Ughtred James Kay-Shuttleworth

“ Sir, if it should be the good fortune of the Government who now occupy those benches to legislate wisely on sanitary matters, especially as regards the habitations of the working classes in London, they will not only confer enduring benefit on the metropolis, but will surround their names with lustre and the history of their administration with credit. ”

“ During the last quarter of a century efforts have been made by several philanthropic societies, public companies, and private individuals to lessen the evils of overcrowding and to improve the dwellings of the labouring class. Much good has, no doubt, been done by these means, and the rents of working-men's houses would but for these efforts have risen much higher even than they have done. But these efforts do not reach the real evil. In very few cases have the building companies been able to purchase and remove the houses unfit for human habitation. ”

“ But beyond these instances where the dwelling would, I think, even now be deemed by common consent "unfit for human habitation," instances, varying in degree, are innumerable, where, in small closed courts, surrounded by high buildings, and approached by narrow and perhaps winding gangways, houses of the meanest sort stand, acre after acre of them, back to back, shut from all enjoyment of light and air, with nothing but privies and dustbins to look upon; and surely such can only be counted "fit for human habitation" while the standard of that humanity is low. ”

“ The Lands and Railways Clauses Acts provide that ample compensation in money or works, or both, shall be made to landowners whose interests are interfered with, but do not make adequate provision for protecting the poor, whose means of living may be seriously lessened by the exercise of the powers of those Acts, There is nothing inconsistent with the course of legislation for public works, that their undertakers should build as many houses as they pull down, just as they make a new piece of road where they block up the old road ”

“ I venture to say, without fear of contradiction, that if the labours of the ministers of religion are to produce the hoped for result, if the work of the schoolmasters and the school boards is to bring forth good fruit, the homes in which the working population in over-crowded cities are compelled to live must be improved. ”

“ Well, in what I have been describing to the House I have been describing large areas available as sites for building improved dwellings for the working classes; for all those great spaces which are now covered by those bad dwellings could shortly be made use of if they were cleared, and would be made use of, if Parliament said clearly that they should be used for proper habitations for the poor. ”

“ We, I fear, as a nation are too prone to consider our own civilisation as far in advance of the civilisation of other countries, and when we read of the indifference with which the lives of human beings are sacrificed among barbarous nations, of the ruthless manner in which infants are placed in the baby towers of the East, we are too apt to cry 'Thank God! we are not as wicked as other nations' ”

“ I do not purpose to take up the time of the House by dwelling upon the evils of over-crowding or drawing a picture of the wretched habitations in the narrow courts and alleys of our Metropolis, in which so many of our labouring population are compelled to reside. I say compelled to reside, because it is as important to the mechanic, the costermonger, and the huckster to reside near to the place of his employment and to the markets for his trade, as it is to the merchant, and perhaps more so, since the poor man cannot afford the daily cost of transit. ”

“ There are other houses which are built back to back, so that no air can pass between them. There are other houses which are, perhaps, even worse than these, because, though a very narrow space is left between their backs, this space is almost dark, and at its base is filled with everything that is filthy and abominable; consequently the air that enters these dwellings from the rear is anything but pure, and is constantly liable to be laden with the most offensive odours, and with the germs of disorder and disease. ”

“ But a large class who must take their work to their employers at various uncertain hours (I might mention the case of tailors, for instance) , and those who depend on having their mid-day meal with their families, and those whose wives or children earn money in town occupations, cannot go to dwellings in the suburbs. I may say parenthetically that it would be a misfortune in my estimation to have the large mass of working men toiling far from their homes all day while their families reside in the suburbs. Men would lead a working life quite distinct and apart from their home life. ”

“ The so-called 'slums' of London, though generally over-crowded, occupy vast spaces, on which the same or a larger population might be living without crowding or discomfort. The waste of space arises partly from want of arrangement, and partly from the too small height of most of the buildings—often only two stories, sometimes but one story, high. ”

“ It might be useful, as at Glasgow, to build some satisfactory common lodging-houses as models, and there can be little doubt that they would pay, as those at Glasgow give a return of ten per cent.
My proposal then is not to rebuild London out of the rates, but only to enable private enterprise to have scope for action; namely, to acquire at fair prices ground now inaccessible because of the protection given by law to powerless, indifferent, or unscrupulous owners or leaseholders. ”

“ And though I should not presume to sketch in detail a plan by which this course may be adopted, I think I need only point to one or two facts to show that we are, in some respects, in a better position than Glasgow for giving such compulsory powers. The first respect in which I think we stand in a better position is, that we have in our employment Medical Officers who are ready and competent to report, in accordance with the member for Finsbury's Act, that the houses to be removed are unfit for human habitation. ”

“ Sir, I need not again refer to the great dangers to the community at large from crime, from epidemic, from fire, arising out of the neglect of a great evil, nor to the far worse misery and degradation inflicted upon the poorest classes of the people by the existence of these wretched houses which, whilst they exist, are sure to be inhabited. ”

