Stepney-Two schemes under Part II were inaugurated by the late Limehouse Board of Works, the sites being practically cleared before the Council came into existence. The Queen Catherine Court scheme was sanctioned at the end of 1893. The number of persons displaced was 133. The area of the whole site is about 9,000 super. feet, and a block of dwellings ("Edward Mann Buildings ") has been erected on 6,000 super. feet, and the remainder of the site has been let These dwellings accommodate 128 persons. The Council has also purchased under the provisions of Part III of the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890, seven private houses adjoining the area in Dorset Street and Brunswick Place, which the Council let as workmen's dwellings. as a store. Westminster.-The Westminster City Council purchased a site from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, with a frontage to Regency Street of 305 feet, to Page Street of 175 feet, and to Vincent Street of 228 feet, containing a superficial area of nearly 1 acres. Three parallel blocks, known as Norfolk House, Probyn House, and Jessel House, have been built, six storeys in height, including half-basement and attic storeys. There are two roadways, or playgrounds, 40 feet wide between the blocks, at the ends of which arcading has been constructed to connect the buildings, so as to form continuous and artistic frontages. The buildings house about 1,600 persons, there being 793 rooms divided into 342 tenements. The rents include chimney sweeping and the free use of venetian blinds, baths and hot water supplies, and drying room. The cost of the land and buildings has been approximately £95,000, or about £5,000 less than the architects' original estimate, and the rents are adjusted to a scale that will, after providing for a sinking fund to repay the total outlay on the buildings in 60 years, and on the land in 80 years, give a net return on the expenditure of 3 per cent. per annum. The scheme is therefore self-supporting, ample provision having been made for all outgoings. The dwellings are occupied only by members of the working classes principally employed at limited wages, within the City of Westminster. The one, two, and three-room tenements are on the associated principle, but the four-roomed are self contained. The elevations are faced with red Leicester bricks, relieved with artificial stone dressings of a pale buff tint, while carved cement ornament has been introduced with good effect. The landings and staircases have dados of white tiles with borders of blue tiles in relief, and ornamental panelled balusters have been used instead of plain bars. Each living room has a dresser and shelves, a self-setting close range, with removable oven, a cupboard in two parts, ventilated at the top for food, and arranged as a coal bunker below. Each bedroom has a stove and a clothes cupboard. The windows have special arrangements for affording ventilation when closed, and there are ventilating fanlights over the doors of the tenements. Gas for lighting and cooking is supplied on the penny in the slot system. On every landing there are sinks and taps, besides a laundry fitted with boiler and washing trough, of which each tenant has the exclusive use for one day. There are nine bath rooms on the basement of Jessel House, free to tenants at separate times for males and females. Hot water can be obtained at all times, day and night, from taps on the areas, while in an urn room are copper kettles, from which boiling water will be served at breakfast and tea times. There are, in addition, workshops, a drying room, free of charge, and lock-up sheds for cycles and perambulators, at 2d. or id. per week. In July, 1906, there were opened the City of Westminster Dwellings, Marshall Street, Golden Square, W The building is five storeys in height, and has a total of 20 tenements, containing 50 rooms. The rents are higher than in Regency Street, owing to the increased value of the land. ROPEAT NC WESTMINSTER BLOCK DWELLINGS-REGENCY STREET. Rents, BATTERSEA COTTAGE FLATS-LATCHMERE ESTATE. DWELLINGS ERECTED BY METROPOLITAN BOROUGH d Housing Valuation. New dwellings built in the four years since the preparation of the tables in CHAPTER V. MUNICIPAL HOUSING IN THE PROVINCES. This chapter consists of two parts (1) Short alphabetical notes on various towns; (2) Fuller particulars as to Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, and Sheffield Cheap Municipal Cottages. Altrincham, Bangor, Excter, Guildford, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath, Prescot, Stretford and Sheffield are dealt with in Chapter VIII. I. SPECIAL NOTES AND GENERAL Aberavon.-A scheme prepared for 24 houses at 6s. per week, costing £165 each for building and £322 for the site, has been strongly opposed by various “interests." Bath.-Dolemeads Dwellings have been erected in a low-lying district on the river level. There are 42 houses erected on what was formerly a very unhealthy district, being subject to serious floods. occasionally. The site has, at a cost of about £8,000, been raised above flood level. The rents are collected weekly, no arrears being allowed, and although somewhat costly a vast improvement has been effected. The Council has approved of a further outlay of £8,000 in this district, upon similar dwellings and street widening. Barnes. "The houses are all tenanted and continue to be extremely popular. They involve no charge on the rates." (Report M.O.H.) Birkenhead. It is proposed to acquire 1,798 yards of land for £1,573, and pay £1,138 for a portion of this as a site for new municipal houses. Bradford.-A committee has been formed to work on the lines of Miss Octavia Hill. Sixty-six workmen's dwellings, as an instalment towards the provision of accommodation at a distance for the persons to be displaced from an insanitary area, have been built and occupied. The cost per house is: Land £28 11s. 6d., buildings £183 os. 6d., streets and sewers £28 8s., establishment charges £7 4s., or a total of £247 45. Building cost per foot cube 41d.; rents 5/6. Plans for tenements in the Longlands District are before the Local Government Board. The cottages have two floors and an attic. Brighton. Some of the cleared area was sold under a condition that working class dwellings should be erected. Thirty cottages and ten double teneinents have been thus provided by private enterprise. |