to deal in detail 
with the powers to obtain abatement of nuisances and improvement 
of the condition of existing house accommodation under 
the Public Health (London) Act, r89r, but it may be well to point 
out that in order to stop the creation of future slums it will be 
necessary for local authorities to properly enforce the provisions of 
the Public H ealth Acts when this can be done without inflicting 
injury upon the tenant. At present the excess of the demand for 
cottages over the supply enables landlords to increase the rents to a 
most disproportionate extent when any outlay is made for repairs or 
sanitary purposes, and the consequence is that the tenants in many 
cases are the strongest opponents to sanitary inspection and improvement 
of these homes, because they are unable to meet the increased 
demand on their scanty means. For all effective purposes the 
powers of the local authorities with regard to the Housing of the 
Working Classes may be said to be contained in the Housing of the 

\Vorking Classes Act, 1890. The Act is divided into seven parts.

Part I. provides for the clearance of large unhealthy areas (in 
urban districts only) and the provision of such a number of new 
dwellings as may be required by the Local Government Board 
(Sees. 39 and 40). The authorities empowered to take action 
under Part I. are the London County Council and all Urban 
District Councils or Town Councils (Schedule I.). It is the dutyof the Medical Officer of Health when he sees proper cause or when 
two or more justices of the peace, or twelve or more ratepayers in 
his district, complain of any unhealthy area therein to inspect such 
area and make an official report thereon (Sees. 5 and 79)· 

An area may be declared unhealthy if


(a) It contains houses, courts or alleys unfit for human 
habitation. 
(b) The narrowness, closeness and bad arrangement, or the 
bad condition of the streets and houses, or groups of houses, or 
the want of air, light, ventilation, or any other sanitary defects, 
are dangerous or injurious to the health of the inhabitants of 
the buildings in such area of the neighbouring buildings. 
If the Medical Officer of Health reports in writing that the area 
is unhealthy the local authority must make an Improvement Scheme 
to clear and rebuild. 

If he reports it is not unhealthy twelve or more ratepayers mayappeal to the Local Governme"1t Board, who, upon security for costs 
being given, must appoint a duly qualified medical practitioner to 


20 

report on such area, and the local authority must act on this report, 

and must purchase by compulsion all properties required to effect 

the clearat:ce. 

Special provision is made for the assessment of compensation by 

the remarkable Purchase Clause in Section 2 r, which provides


!. That compensation shall be based upon the fair market 
value at the time of valuation without any additional allowance 
in respect of compulsory purchase. 

2. In forming the estimate due regard is to be had to the 
nature and condition of the property and the ptobable duration 
of the buildings in their existing state. 
3. Deductions are also to be made for existing nuisances. 
(a) For an enhanced value by being used for illegal 
purposes or owing to overcrowding. 
(b) For the bad state of repair in which the premises 
are found. 
(c) The property not being reasonably capable of beingmade fit for habitation. 
The arbitrator may be appointed ty the Local Government 
Board if so requested by the Local Authority. (Schedule I).

PART II. provides for the demolition of unhealthy or obstructive 
buildings where the fewness of the buildings or the smallness 
of the area renders it inexpedient to proceed under Part I. (Sees. 
72 and 73)·

It applies to all urban and :-ural sanitary authorities, but those 
in London and rural districts must communicate all steps taken to 
the County Council. (Sees. 92 and 93· S:::hedule I.) It need not 
be published like Part I., but notice must be given to the Owners, 
and the sanction of the Local Government Board obtained. 

The Medical Officer of Health or any four ratepayers may inform 
the local authority of any building which they consider


(a) So dangerous or injurious to health as to be unfit for 
human habitation. 
(b) Which stops ventilation or otherwise conduces to make 
other buildings injurious to health. 
(c) Which prevents proper measures from being carried 
into effect for remedy•ng any nuisance injurious to health. 
(Sees. 3 I, 38, and 39). 
If the Medical Officer so reports, the local authority may in the 
case of an unhealthy house proceed to obtain a closing order at the 
Petty Sessions, and may, if the circumstances require it, order the 
demolition of the building. (Sec. 33). They may also purchasehouses for the purpose of opening out small courts and alleys without 
having to prove that such courts are actually unfit for human 
habitation. 

Appeal may be made, however, to Quarter Sessions. (Sec. 35). 


21 

The local authority may purchase the lands on which any 
obstructive building has been demolished. Compensation to be 
settled by an arbitraior appointed by the Local Government Board 
upon somewhat similar terms to those laid down by the purchase 
clause in Part I. (Sec. 41), with the addition that the arbitrator is to 
have regard to any increase in value given to other property of the 
same owner by the operation of the Scheme. 

Most of the money spent by local authorities up to now has been 
spent in thus compensating slum-owners, and forcing up the market 
value of bad property by diminishing the supply, without carrying 
out to the full extent the necessary powers for rebuilding. The 
money cost of continuing this policy will be ruinous both to the 
ratepayers, and to the working classes who reside in such areas, 
although the improvement effected in the health of the community 
thereby is often undeniably great. For example, the cost of clearing 
the Boundary Street Area in Bethnal Green was about £300 per 
family, and in Somers Town £500 per family, before a single new 
dwelling had been constructed. At Wolverhampton the cost of 
clearance schemes has involved a rate of Sid. in the £, and at 
Swansea the net cost amounts to £3,229 per annum. Fresh legislation 
is needed to compel the owners of slum areas to bear the cost of 
reconstruction in the same way that they would have to share 
between them the cost of a common drain reinstated by the local 
authority, or a private street reconstructed under the Private Street 
Works Act, 1892. 

Instead of getting a capital sum in cash for their demolished 
property they should receive each year pro rata a part of the net 
income derived from the new dwellings erected on the old slum area, 
after the local authority had been recouped their annual charges in 
respect of the capital outlay on the work of pulling down and rebuilding. 


Pending fresh legislature schemes t:nder Parts I. and II. should 
be dropped unless provision can be made cheaply at the same 
time to erect at least as many new houses as are to be pulled 
down. 

It may be desirable, however, in this connection to suggest that 
Local Authorities wishing to rehouse in populous areas should 
endeavour to purchase and adapt existing middle-class dwellings in 
the neighbourhood so as to convert them into separate and sanitary 
tenements for the working classes. 

In other words surplus middle-class houses might be utilised byLocal Authorities without hardship to those displaced, and at a 
great saving to the rates, to supply the deficiency in adjacent workingclass neighbourhoods. Such converted buildings could be made into 
tenements far superior to those now occupied by the majority of 
London workmen, and at a far less expense than if new buildings 
were put up under present conditions as to the price of bricks and 
other materials, while rehousing many workmen who must live near 
their wor:<. 


22 

It is to Part III. of the Act, however, that we must look for the 

most effective powers of Local Authorities in dealing with the 

housing question. The authorities empowered to take action under 

it are the London County Council and all Urban District or Town 

Councils. The new London Borough Councils will be so em


powered next November, while Rural Di~trict Councils may act if 

and when authorized by their respective County Councils after a 

local inquiry.

The first step to be taken is the passing of a resolution by the 
Council adopting Part III. of the Act. The Council will then be 
empowered if deemed advisable 

(a) To purchase land by agreement, or compulsorily, as 
provided in the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, and no 
lease, settlement, entail, or other private arrangement can 
debar a Local authority from acquiring it. 
(b) To erect lodging houses, block dwellings, tenement 
houses, or cottages. (Sects. 53 and 59.) 
(c) To purchase and improve or reconstruct existing lodging 
houses, dwellings, or cottages. lSect. 58.) 
(d) To purchase or exchange land for the purpose of 
encouraging such construction, improvement, or reconstruction. 
(Sects. 56, 57, and 6o.) 
(e) To provide a garden not more than half an acre in 
extent, and worth not more than £3 per annum. 
(/) To make any necessary bye-laws and regulations.
(Sects. 61 and 62.) 

(g) To sell the houses, if desirable or necessary, after a 
period of seven years. (Sect. 64.) 
No sanction or consent on the part of any Government Department 
is required, so far as the London County Council is concerned, 
but if compulsory power to purchase is needed, this must be obtained 
by means of a provisional order. Other local authorities must 
obtain the sanction of the Local Government Board. As the Act 
incorporates Sections 175 to 178 of the Public Health Act, 1875, 
which authorise a local authority for the purposes of that Act to 
take land, whether situated within or without its district, it has 
been assumed until recently that the power to purchase and build 
extended to land outside, as well as inside, the county, borough, or 
district. 

The London County Council, however, have had Counsel's 
opinion to the effect that, although the limitation to their own area 
is not express, it may be gathered from the scope and objects of the 
Acts above referred to. 

A further opinion confirms this, and also argues that Sub-
Section (1), Section 65 of the Local Government Act, 1888, is a 
generally enabling section only, and does not meet the case. The 
Town Clerk of Sheffield has advised his Council otherwtse. 


23 

It had been hoped that the London County Council would have 
tried to get rid of tb is difficulty by promoting a small bill expressly 
empowering the acquisition of land outside their area for housing 
purposes under Part ITI., but this has not been done. It remains, 
therefore, for the London members to take up the question and get 
an Act through Parliament empowering local authorities not only to 
acquire and build on land outside their own area, but also to buy and 
hold such land when not immediately required for building. The 
purchase of say, ro,ooo acres of such land within a twelve mile radius 
of the City of London might then reasonably be effected, and as 
there is a total area of over 20o,ooo acres in the district between the 
six and twelve mile radius the colonies thus established need not be 
confined to one district, and ought to be bought for a reasonable if 
not a cheap price. In this connection it may be pointed out that 
the normal annual rate of increment of value of suburban land will 
be so rapidly accelerated by the extension of light railways and cheap 
trains that it is a matter of positive necessity either to buy the bulk 
of this land before cheap transit is established, or to face the prospectof at least an additional sixpence per week on future rents of houses 
erected under Part III. 

