The largest scheme which the Council undertook was that known as “the Boundary Street Area” in Bethnal Green. Here some fifteen acres of old, dilapidated, crowded dwellings—dwellings so insanitary that the death-rate in them was over 40 per 1,000—were swept away, entailing the displacement of 5,719 persons; and the ground so cleared was laid out with wider streets, and a large open space and excellent buildings were erected thereon to contain 5,524 persons without crowding. The Prince of Wales once more testified his deep interest in the welfare of the poorer classes of London by opening the new buildings—a ceremony which took place on the 3rd of March, 1900—and delivering an impressive speech.
A summary of the work accomplished by the Council up to this time showed that the Council had provided, or was engaged in providing, accommodation for 35,950 persons at a total outlay of close upon £2,000,000, an amount of building operations which, if conducted at one spot, would have resulted in the formation of a town of nearly 36,000 inhabitants.[176]
The cost of this work was enormously heavy, owing to the fact that the arbitrator could and did award commercial value for the land; but, as was pointed out by the Medical Officer of Health for the London County Council[177]:—
“The primary object of Part I. of the Act is not to provide artizans’ dwellings, but to secure the removal from the midst of the community of houses which are unfit for habitation, and the faults of which are in large degree due to bad arrangement. Where houses are thus situated, and are in a number of ownerships, rearrangement can only be carried out by vesting the property in one ownership, that of a public authority, who can then, by the making of new streets and by complete rearrangement of the area, ensure that the conditions which in future will exist are such as are needed for the health of the inhabitants. The chief value of the Act is, therefore, not so much the provision of house accommodation which is fit for habitation, as the abolition of houses which are dangerous to health. Part I. is not, therefore, in itself so much a Housing Act as an Act for the removal of nuisances on a large scale.”
But another reflection also suggests itself, namely, why should the ratepayers of London have been obliged to pay these high sums for property which, by the culpable neglect of the owners and their predecessors, had been allowed to sink into a condition not alone exceptionally dangerous to the lives of its inhabitants, but a constant danger to neighbouring districts—even to London itself. Surely in common fairness, those who had let it fall into such a state should have paid the penalty therefor, and not the public of London, who had had no part in bringing the property into such an evil condition.
Part II. of the Act was mostly a consolidation of Torrens’ Acts, 1868 and 1882, with amendments. It enabled the Vestries or District Boards to take proceedings before a magistrate for the clearing and demolition of single houses unfit for human habitation, and obstructive buildings, and empowered them and the County Council to undertake schemes for the improvement of areas too small to be dealt with by the Council.
The owner might elect to retain the site after the demolition of the building, and in that case received compensation for the building only. If the Vestry or District Board acquired the site the same procedure as to compensation had to be followed as under Part I.
A few schemes were undertaken by Vestries under this Part of the Act, the Council making a contribution to the cost, and a few by the Council. Thus in St. George-in-the-East, from November, 1890, to the end of 1894, 224 houses were “represented” as unfit for habitation—gruesome pictures of dirt, dilapidation, and insanitation of every form and variety, and this, too, after nearly forty years of sanitary work by the Vestry. Many were closed by order of the magistrate, some by the owner, some pulled down, some repaired and re-let.