Page:Dwellings of working-people in London.djvu/13

 disregard to order in arrangement, uniformity, or convenience. Every part of this most miserable abode is in a ruinous and dilapidated condition; the flooring of the rooms and staircases is worn into holes and broken away, the plaster is crumbling from the walls, the roofs let in the wind and rain, the drains are very defective, and the general aspect of the place is one of extreme wretchedness. The number of persons living in this house is 47.'

And let the House particularly observe what follows. Dr. Whitmore adds:—'My first impulse was to declare the houses unfit for human habitation, and, by means of a magistrate's order, to remove the inmates at once. A moment's reflection, however, convinced me that by adopting that course I should really accomplish no good object, inasmuch as the poor people, thus suddenly ejected, would be compelled to seek shelter in dwellings probably more crowded, and in an equally bad sanitary condition. The utmost amount of sanitary work the Vestry has power to enforce has of course been ordered, and when completed may be productive of some little benefit to the comfort and convenience of the poor tenants and their families, but no amount of work short of entire reconstruction can render it, in the proper acceptation of the word, a healthy dwelling.'

Now let me say, with respect to these poorest houses in London, that they fall under two heads—they are either improveable or they are unimproveable. The houses which fall under the following category may be considered past all improvement. First of all those which stand back to back, or in so confined a space as to be incapable of free ventilation; secondly, those old tumble-down houses which are not worth spending money upon; thirdly, those that are built of wood or of lath and plaster; and fourthly, such as are incapable of having proper sanitary arrangements provided for them, one for every family, or at least one for every two or three families.

Well, in what I have been describing to the House I have been describing large areas available as sites for building improved dwellings for the working classes; for all those great spaces which are now covered by those bad dwellings could shortly be made use of if they were cleared, and would be made use of, if Parliament said clearly that they should be used for proper habitations for the poor.

But there is another class of sites which exist in London, and in referring to them I shall appeal to the authority of my hon, friend the member for Maidstone (Sir Sydney