Even if the land be not ultimately required for housing purposesits increased value will more than recoup the Council when resale is 
necessary. It might possibly be found advisable or necessary to lease 
part of this land to co-operative societies and artisans' dwellingscompanies for the establishment of similar colonies to those now 
existing or being established at Rochdale, Kettering, Queen's Park, 
Shaftesbury Park and Streatham, subject, however, to restrictions as 
to rents varying on a sliding scale inversely as the dividends. At 
Sheffield the Town Council have been enabled with tbe profits from 
their trams to purchase forty-two acres of agricultural land at £IOo 
per acre three miles from the town for the purpose of establishing a 
colony with 8oo five-roomed houses to be let at ss. per week, and 
connected with the centre by electric trams at cheap fares. The 
Sheffield Council are now negotiating for the purchase of another 
forty-eight acres. 

The West Ham Town Council are promoting a bill enabling 
them to carry out a still larger scheme for the erection of three 
thousand houses. With the figures of the Richmond experiment 
before us it will not be difficult to see how such schemes will work 
financially. The cost of land at Richmond (with a loan at 3 per 
cent. for so years), including the construction of the necessary roads 
and sewers and incidental expenses has been about £r ,ooo per acre, 
and with 22 houses, or 1 ro rooms to the acre, works out at about 
£9 per room, or£45 r8s. per house. 

The actual cost of building cottages, which varied from £42 ros. 
to£47 ros., and averaged £45 per room in 1894, is now (December, 
rB99) from £45 to £55, or an average of £47 ros. per room. The 
rents charged per room vary from Is. 3d. to Is. 6td., and average 
IS. 5d. per week, Or 6s. 9d. per house per week. 


The following analysis of rents charged for the first 62 cottages 
may be interesting:


1 


-7S· 6d. 
Cottages. 
6s. 
Cottages. 
ss. 6d. 
Cottages. 
4S. 6d. 
Cottages. 
----
Interest-(
about ~ or 0 .439 of rent) s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. 
on cost of buildings per week 
" site of houses 
and gardens " " site & construe2 
0 
9 
5 
2 
0 
2~ 
4 
2 
0 
0~ 
3~ 
I 
0 
8! 
2! 
tion of roads 
and sewers " 0 2 0 I ~ 0 I 0 I 
Repairs( 
about ~oro. 112 
of rent)
Rent, Taxes, and Insurance .. 0 IO 0 8 0 7 0 6 
(about ! oro 200 of rent) " I 6 I 2 I 0 0 IO 
Management & Sundry Exps.
(about .,j5 or 0.036 of rent) " Profit-(about t or 0.200 of I 0 3! 0 3 0 3 0 2 
rent)
(a) To sinking fund 
(b) To reserve II 
II 
I I 
0 
~ 
2! 
I 
0 
I 
2 
I 
0 
I 
2 
0 
0 
IO 
2 
Total ... I -' 6 6 0 5 6 4 6 
--------
------



The interest on cost of buildings alone takes more than one-third 
of the rent ; on cost offences, about rid. ; drains, ~d. ; paving yards, 
!d., and sundry initial expenses, ,. d. per week. 

It is important, therefore, in developing new schemes to consider 
how and to what extent the various factors of expenditure can be 
reduced. 

If the money could be obtained from the Government or elsewhere 
at z! per cent., and if the period for repayment of the loan 
were increased by the Local Government Board or Parliament to 
100 years, the rents could be reduced to an average of 1s. per room 
per week. Five-room cottages could be erected, twenty to the acre, 
on land in the suburbs by the London County Council, at a cost of£ 5-:J per room, and assuming land at £1 ,ooo per acre inclusive, could 
be let at Is. 3d. per room per week, and be no cost to the rates, even 
under present conditions as to the period of loans. If the period for 
repayment were extended to roo years the rents need only be Is. 
per room per week, while every addition of £zoo per acre to the 
cost of the land would only necessitate an addition to the rent of td. 
per room per week. 

The foregoing figures are worthy of consideration, because they

indicate to what a small extent the rents in a scheme for suburban 

housing would be affected by even a large increase in land values, 

which might conceivably accompany the purchase of large quantities

of suburban agricultural land by Local Authorities. 

The great majority of the workers in London do not, and need 

not, live near their work, so far as mere distance is concerned. It 


is, ot course, essen! 1al that cheap and rapid transit by electric trams 
should be established so as to make suburban districts more accessible, 
and it is not too much to hope that the new workmen's scale of 
~d. for three miles now agreed to for the Dover trams will be 
extended by the London County Council in the form of an electric 
tram season ticket for workmen not exceeding 6d. per week from 
the suburbs to the centre. It is even possible that some day, an 
arrangement could be made, whereby, for the addition of, say, Is. per 
week to the rents of the proposed suburban cottages, free transferablt> 
season tickets could be granted in respect of each cottage, available 
for the use of the occupants, thus practically giving that free transit, 
from the suburbs to the centre, which is already secured in the case 
of bridges, free ferries, and the lifts in large block buildings.

If, by these means, only half the workers could be induced to 
leave the congested districts of London, exorbitant rents would fall, 
overcrowding would be diminished and the health of the people 
enormously improved, with little or no cost to the rates. 

It is obvious, however, that no one remedy by itself will effect 
material improvement. 
Cheap transit alone will mean simply an increase of suburban 
rents and land values. 

Taxation of ground values will only slightly cheapen land, and as 
has been seen above, will only affect rents to an infinitesimal extent. 
Private enterprise cannot build healthy houses at a less cost than 
£so per room inclusive, which will necessitate rents of at least 2s. 
per room per week. If private enterprise puts up a colony of cheaphouses, it will simply mean a new suburban slum, dangerous to the 
public health as well as to the workers. The organised dispersion of 
population by municipal action is the only practical and satisfactoryremedy for present evils, and to free the hands of our Councils for 
this important work it is necessary that the retorms indicated above 
should be earnestly advocated, and speedily secured. In conclusion, 
for purposes of reference, certain suggestions for reform made here 
and elsewhere are set out below. 

I. To prevent the creation and multiplication of new slum 
districts(
a) Enforce the building bye-laws under the Public 
Health Acts. 
(b) Enforce the statutory provisions for abating 
nuisances in existing buildings.
2. To clear existing slum areas(
a) New legislation is required to enable Councils to 
purchase and adapt streets of adjacent middle-class houses, 
when they are not in great demand, so as to make cheap 
tenements for those who must live in the central area. 
(b) Compel owners of property in slum areas to form 
an Improvement Trust, and to bear on a pro rata basis the 
expense of reconstructing sanitary accommodation for the 
displaced tenants. Procedure similar to that under the 
Private Street Works Act, 1892, might be adopted. 

26 

3· To provide suitable sites for workmen's cottages. 

(a) An act should be passed giving general compulsory 
powers to all local authorities to purchase any agricultural 
land within or without their area as sites for workmen's 
dwellings.
(b) The gross assessable value of such land, as stated 
in the rate-books, to be the basis of the purchase price. 
(c) Give local authorities power to lease part of such 
sites to companies or individuals. 
4· To make suburban colonies accessible. 
(a) Cheap workmen's trains must be run in all 
directions on all railways with metropolitan stations. 
(b) Cheap municipal electric trams must be extended 
to at least a twelve mile radius from London on all the 
main roads, and existing monopolies of such trams 
purchased by the County Council. 
5-To secure the erection of houses on the sites bought by 
municipalities.

(a) Lease plots of municipal land in connection wtth 
the proposed suburban colonies, for the erection thereon of 
their own dwellings by the small capitalists who are 
provided for in Mr. Chamberlain's Housing Act of 1899. 
(b) Lease larger areas to Co-operative Societies and 
associations for the erection of workmen's dwellings, subject 
to a restricting clause making rents vary inversely with 
dividends. 
(c) Lease large c>.reas to railway and other companies 
or individuals to provide dwellings of the same number 
and for the same class as those demolished by them in cases 
of demolition or clearance works. 
(d) The municipalities themselves to build largely on 
the outskirts of their districts for all grades of workers, 
charging a slightly higher percentage of rent for the best 
class of houses, so as to be able to utilise the surplus in 
reduction of the rents of the dwellings of the poorestclasses of workers. 
To secure that rents shall be as low as possible


(a) The Government to advance money for housing purposes 
on loan for 100 years at not more than 2t per cent. 
(b) The operation of the sinking fund on such loans to be 
postponed until five years after the houses have been built. 
(c) Site values to be assessed to local rates on a percentage 
of capital value, and to contribute proportionately towards local 
expenditure so as to relieve rates on all kinds 0f dwelling-
houses. 

VI.-CONSIDERATION OF PRACTICAL 
DIFFICULTIES AS REGARDS BUILDING. 

Bv Cou!\CILLOR H. C. LANDER, A.IU.B.A., of Tunbridge Wells. 

Acquisition of Land. 

THE attempt of an Authority to acquire land for the erection of 
working-class dwellings is frequently met by a combination or mutual 
understanding on the part of owners in the neighborhood to abstain 
from selling to the authority, or to part with such land only at a 
price considerably in advance of its value. 

The advantages of a good site cannot be over-estimated ; but, in 
the event of owners being unwilling to sell, the machinery necessaryfor the acquisition of the required land by compulsory powers needs 
simplifying, as the additional expenses incurred in obtaining and 
enforcing compulsory powers might seriously affect the utility of the 
scheme. 

The consciousness on the part of landowners that the authority 
under the Act can only enforce a sale at some disadvantage to the 
scheme has emboldened them to inflict various undesirable conditions 
which would not have been insisted upon in the case of a private purchaser, 
such as requiring the erection of a high wall or close fence 
around the site, so that the municipal cottages might not become a 
nuisance to the surrounding property. 

