SLUM CLEARANCE [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] fi ne,—Your encouragement
of efforts towards Slum Clearance is now well known throughout the country and I note you propose returning to the subject after the General Election. In the meantime it may interest your readers to know of a venture being carried out in South Marylebone by private citizens who have formed themselves into a Public Utility Society under the name of the South Marylebone Housing Association Limited.
The Association started in a humble way, but no step was taken without expert advice being sought and followed with the following results :—(1) The site chosen is a true slum site, but an ideal one for development. It is freehold. (2) The tenants are very poor but the Estate Management is so good that out of £1,327 2s. 3d. taken in rents last year, only £7 8s. is owing. (3) The new flats are plain in style but excellently built and convenient in every way.
The Committee have worked with such energy and good will that since June last twelve flats have been completed ; six more are nearing completion and a further twelve are to be built this year. Every item of expenditure is most carefully considered and it can safely be said that no money is wasted. It is not possible at present to pay interest on the Ordinary £1 shares, but interest on the 2f per cent. Loan Stock is paid half yearly.
To realize the urgent necessity of Slum Clearance in Maryle- bone it is only necessary- to visit the property of the South Marylebone Housing Association and compare the wretched old hovels—where overcrowding is deplorable and vermin abound—with the comfort and cleanliness of the new flats, The work of the Association is in need of more money to be invested or lent and it can then go forward still more rapidly. Further particulars and last year's Report can be obtained from the Hon. Sec., Mrs. F. IL Davies, 4n, Langford Place; N.W. 8, who would also be delighted to show the property —old and new—to anyone interested in the venture.—I am,
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