The Building Act of 1855 was very far from being an effective prevention of such devices as these. It required a notice to be given to the Vestry before any new building was commenced, and a plan to be submitted for approval showing the proposed drainage and the levels of the building; but this requirement appears to have been by no means universally complied with, and some local authorities had great difficulty in getting notices of new buildings commenced within the district. And its restrictions were not sufficient to prevent the speculative builder in places from raising his block of houses in the fields with neither road or sewer for their accommodation, and with the frequent result of fever-stricken tenants.
With the increasing knowledge of their districts gained by the numerous Medical Officers of Health distributed over the whole metropolis, the widespread prevalence of overcrowding in London, and the virulent evils, physical, social, and moral, consequent thereon, come into greater prominence and more vivid light than ever before.
Throughout the central parts of London the process of demolition of houses of all sorts and sizes, inhabited by the well-to-do or by the poorest, was continuing. The street improvements which were being carried out in some places entailed extensive demolitions; whilst the construction of railways and the erection of large stations necessitated the destruction of hundreds of others, mostly those inhabited by poorer persons. Thus, in the improvements in the Holborn Valley, 348 houses, accommodating 1,044 families and 4,176 persons, were taken down and not replaced. And in St. Pancras, and many other districts, the dwellings of the poor were constantly being removed by railway expansion.
The subject of the displacement of labourers in consequence of great public works in the metropolis was brought before the House of Lords in 1861 by Lord Derby.[83]
“It affects,” he said, “in the most vital manner the interests of a large portion of the population who are utterly unable to protect themselves against legislation, however unfavourably it may bear upon them.
“In the metropolis and its suburbs sixty to seventy miles of new line (railway) are proposed—a great portion of these passing through the most crowded streets.”
He described specially the parish of St. Bartholomew’s, in Cripplegate, with a population of about 5,000 inhabiting 500 houses.
“Throughout it, there are not ten families who occupy a house to themselves, although the bulk of the houses contain only three rooms. The incumbent tells me the aristocracy of his parish consists of families who are able to indulge in the luxury of two rooms. But the greater number have one room, and one only, and this is sometimes divided between more than one family.
“Half of these houses are under notice for the railway.”