which of course the rent of the rooms must be added. When the House duly considers this state of things, it will, I hope, see how very important it is that Associations formed for these benevolent purposes should obtain sites at such reasonable prices as arbitrators would fix.
There is also another point in the experience of these philanthropic pioneers which is instructive; and that is that on the sites that are cleared, where people have been living in an over-crowded state and in great misery, these associations are able to house many more people than before, without any of the drawbacks of the former crowding. I have already stated that the population in Westminster numbers 235 to the acre. In the Farringdon Road Buildings the population will be about 1,600 to the acre, though nearly half the site is left uncovered for the purposes of recreation and ventilation. Whilst the Metropolitan Association will have provided for the unprecedented number of 1,600 people to the acre, several associations and companies are building blocks which will accommodate 1,000 to the acre.[1]
I ought also to mention the fact that there is a great demand for these buildings. People have sometimes said that the working classes do not care to go and live in this new kind of habitation; that they do not like to go upstairs and to live in flats.[2] On the contrary, I find that, as soon as one of these blocks is constructed, there is immediately a great demand for tenements. In the Farringdon Road Buildings for instance, although it will be four or five months before they will be completely ready for habitation, and although there will be accommodation for 253 families only, yet for this accommodation already no less than 275 applications have been received. And with respect to the Peabody Buildings the number of applications is still more largely in excess of the accommodation supplied, although that is no doubt partly due to the fact that in this case the tenements are let below their value.
There is another fact to which I must allude, and that is
- ↑ See Report of Lancet Sanitary Commission, &c. (App. II.)
- ↑ It must be remembered that in the poor places where they are now living over-crowded, they have often to live in single rooms on the second or third floor, or in attics, and the stairs are narrow and winding, almost always wooden, and often full of holes and quite dark. Up these stairs every pail of water must be carried from the yard, whereas in new blocks water is laid on to every floor. And though such a modern building may not be tenanted mainly by the poorest classes, they reap some benefit. When their miserable old homes are destroyed, they move into the houses vacated by the working people, who eagerly compete for rooms in the new block. Thus each class gets a step upwards. And this was what happened in Glasgow.