Local Government Board Memorandum. 

T he Local Government Board have prepared a memorandum 
with respect to the provision and arrangement of dwellings, when 
these are provided either by the local authorities themselves, or byother persons under grants, leases, or contracts to which the local 
authorities are party. In this memorandum the Board have summarized 
their views upon the more important of the principles so far 
as they are applicable to the erection of (a) Separate houses or cottages 
; (b) Buildings arranged in blocks; and (c) Lodging Houses. 
One important recommendation under class (a) is that the living room 
should have a floor-area of some 200 square feet. A large floor-area 
is without doubt most desirable from a sanitary point of view, and 
the Local Government Board haYe done well to indicate to the local 
authorities that they should not confine themselve to the reproduction 
of existing types of cottages; at the same time it must be borne 
in mind that the size specified by the Board is far in excess of the 
accommodation usually given in modern cottage property. Unless 
the municipal cottages are to become a charge upon the rates, the 
local authority must enter into competition with the· owners of pri-
Yate cottage property, and they are compelled to provide a cottagewhich to some extent will meet the demand unless they are prepared 
to run the risk of having their cottages stand empty. The a\·erage 


z8 


working man can appreciate the advantage of an addttional room, 
but he does not so easily recognize the desirability of large rooms 
over small ones if they cost him an additional shilling or two a week. 
The cottages belonging to a local authority should be the best of 
their kind ; but with rooms of the size recommended by the Local 
Government Board it would be exceedingly difficult to provide a 
workable scheme. 

Another clause in the same memorandum requires that "under 
no circumstances should the stairs rise directly from the kitchen or 
scullery." This, again, is sound in theory and desirable in practice 
where a properly lighted and ventilated lobby or passage can be provided. 
If, however, compliance with the letter of the recommendation 
results in ignoring its spirit, there is no gain in the end. If, for 
instance, one or more of the living rooms are reduced in size to provide 
the necessary passage-way or lobby at the foot of the stairs, and 
from its position the passage is dark and ill-ventilated-which often 
happens-it might be more desirable to omit the same provided the 
staircase were shut off by a door at the foot and ventilated by its own 
window. If the space at disposal is limited, the fewer partitions and 
narrow passages the better. Passages almost invariably add to the 
cost per cottage and the width of frontage, and consequently reduce 
the number of cottages possible upon any given frontage.

It is unfortunate that the Board do not allow more liberty to local 
authorities in cases when considerable difference of opinion exists on 
points of detail. In at least one instance the Board have given their 
sanction to the loan on condition that dust-shoots are provided from 
the upper floors of the tenemet;ts. These dust-shoots are apt to become 
very foul and offensive, and by many persons sanitary dust-bins 
are considered decidedly preferable. 

It would appear that the Local Government Board memorandum 
is nothing more than an expression of opinion, and that the Board 
do not insist upon the adoption of their own recommendations. As 
they stand, however, they are somewhat misleading and calculated 
to place unnecessary difficulties in the way of the local authoritywhich is endeavoring to carry out the provisions of the Act. 

Local Government Board Model Bye-laws. 

The Local Government Board further require that the houses 
shall be erected in conformity with their Model Bye-laws. These 
Bye-laws have been adopted in most towns; but in many places,
especially rural districts, the Building Bye-laws, if any exist, are of a 
less stringent type. In such districts the local authorities find themselves 
handicapped by having to build in conformity with regulationsfrom which the private speculator is free, such as extra thickness of 
walls, concrete over the whole site of building, &c. In this instance 
also the Board have acted wisely in insisting upon conformity with 
the more modern and in many respects improved Bye-laws. The 
remedy lies in the hands of the local authorities, who will naturallybe at a disadvantage so long as they allow private persons to build 
more cheaply than they are at liberty to do themseh·es ; at the 


same time, it would be most undesirable for local authorities in rural 
districts to adopt the Model Bye-laws as they stand, as in some 
respects they are quite unsuitable for application in the country. 

Under this head may be mentioned the rules laid down for the 
construction of the walls of domestic buildings up to Ioo feet in 
height, which would be ridiculous in the country. The open space 
at the rear is altogether inadequate, and the section dealing with 
drainage requires re-modelling. 

A Choice of Evils. 

In towns and urban districts authorities attempting to carry out 
Part III. of the Act are limited to a choice of evils. They may 
either build dwellings upon sanitary principles, with a due proportion 
of light and air per head of the occupants, and with a proper 
regard to domestic convenience and requirements, regardless of cost, 
or they may endeavor to place within the reach of the wage-earner 
a dwelling which will compete with that erected by private enter-
prize, with the minimum of regard for the claims of health. 

It is impossible to build in crowded districts so that both requirements 
may be fulfilled. Authorities have hitherto abandoned the 
first and adopted the second alternative. 

In order to make the most of the land, buildings are carried up 
to a great height, with the result that many more people are housed 
per acre than formerly. High buildings are very objectionable; they 
entail much more work of a tiring kind in carrying food and other 
goods up to the respective floors, and the stairs are very trying,
especially to old people. High buildings prevent the proper circulation 
of air and admission of light to the lower floors and surrounding 
streets and yards. Statistics point to the fact that the death-rate is 
highest on the lowest floors and decreases towards the top. 

Legal Overcrowding. 

Existing law permits overcrowding on area to an alarming extent. 
In many instances, old rookeries were far superior in point of air 
space to the new model dwellings which have replaced them. 

The London Building Act, 1894, permits the erection of highblock dwellings with an insufficient air space in yards and areas 
attached thereto. 

The opportunities of legal overcrowding under the above-
mentioned Act, and the tendency of public bodies to avail themselves 
of the same, are shown by the recent competition for plans of 
tenement blocks to be erected on the Millbank plot by the London 
County Council. The first prize in this competition was awarded to 
a set of designs which provided accommodation at the rate of 481 
persons per acre, or about 163 persons per acre in excess of the 
Council's earlier buildings on the Bethnal Green site, or nearly nine 
times the density of persons per acre in the whole of London. 

The importance of these figures-supplied by Mr. Robert Williams 
-must be evident when it is borne in mind that, other things beingequal, the denser the population, the higher the death-rate. 


30 

Cost of Materials. 
The present high and rising cost of materials and labor adds 
considerably to the difficulties of erecting dwellings which will compete 
successfully with those built some years ago, and letting them 
at reasonable rents. Unavoidable delays invariably result in an 
advance of prices. 

Contractor versus W orks Department. 

The usual method of obtaining tenders for the erection of 
proposed dwellings by open competition is undesirable. Incompetent, 
and even bankrupt firms, submit estimates, and undertake (in spite 
of the usual references and guarantees) to carry out work which 
they are unable to complete, and delay and inconvenience result. 
Contractors of repute and standing object to submitting estimates in 
competition with cutting firms of doubtful reputation.

When the work is undertaken by the local authority itself, 
without the intervention of a contractor, the resulting buildings are 
of better quality and workmanship, and if building operations are 
undertaken upon a sufficiently large scale, and with a competent 
staff, can be built more cheaply than through a builder. In small 
towns and country districts where no suitable organization exists, it 
is doubtful whether any saving can be effected in cost. The principle 
is sound, and where none exists, a works department upon a small 
scale should be started in connection with every local authority, and 
allowed to develop as opportunity offers. Such a department, in 
course of time, would be able to undertake the carrying out of all 
building operations required by the authority with great benefit 
to the public. 

Cottages and Tenements. 

A comprehensive municipal housing scheme for the working 
classes will include dwellings of all types to suit the requirements of 
large and small families. In no case is it desirable that the dwelling 
should consist of less than three rooms-a living room, a bed room, 
and a scullery. The last may be quite small, so long as the sink is 
not actually in the living room. This type is provided for single 
persons or ror married couples without children who would otherwise 
be obliged to take lodgings or a larger house than they required 
and let off the remainder. The cost of such a dwelling, if erected as 
a separate cottage, would be prohibitive. The only alternative is to 
combine two or more such dwellings under the same roof as tenements, 
and, even so, the cost per room generally compares unfavorably 
with that of the cottage unless the tenement buildings are of 
great size, which is very undesirable, especially in the country. The 
common staircase is a necessary evil of the tenement building. If 
each class of dwellings is self-supporting, the man·with the largestfamily being forced to occupy a cottage of the largest type, finds that 
in addition to haYing to bring up a large family, he has the further 
responsibility of the heaviest rent, together with the consciousness 
that, should the number of inmates exceed that allowed per cottage 


31 

by the local authority, he may, in the event of there being no other 
municipal cottage available, be obliged to take his family after all to 
some slum-dwelling where overcrowding is allowed. 

In many cases the rent of the cottage is able to be paid only with 
the assistance of the wage-earning children, whose education suffers 
accordingly. 

General Conclusions. 

The success of a H ousing scheme depends very largely upon the 
amount of enthusiasm which the officials, particularly the surveyor 
to the local authority, throw into it. The opposition is always considerable, 
and can only be met by an equal amount of municipal 
energy, which can be greatly assisted :md directed by officials in 
sympathy with the scheme. 

The facilities for acquiring land need simplifying.

If the term for the repayment of the loan were extended to, say, 
eighty years for the houses and 100 years on the land, the problem 
would be rendered much less difficult. 

Unnecessary and irksome building regulations should be avoided, 
and those which are considered desirable should be binding equally 
upon municipalities and private owners. The number of persons to 
be housed per acre should be limited, and t.he minimum of light and 
air greatly increased. 

Great annoyance and delay might be avoided if applications to the 
Local Government Board could receive prompt attention. 
Local authorities should have power to erect houses outside 
their own area with direct systems of tram or other communication. 

