R. G. Baker

“ And it is a melancholy fact, that while in some other parts of Fulham a considerable number of small houses have been built within the last few years, of a more substantial and commodious style, in order to meet the increasing wants of this portion of the inhabitants, better drained, better ventilated, and in some more healthy localities, they are gradually lapsing into the same state. ”

“ The Memorialists, therefore, desire to represent to the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers their earnest desire that they will, as soon as may be compatible with the other demands upon them in the fulfilment of their arduous office, direct their special inquiries and care to the parish of Fulham, and provide it with a complete system of Sewers, adequate to the wants of its large and continually increasing population. ”

“ That nearly the whole of the houses have no drainage whatever beyond that of cesspools, which in many of the districts occupied by the labouring classes, who are chiefly employed in the market gardens, are badly constructed, placed in situations closely contiguous to the dwellings, and wholly inadequate to provide for the large accumulation of dirt constantly formed and decomposing in such localities ”

“ While the impressions are yet vivid and authentic of the trial through which we have passed, let us endeavour, as far as we can, in the faithful discharge of our duty towards God and our neighbour, to turn to account, at our own doors, the experience which it has left us. ”

“ Meanwhile these Societies have solved one most important problem, which cannot too forcibly be urged upon us. They have shown, that without any appeals to the benevolence of the public, healthy and comfortable dwellings can be provided for the working classes of the community, upon reasonable rents, with a remuneration of higher interest for the investment than can be obtained in the Public Securities to those who may be induced to embark their money in such undertakings. ”

“ Even the essential whitewashing of the walls within is sometimes imposed as a burden upon the occupier, who of course does it in the most careless way, instead of its being undertaken by the landlord. ”

“ High rents, far beyond the means of the tenants, but sternly collected as each week comes round, can only be met by the vicious practice of subletting each room or fraction of a room which can by any sacrifice be dispensed with. ”

“ Such, I am confident, is the character of those at Fulham. Let it be remembered that every improvement of the worst built streets of London has a direct tendency to swell the number of these inhabitants of its suburbs. ”

“ The terms of the Charter do not restrict the operations of the Association to the metropolis; and the Directors have made arrangements for imparting the benefits, privileges, and immunities, granted by the Charter under this Association to Branch Societies, in districts wherein a sufficient number of shareholders shall be desirous of erecting improved dwellings for the industrious classes. ”

“ One tenant sets a bad example to the rest: and thus in the very districts where some hope had been encouraged for a time of better things, the same baneful system of crowding the houses with lodgers is spreading.
The history of these masses of ill-regulated dwellings is, alas! uniform and instructive. Some speculating builder or other, oftentimes unknown in the neighbourhood, and having no sympathy with the miseries which he inflicts upon it, becomes possessed of a narrow slip of land, the mere frontage of a road or p. ”

“ That during the prevalence of the recent epidemic, the mortality for nine successive weeks, ending on the 8th instant, exceeded fourfold the average mortality of the same season during the five preceding years, nearly one-half of the deaths being certified to the Registrar, by the p. 22medical practitioners who attended the cases, as having arisen from cholera, in many instances of the most malignant character, and nearly all in those districts where the drainage is most neglected, and among the poorest classes of the inhabitants ”

“ And surely, if we may rejoice in the reflection that an improved Workhouse, with all the watchful and p. 20humane administration which, we may hope, will characterise it, will provide for our orphan, or deserted, or disabled poor, deserted in their infancy, or disabled through the infirmities of old age; and that our various Alms-houses will secure a comfortable maintenance to many respectable individuals who have known better days, and have been brought, without any fault of their own, to need the helping hand of others ”

“ But since it has been proved, by the history of such a season as that through which we have been lately carried, to involve the actual considerations of life and death, some power will surely, ere long, be called forth to correct it. ”

“ And if it be true that they enjoy, some from the very nature of their occupations, and all from the position of their houses, a more free ventilation during the day than is attainable by the pent-up inhabitants of the narrow alleys and courts of the metropolis itself, yet is there not one among them who can have access to the improved dwellings, or to the baths and wash-houses, now in successful operation for the health and comfort even of the poorest classes, (though still upon a scale too limited to be extensively useful,) in the parishes of Whitechapel, St. ”

“ And it is one which not only affects most seriously their sanitary state, but impairs all the decency of their daily habits of life, and nearly defeats whatever means can be attempted for the improvement of their spiritual and moral character. ”

“ If ever such a measure is passed, it will afford a better scope than now exists for the operations of those useful schemes with which we have become familiar under the title of the “Labourers’ Friend Societies,” the “Societies for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes,” and the “Associations for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes.” Whenever any considerable number of the inmates of the present houses of the poor are compelled to quit them, there will then be a demand created, and at length, it may be hoped, a taste formed for others more conducive to their health, p. ”

“ They will thus enjoy near their own doors a constant supply of that pure drinking water, which, it is well known, may easily be obtained within a few feet of the surface, in almost every locality of this neighbourhood ”