“ We cannot meet the necessities of the case by erecting dwellings in the suburbs in the stead of those demolished in the city. The suburbs of London are so much farther removed from the centre than those of other towns, that at least those people whose work is not at regular times cannot live in the suburbs and follow their occupations too. ”

“ That the other powers entrusted to the local authorities, and mainly exercised through the medical officers of health, such as the powers of enforcing cleanliness, repairs, ventilation, water supply, and the like, though of very great value in preventing buildings from falling into a bad state, are merely palliative in their application to houses the original construction of which was defective, and cannot be expected to bring about any such radical improvement in them as is required. ”

“ The Metropolitan Board of Works have frequently applied to the House, and have obtained compulsory powers to make new streets in order to facilitate the circulation of the pedestrian and vehicular traffic of the Metropolis, charging the cost on the ratepayers. If this charge is cheerfully borne, it can scarcely be doubted that an improvement calculated to ensure the better circulation of fresh air in the most crowded parts of our City, and the consequent reduction of the death and disease rate, could not be objected to. ”

“ That would be materially affected by obliging the working classes to any great extent to avail themselves of railways to travel to and from their work.
I say, therefore, the case of Glasgow is very different in that respect from London, where the centre of the town is so far distant from the suburbs. But there is this similarity, that there existed in Glasgow large districts where the buildings were overcrowded, where the sanitary arrangements were bad, which were perfect rookeries of crime, disease, and every kind of disorder, and which could only be got rid of by demolition. ”

“ That, in the opinion of your Memorialists, the evil can only be adequately dealt with by making it the duty of some public body possessing a wider sphere of action, and in a more independent position, than the local boards and vestries, and invested, when necessary, with powers of compulsory purchase, to initiate comprehensive improvements in the interest of the poorer classes, as has been done with good effect in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and other cities, and, in a somewhat different form, in Liverpool. ”

“ It will be necessary to meet the case of improveable buildings—of those dwellings which are not so bad as to require to be taken down, but which are packed so closely together as to be unwholesome. Much has been done towards improving this class of buildings, although there is often, I fear, a good deal of waste of money in improving dwellings which it would be better to take down altogether and rebuild. ”

“ We ought to deal with it ourselves. And not only ought we to know how many people are going to be displaced, but in passing such bills we ought to see clauses inserted, which would compel the companies to provide space for accommodating an equivalent number of people to the number removed.
But the evil does not arise solely from the conduct of the Railway Companies, and from the neglect of Parliament to require due provision of sites for dwellings in their private Bills. ”

“ Should it, however, appear on a closer examination of the subject that rather more than one penny in the pound was required to carry out the proposed improvements, I venture to think that no better time could be selected than the present, when Local Taxation is proposed to be so largely relieved by the Budget of the present Session. Passing away from the mere pecuniary view of the question, I could appeal to the House to support this motion upon higher and more forcible grounds. The people of this country are never tired of subscribing money for the religious education of the poor. ”

“ That private enterprise, whether in the form of building speculation or of philanthropic or semi-philanthropic effort, is unable to deal effectually with the evil, owing to the complicated and subdivided tenures under which most of the property in question is held. ”

“ I do not think that anything can be done with large numbers of the present buildings occupied either as the dwellings of families, or as lodging-houses, but to sweep them away and put up something better in their place. ”

“ If my right hon. friend would only bring the supply to the demand he would do a great and most useful work.
I am told by the secretaries of other societies and companies that their hands are tied behind them, that they are crippled for want of land. Well, then here we have this plentiful supply of sites, and this demand for sites, and the question is how to bring this demand to touch the supply. ”

“ Peabody acquired from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners at a fair price a large and convenient site, and they erected lofty buildings upon it. There was, however, a strip of miserable property held by several owners and overlooking the Trustees' land, which they took steps to acquire. This property contained a public-house. When the owners found out who wanted their property, they asked prices so outrageous that the Trustees, after considerable delay, were obliged to give up their proposal to purchase, and thus to a great extent neutralise the good they proposed to do. ”

“ If we take the average over a longer period, we find that, in the eight years ending 1872, the death-rate in the Metropolis was 24 in the thousand, against 16 in the thousand in the improved dwellings. The disease-rate has been calculated to be about double the death-rate, that is to say, for every person dying there are two persons afflicted with acute disease, preventing them from following their ordinary work. ”

“ There are now unsold several suitable sites in Westminster, one in Goswell Street, one in Whitechapel, one in City Road; land in Westminster little used belonging to Trustees who cannot sell without compulsory powers; land in Paddington kept in a useless state by an old man quite incapable of dealing with his property, and this land is in a situation much wanting help with clean houses; a property in Westminster consisting of two plots of land, both too small to be dealt with separately, but having some of the worst houses in Westminster between the plots. ”