Accommodation for single men and women can be provided more 
cheaply in the lodging-house, but the comforts of the home are 
wanting.

No satisfactory scheme of housing has yet been devised with 
rents within the reach of the poorest members of Society.
The question of free cottages is not yet within the realm of 
practical politics. 


VII.-GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 

Bv CouNCILLOR F. LAWSON DODD, of Tunbridge Wells. 

I.-Should Municipalities Make Profits ? 

IN the provision of houses by local authorities the question mayarise whether schemes should so be worked as to ensure a monetary 
profit for the ratepayers. Those who have had practical experienceof the problem as it at present stands will feel little anxiety on this 
point, for the conditions under which all public authorities must act 
are so exacting that it may be counted a success if, after much 
scheming, the accounts are just made to balance. But in considering 
this side of the question from the Socialist standpoint, the important 
facts to be borne in mind are these :


(I) That the work is primarily undertaken in the interest 
of the public health, and that the lowered death and sickness 
rates will be in themselves a great financial gain to the 
community. 
(2) That the aims of the local authority are in no way 
similar to those of the private and speculative builder. The 
latter, not having to bear the burden which the injury produced 
by a badly constructed dwelling means to the inmates, and 
seeing that those conditions (such as overcrowding, unrepaireddilapidations, etc.), which are most detrimental to his tenants, 
are to his own financial arlvantage, is, so to speak, bribed into 
maintaining things as they are. He reaps all the profit, and 
the community bears all the burden. 
(3) The local authority, on the other hand, finds that those 
conditions which produce high interest on house-capital also 
produce a high mortality among the citizens ; a high Poor Rate, 
due largely to loss of work, the result of lowered vitality and 
inability to pay the high rent; a high General Rate (caused bythe necessarily large isolation hospital, extra sanitary inspection, 
disinfection of houses, etc., etc.) ; and can realize there is an 
actual monetary profit reaped indirectly by the saving of those 
expenses which, under private enterprize, must be paid on 
other accounts. But the awakening is slow. In the Parish of 
Mitcham, in I897, an outbreak of scarlet fever occurred, the 
rapid spread of which was attributed by the medical officer, in 
his Annual Report, to "the overcrowding of the population 
which now exists";" yet this small community had, without a 
murmur, spent £z,ooo on an isolation hospital, and had closed 
all its schools for one month, while the suggestion of the only 
true remedy, viz., the provision of more houses by the District 
Council, was met by the cry "an extra burden on the rates"! 
But, dull as the perception of the average ratepayer is, it may 
*Annual Report of Medical Officer of Croydon Rural District for r8g7. 


33 

be said that at last the community is becoming aware of the 
fact that it spends vast sums of money, and wastes labor-efficiency 
and human life to an appalling degree, in order that a group of 
its members may make a living out of the homes of their 
fellow-men. 

It has been pointed out that the restrictions imposed upon a 
local authority are so onerous, that the great difficulty seems to be, 
how to provide accommodation, at cost price, which shall be able to 
compete-z'n the eyes of the average W01'kz'ng man-with what lze 
considers similar accommodation offered by the private builder. 
The municipality must put more capital into the same sized house, 
and it must spend this extra amount on advantages which the 
average person is only just commencing to appreciate, such as better 
building materials, house and sanitary fittings, foundations, etc.* 

The rent that the tenant has to pay, when analyzed, consists 
roughly of four factors : 

(I) Interest on capital ; 
(2) Sinking-fund instalment ; 
(3) Repairs and maintenance ; 
(4) Rates; 
and these, for the average municipal dwelling, will, if added together,
make up a rent nearly as high as is charged by the private speculator 
for a property which gives a much higher gross return, but represents 
a much smaller capital sum. Municipalities now make 6 to 8 
per cent. gross return, private builders expect IO to I 5 per cent., or 
even more. Then the local authority allows for, and carries out, 
repairs, and these are rarely done by the private owner of small 
property, who, in most cases, leaves them to the tenant. The present 
transition stage of competition with the -private owner is a difficult 
one for the authority. The poorer classes want cheap houses, must 
have them ; they understand what a saving of sixpence a week in 
the rent means, but they do not understand yet the advantages of 
concrete foundations, properly jointed drain pipes, or wash-down 
water-closets. They do not mind taking a few lodgers into an 
already well-filled house, because they understand the advantage of a 
few shillings a week, but they do not understand that each inhabitant 
ot a sleeping-room should have at least I,ooo cubic feet of 
air space. In fact, public authorities have to offer, under the presentlaw, a healthier article, at a price as high, or even higher, than is at 
present paid, to those who are both very ignorant and very poor ; 
and this competitive disadvantage is further enhanced by a rigidenforcement of regulations necessarily attaching to property let by 
a sanitary authority. Such regulations are of the utmost educational 
Yalue, but are not yet understood or appreciated.
But, supposing the looked-for improvement in the power of 
authorities, and the other advantages referred to above, were 
realized. With lengthened loan periods, lowered interest, simpler 

• Cf. Local Government Doard Model Bye-Law:;, under which Public Authorities 
must build, and the loose" Building Regulations" of Districts (Urban and Rural). 

34 

sanitation and rural sites, with correspondingly low rates, the expenditure 
is found to drop to a minimum, so that the rents charged may 
be lowered below those charged for the same accommodation by the 
private speculator-shall a profit be made? Should the local 
authority approximate the rent it charges to that charged by privateenterprize? It provides a better dwelling, more sanitary, and on a 
better site ; may it not charge just sufficient to raise the price to 
that charged for houses of similar size, but of less quality, erected 
by the speculator? The ratepayers, it will be argued, bear the risk, 
and only a section of the community benefits, and that section the 
privileged working-class. The answer to all these arguments is 
Dbvious. If the ratepayers bear the risk, they reap the benefit also 
of a more sanitary locality, a lowered death-rate, and much less 
<::hance of epidemics. The poor may be crowded into one small 
area of a town ; but if contagious disease arises, the pathogenic 
germs cannot be kept within the same limits, and are no respecters 
of persons. Tf capital is supplied on the public credit the investment 
is a good one, and under the conditions named, an absolutely 
safe one. And besides, those who live in the houses are themselves 
ratepayers. Then again, chance of letting the dwellings becomes 
greater as the rent is lowered. A public authority should aim at 
providing the best possible accommodation for all its citizens at the 
<::ost price, not in any way attempting to make so-called profits. 

Tn the above remarks it has been assumed that the sinking fund, 
which is included with the interest, and which greatly decreases as 
the period of loan is lengthened, was included in the rent charged 
to tenants. This sum should be counted as a profit, and should be 
allowed for in paying the rer,ts, in the shorter loans at least, otherwise 
the tenants are actually buying for the municipality the cottages 
which they live in ; and, in the case of a thirty years' loan at 3 per 
.cent., a tenant who lives in a dwelling rented at 7s. 6d. per week, is 
paying more than £6 per annum to the local authority towards the 
purchase of his house, which is built to last a hundred years at least. 
Should his rent remain the same for the next seventy years, the 
ratepayers will continue to receive this grant-in-aid to local rates 
made out of the earnings of the working-classes. It is only fair that 
after ample allowances have been made for all outgoings and risks, 
that the sinking fund should be paid out of the rates, and such 
a course would at once greatly assist and simplify the housing 
problem. 

!I.-How Should Rents be Fixed? 

In dealing with the question of the "rents" to be paid for givendwellings it is necessary to analyse the factors that make up such 
charges. These may be classified under two heads : 

(1) l~tterest 011 Capital Outlay a11d Si11ki11g Fund for(
a) Cost of site. 
(b) Cost of roads, sewers, etc. 
(c) Cost of building. 

35 


(z) Workz'ng Exje1lses(
a) Repairs. 
(b) Management and Sundries. 
(c) Rates, Taxes and Insurance. 
It will thus be seen that "rents" are based upon several factors 
which are all of the most variable nature ; that under class (r) there 
is greater possibility of variation than under class (z). It will also 
be seen how greatly the cost and, in part, the working expenses can 
be lowered if the scheme is going to be a rural one. In this case, 
other things being equal, there would be a great reduction in the 
following items : 

Cost of Site (large gardens at cheap rate) ; 

Cost of Roads, Sewers, etc. (sewers not necessary and roads far 

less expensive) ; 

Cost of Building (wages less high) ; 

Rates, Taxes and Insurance (especially m rates, which form 

about one-third total rent). 
Our object being to fix the rent at as low a figure as possible, it is 
obvious that the three points of real importance are : 

(r) the lowering of the rate of interest; 
(z) the lengthening of loan ; 
(3) the carrying out of the scheme in rural districts. 
With such shifting ground to go upon it is a matter of immense 
difficulty to so fix the rents that all the working classes can paythem ; indeed it must be acknowledged from the outset that the 
subsistence wage of the poor unskilled worker is not sufficient to 
allow him to pay the mere interest on the bricks and mortar that 
must form his dwelling. Under present circumstances it is absolutely 
impossible to house the very poor, and it is certain that the raisingof the standard of building and the enforcement of structural sanitation 
by Model Bye-Laws, etc., have, while making the houses more 
habitable, added considerably to the overcrowding of the poor.
Every act of the sanitary reformer will make this problem of housing 
the v-ery poor more acute. The lowest classes cannot afford to pay 
any interest at all or any sinking fund, and the community may find 
it more profitable to house these people at a merely nominal sum 
than to allow the present wasteful system to continue-a systemthat destroys health and life, and also demands that worst form of all 
help, vz'z., poor relief. In the meantime the work of the Socialist 
must aim at underbidding, as far as possible, the priYate house 
speculator and at the same time raising the quality of the accommodation 
and fixing the rent at such a sum as to cover the gross outlay 
less the sinking fund. In this way the rents may still be higherthan is desirable, but the municipal tenant is getting the matter more 
into his own hands. He has, at least, some fixity of rent and has 
every reason to believe that it will become lower in the future, 
whereas under private management it was at first lo"· but became 


higher as time went on, and each successful request for rep:1irs meant 
an addition to the rent. Houses, made cheap by dilapidation and 
decay, and made overcrowded by being sub-let, pass through the 
hands of class after class, descending at each step until they end as 
tenement houses let out in single rooms ; and the profitable business 
of house jobbing, which was said before the Royal Commission on 
the Housing of the Working Classes in 1884 to bring interest at the 
rate of r 50 per cent., is carried on and thrives amongst those whom 
the sanitary authority cannot house at a 5 per cent. gross return. 

But when houses are built by the municipality and let at cost 
price they will be taken by a class above that for which they were 
intended, and this should in no way be interfered with. Socialists 
should not regard such a fact as this with any disappointment ; it 
only proves that the evil is more wide-spread than had been anticipated. 
When the question of the housing of the people is boldly 
faced it is certain that some startling discoveries will be made. 
Whenever and wherever a thorough enquiry has been made into 
the conditions of the homes of the people generally-all classes-it 
has been found that the great majority are living in houses which 
are in a condition of bad sanitation and repair. The great need of 
the hour in town and country alike is that a searching enquiry 
should be made into he condition of all houses. This seems simple, 
but to the publication of the results there would be strenuous opposition. 
To the average ratepayer the misfortune is not the existence 
of the evil but its being found out. In making such investigations 
we might follow the example of the Belgians. The first part of their 
Housing Act* of 1889 gives power to the central authority to appoint 
to each township or district a CJmmittee of Patronage, whose duties 
should be: (r) to study and care for the health of the community;

(2) to check local authorities; (3) to collect statistics. These committees 
are made up of representatives of all classes and a certain 
number of experts. To give one instance of the results : the committee 
of Liege, after thorough enquiry, found that 55 per cent. of 
the people of that town were sleeping four persons to a room. Facts 
of this kind are not easy to obtain, but the Medical Officer of Health 
for Maidstone stated at the Enquiry on the Typhoid Epidemic in 
I 897 that out of 6,ooo houses in his district 4,ooo were unsanitary.
Many of the houses of the middle class are worse built, arranged less 
conveniently, and far less sanitary than the cottages that a local 
authority thinks fit for its workmen. It is no use trying to house 
the very poor so long as the clerk with £r 50 a year is badly accommodated 
; he will eventually get hold of our well-intentioned cottage 
or tenement, and we cannot and should not attempt to stop him. 
The working man will for a time have to rejoice in a share of the 
villa which the fortunate clerk has vacated. 
Rents, then, should be fixed at the lowest cost price, and there 
should be no restriction as to the class of tenant, the fact of 
application being a guarantee that the applicant needs the dwelling. 

* L.C.C. Report on International Housing Conference, Brussels, 1897. 

37 


Socialists should aim at gettmg the housing of all people mto the 
hands of local authorities as soon as possible; and the basis of competition 
should be made as fair as possible by the rigid enforcement of 
the Public Health Act and the various sanitary and building byelaws 
made under that Act. All tenement houses should be registered, 
and the requirements as to cubic space rigidly adhered to, and 
houses hopelessly dilapidated should be condemned. Each step 
should be preceded by a supply of municipal dwellings, so that 
those who are thus forced out of unhealthy houses could at once be 
received into sanitary ones. 

A great difficulty will arise, however, in fixing all rents by the 
cost of production. Under a scheme of municipal housing, it is 
found that while the better-off mechanic who has a small family 
may take one of the larger, and consequently more expensive, cottages, 
the laborer with smaller means must do so. New and very 
wide questions arise when the public authority begins to enforce the 
Public Health Act on its own property (and thzs zs the only property 
on whzdz zl ca11 1'eally be e.!Jiciently enfo1'ced), and the really difficult 
problem will then be faced, viz., how to house the poor man with 
the large family, and so to fix his rent that it shall be within his 
ability to pay it. An ingenious attempt to solve this has been made 
by the Urban District Council at Homsey. Here the largest and 
the smallest dwellings pay more than their share of rent in order 
that an intermediate size-for which there is great demand-may 
have accommodation at less than cost price. The natural tendencyof human nature to value an article according to the price paid, 
makes all quite contented with the arrangement. When all the 
houses of a locality belong to the local authority, a system which 
would tax the needlessly large houses in order to lower the rent of 
those houses which would be in demand among the poor would 
seem to be a fair arrangement ; but that the mechanic should be 
taxer! for the laborer does seem rather hard. 

IlL-Decentralization and Cheap Locomotion. 

lt may be said that the farther from the centres of our great towns 
<wd cities the housing of the people is carried out, the more hope there 
is for its ultimate success For economic as well as for sanitary reasons, 
the further housing of the people in London is most undesirable and 
may become most disastrous. It must never be forgotten that there 
are two kinds of overcrowding : 

(1) Overcrowding in houses or rooms ; 
(2) 'Overcrowding of houses or persons on area. 
All attempts to house the working classes in London itself must mean 
overcrowding 011 area at least. The rent of a given site must be reduced 
to a reasonable sum for each tenant by placing more and more 
houses on top of one another until they have so divided the ground-
rent between them that it becomes a possible one. The inconsistencyof the Local Government Board refusing to sanction the putting upof back-to-back houses, while permitting them to be placed on top of 
one another, as well as back-to-back so long as they are called "model 

3 

dwellings," i quite incomprehensible. In this way the present overcrowding 
on area has been produced under the pretence of sanitaryhousing of the people. This mean of rent reduction is quite inadmissible. 
Some figures which clearly show the evil of this form of 
overcrowding when it is not complicated by the other form (viz., overcrowding 
in room), or even by structural and sanitary defects, are to 
be found in a Report on the Vital Statistics of the Peabody Buildings,
read before the Royal Statistical Society by Dr. Newsholme in 1891. 
The total population of these dwellings in r889 was 20,374; the 
average number of cubic feet allowed for each person was 380 (Local 
Government Board Model Byelaws demand 300) ; the number of 
persons to the acre was 7 5 r, the average for the London RegistrationDistrict being 49, and for England and ·wales o·8 per acre. We 
have a picked cia s to deal with, in regular work, and at a time when 
things are going well ; and yet a comparison of the death-rate in 
these dwellings with that of the whole of London is not by any 
means sati factory, especially when we remember that it is highlyprobable that orne of the hospital deaths are not recorded in the 
Peabody deaths. • 

1887 

London ... . .. 21·12 
Peabody Buildings 20'47 
Country Districts 1 
17'2 

1888 1889 1890 
20·81 r8·47 1 21'70 
19·19 17'13 21'94 
16·6 16·4 17'4 

1891 

1892 1893 1894 

--~ -


In the year 1 90, when the population had pre umably increased, 
the death-rate wa actually higher than that for the rest of London. 
Then the death-rate of children between the :1ges 0-5 years wa 
higher than the corresponding death-rate taken for London as a 
whole. 

Death-Rate per I,ooo at Age Period o-s. Peabody Buildings, 1888-89. 

Peabody Building 59·r 

London ss· 

Then, again, the death-rates from all these di ease~ a sociated with 
air pollution, viz., scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, and 
measles, in these model dwellings were above the rate for the whole 
of London. Phthi i and other tubercular disea e which are a! o 
known to be intimately as ociated with want of air and light were 
also more prevalent. It is clear that if the aim of the hou ingreformer i to reduce ill-health he must avoid this in idious form of 
overcrowding whether carried out in the interest of charity byphilanthropic tru tee or by the London County Council itself. 

The close relation hip between density of population and death-
rate wa clearly shown by Dr. Ogle, who clas ified the districts of 
England and \Vale according to the death-rate , and afterwards 

• The' e figures are taken in preference to later one , as the death-rate , etc., have 
been C'.\rcfully co1 ncltd hy a great authority on vital stati>tics and are therefore most 
reliable. 

39 


placed against each district the number of persons per square mile 
inhabiting it. This table showed that when the population passed 
the limit of 4-00 to a square mile the death-rate increased with the 
density."' 

Death Rates per I ,ooo 

Persons to a square mile. 
per annum. (England & Wales, I892, about sao.) 

14 and under I5 253 

r-:J " r6 200 

I6 I7 258

" I8 21! 

I7 

I~ " 19 I9-t

" 2I7

19 20 

20 " 21 -ts8 

2I " 22 677 

22 " 23 I,301 

23 " 2+ r,8 19 

" 2,166

24 25

2:J.. " 26 2,8I9
" 

26 27 2,944 

27 " 28 6,I44

" 

The structural defects are at least equal in rural and urban dis


tricts, whilst in favor of the thickly populated districts we have the 

generally better water supply and sanitary supervision, as well as 

the more prompt and skilful medical and surgical attendance. It is 

true that unhealthiness of occupation is practically an accompani


ment of overcrowding on area, and so cannot be allowed for. 

The evil influence of crowding dwellings on area is clearly

shown by the following table, which deals with a part of Salford. 

On this area persons were living to the number of n,ooo to the 

square mile. All the houses were inhabited by the poorer laboring 

classes, and therefore were probably equally bad in structure and 

equally overcrowded as regards the rooms. The area is, however, 

divided into three districts according to the number of back-to-bad{ 

houses on each. 

DEATH RATES FROM

Average 

Zymotic

Proportion 

Death

Population.

of 

Other 

Rate.

All

Back-to-back 

Diarrhrea.

Respiratory 

Phthisis.

Causes.

Houses. 

Diseases. 

-

-

Per Cent. 

I. 
II. 
ILL 
0 
23 
s6 
8,7 I 3 
I I,749 
I I,405 
27'5 
29'2 
39·5 
2'8 
2'3 
3'6 
6·6 
7'8 
7'9 
I'4 
I'6 
2' I 
4"5 
+'8 
6'2 
--England 
and Wales ... 2I'3 I 1'83 3'55 o·66 2'3+ 

• H;•gient and Public Health, B. A. Whitelegge (Cassell & Co.; I 899), pp. 509-512. 

In London itself it will be seen at once that the death-rate rises 
the nearer the centre we come, as is shewn by the following figures 
for quinquennium r886-95 :


MEAN ANNUAL DEATH-RATE FOR QUINQUENNIUM 1886-95. 

CENTRAL. MIDDLE. I OuTER. 
St. Giles .. ... 
St. l\1 artin 's-in-Fields 
Strand ... ... 
City ... ... ... 
St. Luke's ... ... 
H oi born ... ... 
26'2 
25'5 
30'0 
25'8 
29'3 
27'7 
Newington ... 
Bermondsey ... 
Shoreditch ... 
St. Pancras ... 
St. Marylebone 
Paddington ... 
23'5 
23'7 
24'0 
21'8 
22'5 
22'5 
Camberwell 
Lambeth ... 
Islington ... 
H ackney ... 
Fulham ... 
Battersea... 
19'5 
20'5 
19'3 
16·4 • 
18·4* 
19·o* 

• 1896. 
Decentralization must be the aim of the housing reformer, and 
the more completely this can be attained the more success will attend 
his efforts. It must be for London no half-hearted decentralization, 
for the housing of the people within the area of London will either 
mean, if done with any consideration for the people's health, a greatburden on the rates, or else the overcrowding of those houses on area, 
and a very probable increase in the prevalence of those diseases which 
are air-borne. Hitherto, London housing has been rendered possible 
for the poor by their being packed into rooms until the divided 
rent-burden became bearable, or else by their being packed on the 
area until the divided ground-rent became payable by them. 

While the problem is impossible in the great centres of population, 
it is comparatively simple for the provincial and rural authorities. 
They can purchase land on fayorable terms, and the cheaper land 
thus obtained will allow for each house a proper site-area. This 
may be accompanied by simpler methods of sanitation as well as 
water supply. Indeed, it has been clearly shown that under these 
circumstances the sanitation may even be made a source of profit.*
The complex sanitary arrangements of the town, with their miles of 
drains and sewers, their water-carriage system which ends in the 
throwing away of that which is of great value, the water-closets 
which are continually adding to the expense of maintenance as well 
as to the expense of building, are all unnecessary in a rural housingscheme, and the simpler methods of refuse disposal adapted for 
country districts will be far more healthy for the people when under 
the control of the experts that can be employed by the municipalities. 

Locomotion. 

Just as the hope of the housing question is in decentralization, 
so the hope for decentralization is in the development and adoptionby the local authorities of cheap and rapid means of locomotion. 
Easy means of communication will make cheap and healthy sites 
available e\'en for those whose work lies in the great industrial 

• Rural Hygiene, by G. V. Poore. 

centres ; it will tend to equalize site-values and considerably reduce 
the demand for further town accommodation. To further continue 
the housing of the people by replacing slums by block dwellings is 
only to further increase the value of the ground-rents of the populousdistricts; while to encourage suburban and rural housing is a natural 
and healthful means of reducing those values and thus of making the 
acquisition of town lands by the municipality more possible. 

There is at present a great opportunity in the hands of the town 
authorities; many can purchase lands near their boundaries at a cost a 
little above that given for agricultural land, and build on this under 
Part III. of the Act of 1890, allowing allotments of varying size in the 
shape of gardens to the cottages they will erect ; after this they can 
establish cheap and rapid electric tramway communication which 
will ensure their having tenants and also allow them to proceed with 
the dilapidated property in the central parts of their district. It is 
most important to arrange these reforms in their proper order and 
to carry out a definite policy. By following the course recommended 
above, great and wholly unnecessary expense is saved by buying the 
land well outside, and also by obtaining it before the means of communication 
has raised its value. The subsequent supply of ready 
communication will be of benefit to the community 

(r) 
By making its houses more readily accessible and thus greatly 
increasing the demand for them. 
(z) 
By relieving the congested-or, in other words, the workingclass-area of the town. 
(3) 
By reducing the value of central sites and slum property, and 
thus making possible the provision of open spaces and the 
demolition of insanitary property. 
The result of this would be to reduce to a minimum, certainly so far 
as the industrial population are concerned, the residential character 
of the town area proper, and the proceeds of any subsequent tantion 
of ground rents might go to more suitable objects than the subsidising 
of a condition of working-class housing which was bad economically 
as well as hygienically. But after all possible facilities in the wayof locomotion have been afforded, there will still remain a class, such 
as the dock laborers, the irregularity of whose work will necessitate 
their residing somewhere near it. Decentralization and cheap locomotion 
will help this class as well, by lessening the demand for housing 
accommodation and the lowering of central site values; and apartfrom this somewhat theoretical advantage, it would be quite reasonable 
to assist financially the housing of those who in the service of 
the community were forced to live under conditions that necessitated 
more expenditure of wages.

The taxation of land values should, then, be sought for as soon as 
possible, not that the proceeds may assist the poorer classes to li\·e on 
sites of heightened value, but in order to assist the sanitary and decent 
housing of that large part of the community that is at presentquite unable to pay the small rent that must be charged by the local 
authorities for really suitable accommodation. 


Rating of Vacant Land in Towns up to its "Site Value." 

As one means of helping the solution of the housing problem, it 
has been proposed to force vacant lands in towns into the buildingmarket by rating them at their "site value." The heavy rate thus 
imposed upon this vacant land would be such a burden to the owner 
that he would be forced to realize its value either by letting the land 
for building purposes, or by building on it himself. This question 
may be viewed in two lights: the land in question may be greatly in 
demand, and the increasing demand may tempt the owner to leave 
the site to ripen and thus increase in value, and from this point of 
view it is right that the land should be made use of, for it is obvious 
that the landlord is only withholding it in order that he may tax the 
community more than ever. This condition of things is only experienced 
either within cities and towns, or just on their outskirts. 
It does not materially influence the housing question, and when 
fuller powers have been given to the local authorities to acquire land 
on more rapid and reasonable terms, it will do so still less. From a 
public health standpoint, however, such a means of raising taxation 
is most inadvisable. It is in central parts of towns that there is the 
greatest demand for vacant sites, and it is in the central parts that 
vacant sites or open spaces are most wanted. In our overcrowded 
cities a vacant site is worth paying for, and to force the owner to putbuildings upon it, and thus to decrease the light and air of those already 
living in the locality, is to pursue a policy directly opposed to 
the health of all in the vicinity. These sites are undesirable for many 
reasons as sites for housing, and their taxation should not be looked 
upon as a direct means of gi\'ing house accommodation. Warehouses 
or shops might be built on them, but the financial rate would onlyincrease at the same time as the death rate. When the land which 
is held over to ripen into high-priced building sites is situated in the 
suburbs of a great town there is more to be said for rating it at its 
site-value ; but the real remedy is to increase the facilities for pur{;
hase of such land by the local authorities, as advocated above. 

Conclusions, &c. 

In conclusion, it will be well to point out a few facts that the 
housing of the people by the municipalities and other public bodies 
has revealed. Some of these present in a word the real difficulties 
and wide scope of the question :


:.·(1). That poverty and ignorance of the laws of health are the two 
_great contributmg factors to the number of the victims ; to these 
may be added personal greed for money. 

(z). That numbers of the middle classes will flock into sanitaryand well-built houses that are constructed for the working classes 
and let at a rental covering cost and maintenance. This can only be 
checked by artificial and harmful means. It proves, however, that 
not people mentioned are wanting good accommodation and have 
the found it elsewhere. 


43 

(3). That only in a highly anarchical state of society can the view 
be held, that the smaller the house the lower or poorer the inhabitant. 
The laborer on £r per week, with a family of six, is allowed, 
under competition, and in spite of Public Health Acts, to crowd, not 
into a small house only, but in thousands of cases into a small 
room. 

For instance, in Glasgow in r89r, r8 per cent. of the people lived 
in one-roomed tenements ; and in London Mr. Chas. Booth tells us 
that of the working classes no less than 33 per cent. live two or more 
persons to one small room. But under municipal housing, the 
smaller the house, cceteris paribus, the better off the inhabitant. 
The married couple without children are alone allowed to take a 
two-roomed tenement, while the laborer with a family of six or seven 
must take a cottage with about five rooms, and pay accordingly. 

(4). That the real difficulty of the question is how to accommodate 
the .tJoorest classes. For their subsistence wage only allows 
them under present circumstances to inhabit the houses that Public 
Health Acts have not yet regulated. 

(5). That the local authority, owning and inspecting its own property, 
and letting it at a rent to cover cost, can, with the help of its 
skilled medical and sanitary officers, draw up such rules as shall educate 
its tenants in cleanliness and sanitation, all the while securing 
for them fixity of rent and independence from personal influence for 
electoral and other purposes, now so often exercised by cottage 
owners. 

( 6). It is clearly demonstrated that the solution of the problem lies 
in the direction of providing cottages as far away from population 
centres as is possible, and in providing at the same time cheap and 
rapid means of transit to and from work for those whose business lies 
at the great centres of industry. In this way lower rents are obtained 
as well as gardens and fresh air ; and that new form of overcrowding 
in so-called " model dwellings," with all their repulsive features, is 
avoided. 

(7). That the question is only a part of the wider social question, 
which involves the shortening of the hours of labor, the raising of 
wages and of the standard of education. 


VIII.-A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
THE HOUSING QUESTION. 


Bv SIDNEY WEBB, L.C.C. 

THE overcrowding and general insanitation of the dwellings of the 
poorer classes, together with the problem of re-housing, have been 
almost constant topics for discussion in England since about 1838. 
Similar problems have had to be considered during the past half 
century in France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and the United 
States. Any complete bibliography of the enormous number of 
publications on the subject in all its ramifications cannot be here 
attempted. The following list contains only the most important, 
more useful, or most accessible printed sources of information in the 
English language.

The best books for the beginner (after reading Fabian Tract 
No. 76, "Houses for the People": rd.) are Bowmaker's "Housingof the Working Classes" (London : ril9s) and the Report on the 
" Housing of the Working Classes, with a description of the Richmond 
Municipal Cottages," by Alderman W. Thompson; publishedby the Richmond, Surrey, Corporation, and sold by the Fabian 
Society at 2s. 6d. net, or by P. S. King and Son ; to be followed bythe Eighth Special Report-on the Housing of the People-of the 
United States Government Commissioner of Labor (Washington:
1895), which contains a comprehensive survey of the problem in the 
municipal European cities, and gives more facts than any other 
single work. 

I.-Legal. 

For Housing proper, the principal statute, applying throughoutthe United Kingdom, is 53 & 54 Viet. cap. 70, "The Housing of 
the Working Classes Act, I 89o," which consolidates all the previousActs (185r-r88s). The bulk of the law relating to dwellings for 
England and Wales is, however, to be found in the Public Health 
Acts, which are not the same in and out of London. For placesoutside London, the principal statute is 38 & 39 Viet. cap. 55, "The 
Public Health Act, 1875," as amended by 53 & 54 Viet. cap. 90, "The 
Public Health Acts Amendment Act, 1890"; for London, it is 54 & 55 
Viet. cap. 76, "The Public Health (London) Act, 1891," both of 
which consolidate most of the law prior to their respective dates. 
These Acts can be most usefully studied in annotated editions, givingalso the legal decisions on disputed points. The best and most 
elaborate of these editions (which include all aspects of Housinglaw) are Lumley's "The Public Health Acts," by Macmorran and 
Lushington, 5th edition, 2 vols. (67s. 6d.; Shaw. London: 1896); 
or Glen's "The Law Relating to Public Health and Local Government," 
I zth edition (London: 1899). For London, see Macmorran's 
" The Public Health (London) Act, r89r " (r8s.; Shaw. London: 


45 

1891). For the Housing Act alone, see W. C. Bernard and H. M. 
Brown's "The Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890" (6s.;
Butterworth. London: 1891); or C. E. Allan's "The Housing of 
the Working Classes Acts" (7s. 6d.; Butterworth. London: 1898).

The law relating to buildings is, as regards London, to be found 
in the great consolidating statute, 57 & 58 Viet., cap. 213, "The 
London Building Act, 1894." The "Bye-Laws of the London 
County Council in Operation" (King; No. 130) must also be consulted. 
Outside London, the building regulations are usually to be 
sought in the local bye-laws, of which the only existing collection is 
that of the British Library of Political Science. For their general 
scope see Knight's ''Annotated Model Bye-Laws of the Local 
Government Board," 5th edition (ros. 6d.; Knight. London: 1 897). 

l\1any large towns have also local Acts varying the general law, 
and these special clauses, usually ignored, are often full of suggestiveness 
to the reformer. 

H.-Authoritative Sources. 

As regards the past, the classic descriptions of fact are the Report 
on the Sanitary Condition of the Metropolis, published by the Poor 
Law Commissioners in 1839; the Report by the Poor Law Commissioners 
on the Sanitary Condition of the Laboring Population 
of Great Britain, 1842 (written by Sir Edwin Chadwick); the Reportand Evidence of the Royal Commission on the Health of Large 
Towns, 2 vols., I 844-5 ; the Report and Evidence of the Metropolitan 
Sanitary Commission, 1847-8; and the Report and Evidence 
of the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes, 
2 vols., r885. 

As regards London in particular, the best sources are the nine 
volumes of Mr. Charles Booth's "Life and Labor of the People in 
London,'' 2nd edition (67s. 6d.; Macmillan. London: 1892-7); the 
Annual Reports of the Medical Officer of Health of the London 
County Council (1892-1 898; average price 3s.) ; and, for particulardistricts, the special reports of that body upon the sanitary condition 
of Bethnal Green, Clerkenwell, Deptford, Eltham, Fulham, Holborn, 
Kensington, Lambeth, Mile End Old Town, St. Luke's, St. Saviour's, 
Southwark, and Whitechapel (1894-1899; zd. each). 

IlL-Statistics. 

The only general statistics of overcrowding in the United Kingdom 
are those given in the Census of 1891. Statistics for Scotland 
only are to be found in previous Censuses r86r, 1871 and r88r. All 
the statistics for London can be best found in the volume entitled 
"London Statistics," published yearly by the London County Council 
(1890-1 to 1897-8: King; ss.). They are analysed in Mr. Charles 
Booth's "Life and Labor of the People in London," 2nd edition, 
9 vols. (67s. 6d.; Macmillan. London: 1892-7). The Seventh and 
Eighth Special Reports of the United States Government Commissioner 
for Labor contain many statistics on Housing, relating to 
most of the principal European and American cities (1 894-5). 


IV.-Sanitation. 

For the history of Puhlic Sanitation in England, the best work 
is Sir John Simon's "English Sanitary Institutions" (London; 1890) 
-see also his "Public Health Reports," published by the SanitaryInstitute in 1887; the great "Treatise on Hygiene and Public 
Health," by Dr. Thomas Stevenson and Dr. Shirley Murphy, 3 vols. 
(8os.; Churchill. London: 18q2-4); and Palm berg and Newsholme's 
"Treatise on Public Health," describing the systems of various 
countries (London: 1893). See also, for special problems, Dr. G. V. 
Poore's "Rural Hygiene" (6s. 6d.; Longmans. London: 1893)
and Dr. B. A. Whitelegge's "Hygiene and Public Health" (London:
1899). Brief practical manuals are Taylor's "Sanitary Inspector'sHandbook" (ss.; Lewis. London: 1897), and Willoughby's" Health 
Officer's Pocket Book" (7s. 6d.; Lockwood. London: 1893). 

V.-Some Special Problems. 

(a) Back-to-Back Houses. 
For discussion of this type of dwelling, which still prevails in 
Leeds, see the "Report to the Local Government Board on Back-
to-Bad:. Houses," by Dr. Barry and Mr. P. Gordon Smith (London : 
1888), and the ''Reports on Back-to-Back Houses" made to the 
Manchester City Council in 1891 and 1892 by Dr. John Tatham. 
See also Stevenson and Murphy's " Treatise on Hygiene and Public 
Health" 3 vols. (8os.; Churchill. London: 1892-4). 

(b) Block Dwellzizgs. 
See "The Vital Statistics of Peabody Buildings and other 
Artizans' and Laborers' Block Dwellings," by Dr. A. Newsholme, 
in the Journal of the Royal Statzstzcal Socz'ety (1891), and the 
chapter by Miss Octavia Hill on "Blocks of Buildings," in Vol. III. 
of Mr. Charles Booth's "Life and Labor of the People in London," 
2nd edition (7s. 6d.; Macmillan. London: 1892). Elaborate descriptions 
and statistics as to block dwellings in most of the principal
cities of Europe are given in the Eighth Special Report of the 
United States Government Commissioner of Labor (1895). 

(c) Rural Depopulatz(m. 
The best authorities hereon are the articles in the Jounzal of the 
Royal Statzstzcal Socz'ety, by Dr. W. Ogle, on "The Alleged Depopulation 
of the Rural Districts of England'' (I 889) ; and byDr. G. B. Longstaff, L.C.C., on" Rural Depopulation" (1893). The 
influx into London is fully investigated by Mr. H. Llewellyn Smith 
in Vol. III. of Mr. Charles Booth's "Life and Labor of the Peoplein London," 2nd edition (7s. 6d.; Macmillan. London : 1892). 

(d) Teneme11t Houses. 
Much information on these is to be found in the "Report of the 
Tenement House Committee of the State of New York 11 (NewYork: 1895); and in the London County Council publication, 


47 

No. 352, "Report by Dr. Shirley Murphy as to the Operation of 
Bye-Laws dealing with Houses let in Lodgings" (4d.; King. London: 
I897). See also" Block Dwellings." 

(e) Workmen's Tra£ns. 
See four reports published by the London County Council on 
the service of workmen's trains in London, with comparative 
particulars for some foreign cities (No. 27 in 1892, o.p.; No. 89 in 
I893, 6d.; No. 365 in I897, sd.; No. 366 in I897, 3d.); and the 
pamphlet of the London Reform Union, entitled, "The London 
Reform Union and Workmen's Trains"; I899; Id. The law on 
the subject is to be found in "The Cheap Trains Act, I882," 
and the report of the cases decided by the Railway Commissioners 

in I899· 

VI.-General Books and Pamphlets, r88r-rgoo. 

(In chrono!ogzcal order.) 

I88r.-The Dwellings of the Poor: Report by the Dwellings Com


mittee of the Charity Organization Society.
1882.-The Dwellings of the Poor. C. S. Loch. Char. Org. Soc. 
1883. The Bitter Cry of Outcast London. Clarke. 


, How the Poor Live. G. R. Sims. Is. Chatto. 
, Horrible London. G. R. Sims. Is. Chatto. 
, Homes of the London Poor. Octavia Hill. Is. Macmillan. 

1884.-Where to House the London Poor. Prof. Alfred Marshall, 
Contemporary Rev£ew, Feb. I88+ 
The Re-housing of the Industrial Classes. Rev. H. Solly." 6d. Sonnenschein. 
The State and the Slums. E. S. Robertson. 2d. Liberty" and Property Defence League.
1886.-The Re-housing of the Poorer Classes of Central London. 
Westgarth Prize Essays. Iss. Bell. 
1890.-How the Other Half Lives. Jacob A. Riis. $2·50. Scribners 
(New York). 
I89r.-The Housing of the Poor. F. H. Millington. I04 pp. Is. 
Cassell. 
The Housing of the Working Classes. A. Ravalovich (in

" 

Mackay's ''A Plea for Liberty"). New edition, I892. 

2s. Murray.
I892.-The Housing of the Working Classes. (Eighty Club.) 38 pp. 
I 893.-The Dwellings of the Poor in Large Towns. T. Locke 

Worthington. I 64 pp. 2s. 6d. Sonnenschein. 
London Rookeries and Colliers' Slums: a plea for more

" 

breathing room. Robert Williams. 82 pp. ; illustrated. 
Is. Reeves. 
The Housing of the Poor in American Cities. Marcus T." Reynolds (American Economic Association). I 32 pp. 
4s. King. , Notes as to Existing Artizans' Dwellings. E.]. Corbett, 
Borough Engineer of Salford. 


1894.-Slums in Great Cities. Seventh Special Report of the Commissioner 
for Labor (United States Government Report 
on New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Baltimore).

More Light and Air for Londoners: the Effect of the New" Streets and Buildings Bill on the Health of the People.
Robert Williams. 54 pp.; illustrated. Is. Reeves. 
I895.-Parish Council Cottages. Fabian Tract No. 63. (Revised 
I898.)
Housing the People. Sir H. G. Reid. 69 pp. Is. A. Gard" 
ner (Paisley).
The Housing of the Working Classes. E. Bowmaker." r86 pp. 2s. 6d. Methuen. 
The Housing of the People. Eighth Special Report of the

" 

Commissioner for Labor (United States Government 
Report on the Housing Problem in Europe, by Dr. 

E. R. L. Gould).
I896.-Housing of the Laboring Classes. H. P. Boulnois. 72 pp.
Is. St. Bride's Press. 
I897.-Houses for the People. Fabian Tract No. 76. (Revised 1899.)
Life in West London. Arthur Sherwell. 2nd edition.
" 
214 pp. 2s. 6d. Methuen. 
London County Council. Report by Mr. Owen Fleming

" 

upon the History and Present Position of the Housing 
Question in Belgium. 3d. King. (No. 349). 
The Face of the Poor, or the Crowding of London's

" Laborers. Robert Williams. 20 pp. 2d. Reeves. 
I898.-The Housing Problem in the Rural Districts. F. Henderson. 
I899.-No Room to Live : Urban and Rural Districts. (Dazly

News Extra.) 6d. 
Unhealthy Areas and Municipal Housing. Thomas Blashill

" 

(late Superintending Architect, London County Council).
(Parkes Museum.)

The Housing of the Poor. R. Melville Beachcroft, L.C.C. " The Housing Problem in London. G. C. M. Knowles." London Reform Union. rd. 
, The Cottage Question. Land Law Reform Association. 
, English Country Cottages. Green (Rural World Office).

I900.-Houses for the Working Classes in Urban Districts. ThirtyPlans, etc., with Notes, etc. S. W. Cranfield and H. I. 
Potter. Bal ford, 94 High Holborn, London. Iss. net. 

The Housing Question. Alfred Smith. IS. Sonnenschein.

" 

Better Homes for the Workers, and How to Obtain Them.

" 

H. R. Aldridge. Land Nationalization Society Tract 8o. 
VII.-Municipal Action in Particular Towns and Districts. 

Elaborate particulars of municipal action in all towns, up to 
1894, are given in the Eighth Special Report of the United States 
Government Commissioners of Labor (Washington : I895); see 
also Dr. .Albert Shaw' "Municipal Government in Great Britain" 


49 

(London: Unwin, I895 ; 6s.); and F. Dolman's "Municipalities at 
Work" (London: Methuen, I895; 2s. 6d.). A convenient summary 
up to January, I899, giving details of collective action in fifteen 
municipalities, fifteen urban district councils, and four rural authorities, 
will be found in Fabian Tract No. 76, "Houses for the People."
The latest information is giyen in "The Municipal Year-Book" 
(London : annually, price 2s. 6d.).

The following references to Minutes and official documents giYe 
only some of those accessible at the British Library of Political 
Science (Io Adelphi Terrace, Strand, W.C.).

BARKING TowN.-Health Report, I898. 
BIRMI:\GHAI\I.-Council Minutes, I891 to 1896; Health Reports;
Water Reports. Facts for Birmingham: I. Housing; J. A. Fallows. 
(Birmingham: I899.)

BRISTOL.-Report of Committee on the Condition of the Bristol 
Poor (Bristol: I 884). H omes of the Bristol Poor, by Special Commissioner 
of Bnstol Mercury. I02 pp. 

CoLCHESTER.-Council Minutes 1897-8. 

DuBLIN.-Health Reports.

EDINBURGH.-'' How Edinburgh is Goyerned," by J . W. Gulland. 

(Nelson ; Is.) 

GLASGOW.-Report of Commis ion OI! the Housing of the Poor 

(Glasgow: I89I). I89 pp. Annual Reports of the Glasgow Im


provement Trustees; Council Minutes, I897-8. Bell, ]., and 

Paton, J., ''Glasgow : its Municipal Organization and Administra


tion." (Glasgow: Maclehose, 1896; 2Is.).

HunoERSFIELD.-Council Minutes, I897-8. 

HuLL.-Health Reports.

IxwoRTH.-" Account of instance of putting Part III. of the 

Act into operation," by F. D. Perrott. (Smethwick: I899 ; Is.). 

LEEDS.-" Leeds Slumdom" by D. B. Foster (Leeds : I897)


32 pp., illustrated. 

LEICESTER.-Council Minutes. 

LrxcoLN.-Council Minutes. 

LI\'ERPOOL--Council Minutes, r864-1898 ; Special Report on 

Artizans' Dwellings, I 896. 

LoxooN (see also precedz.llg sectzim).-Annual Reports of the 

London County Council (especially "Housing of the \Vorking 

Classes Committee" and "Public Health Committee")


London County Council Return (No. 356) of particulars of tht: 

Housing Operations of the Council (1897). 8d. King. 

For action by Vestries, etc. :


St. Luke's Health Reports; Annual Report, I89r. 

St. James', Westminster, Annual Reports.

St. Leonard, Shoreditch, Annual Reports. 

t. Mary, Lambeth, Special Report, 1900. 
St. Mary, Newington, Special Report, 1896. 
LOXGTOX.-Council 1inutes, 1897-8. 
MANCHESTER.-" Historical Record of some recent enterprises

of the l\lanche ter Corporation." (Manchester Corporation, 1896). 


so 


PLYMOUTH.-" Overcrowding in Plymouth " (series of articles 
reprinted from Westem Dazly Mercury). 28 pp. (Plymouth: 
r88o); Council Minutes, 1896-7. 

RICHMOND (Surrey).-" Housing of the Working Classes ; with 
a description of the Richmond Municipal Cottages," by Alderman 

W . Thompson. (London: King ; 1899; 2s. 6d.).
W oLVERHAMPTON.-Council Minutes. 
WREXHAM.-Council Minutes. 
VIII.-Bibliographies, etc. 

For references to other books and pamphlets, and to magazinearticles, see the elaborate " Bibliography of Municipal Affairs and 
City Conditions," published by the New York Reform Club as No. I 
of Municipal Affairs (London : P. S. King and Son; 1897, 233 pp.; 
zs. 6d.); and the Special Number of Mzmiczjal Affairs on the 
" Housing Problem in Cities" (March 1899 ; London: King, Is.); see 
also the very full list under "Habitations," pp. 693-701 of the ''Index 
Catalogue to the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office at Washington 
(1884)," which can be seen at the British Museum. 

The most useful single work of reference on the subject is " The 
Encyclopa:dia of Social Reform," edited by W . D. P. Bliss (New 
York: 1897). 

IX.-Annual Reports, etc. 

Many valuable papers are to be found in the Proceedings of the 
Seventh and Eighth International Congresses of Hygiene and 
Demography (London, 1891 ; Buda-Pesth, 1894); and in those of 
the First and Second International Congresses on the Housing of 
the W orking Classes (Brussels, 1897).

The following Annual Reports should also be consulted :


Peabody Donation Fund. 

Mansion House Council on the Dwellings of the Poor. 

Improved Industrial Dwellings Company.

Artizans', Laborers' and General Dwellings Company. 

East-End Dwellings Company. 

Tenant Co-operators' Society. 

English Land Restoration League (Red Van Campaign). 


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PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS, REPORTS, 
BOOKS (NEw AND Ow), BLUE BOOKS, 
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Inquiries Invited. Letters Receive Prompt Attention. 

ANY OF THE REPORTS OR PUBLICATIONS REFERRED TO IN THIS 
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PUBLISHEHS OF THE REPOHTS AND PUBLICATIONS OF THE 


London County Council. 

Poor Law Conferences. 

India Office and Government of 
India. 
International Railway Congress. 
China Imperial Maritime Customs. 
Massachusetts State Board of 

Health. 
Municipal Committee, New York. 

Chicago University : 
Economic Studies. 
Journal of Political Economy. 

Columbia University : 
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Pennsylvania University: 

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87. The same in Welsh. 42. Christian Socialism. By Rev. S.D. HEADLAM. 
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TRACTS.-g8. State Railways for Ireland. 88. The Growth of Monopolyin English Industry. By H. W. MACROSTY. 86. Municipal Drink Traffic. 

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70. Report on Fabian Policy and Resolutions presented to the Internat. 
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