Slum Clearance
IT is no bad thing, perhaps, even in the midst of an exposure of the slum horrors of Great Britain, to turn for a moment to the other side of the picture and consider what actually has been done in the way of clearance and rehousing.
There is no danger, unfortunately, of being able to give facts or figures which can reassure the public, or lull them into a complacent belief that the slum problem is being tackled on -anything like an adequate scale. But it is worth while to write of instances where some- thing has been done, even if only on a small scale, to show that this great nightmare of muddle and mismanagement will dissolve- when we open our eyes to the true facts and open our hearts and minds in a concerted effort to end the evil.
We are not dealiog with the great _ housing schemes that are being undertaken all over the country. As we have pointed out before, these housing schemes do little more than cope with the increase in the population, and therefore have no direct effect on clearance. But they do indirectly relieve congestion, and congestion is itself one of the more important factors that go to the making of a slum. Take half the families out of their miserable surroundings, and those that are left behind will very likely be able to raise the character of the place into something decent, while, if the houses can be reconditioned at the same time as the overcrowding is abolished, so much the better. Indeed it is on a comprehensive scheme of reconditioning that the best prospect for the immediate future rests.
One often hears the assurance that such a process is useless, that in fact it is the slum dwellers that make the slums and not vice versa, and that our unfortunates from the depth of our cities will quickly " beslum " new houses when they are given them. But the truth is that about six out of seven of those families who have been brought out of darkness into light at once make a success of life under their new surroundings. They cultivate their gardens, they keep their houses in order, and show that they were only waiting for the barest opportunity for decency in order to live ordered and comparatively hygienic lives. The sixth or the seventh householder is less successful. He fails either completely, or in some degree, varying from complete breakdown and consequent inability to keep the house, to a mere failure to keep the garden tidy. Propagandists on • both sides tend to ,exaggerate, but a proportion of five or six to one proves the correctness of our belief that human nature will react favourably to improved conditions.
The present writer can well recollect seeing some rehoused tenants from a Glasgow slum a day or so after they had moved to a block of new Council houses which had been put up about a mile from their old quarters. The new estate was a hive of activity. The visit was on a Saturday, and the men were at home and a large number were at work in the gardens, women were putting out their washing lines, outside fences and paths were being made. Inside the houses the women were still more actively at work. This scheme was, of course, merely an ordinary housing scheme which happened to be drawing, its tenants from a slum area. The slum, unfortunately, was not being demolished. It had to be preserved for other tenants, now not so desperately overcrowded.
.In our BoroughS -in London a certain amount of actual clearance _ILI-the-sense of demolition has been attempted. Bermondsey is a very well-known example. There is no available land for building in the whole. Borough; therefore _every area which is cleared must have new houses built on the actual site of the clearance, One site of just over, four acres has been cleared, and rebuilt with attractive and well-planned cottages, each having a large kitchen-living room, a parlour, three bedrooms, a bathroom and scullery, with a front and back garden. About 150. houses have been demolished, and about 100 new houses have been erected. The •new houses have been built at the low cost of £550 per house, which is £120 lower than the lowest outside tender. - Apart from the actual demolishing and rebuilding, the Council has reconditioned many insanitary houses. Again,• because no little part of the horror of the slums is created by the drab monotony of their endless and barren streets, some 10,000 trees have been planted by the Council. Churchyards, disused -burial grounds, and small waste places have been used for little public gardens, which haVe been planted and sown so- that a very great change is coming over the whole aspect of Bermondsey.
Battersea and Stepney Borough Councils have also made a beginning in shim clearance. -Battersea cleared the Plough Road area recently and Stepney -has cleared the infamous Limehouse Fields. These movements are admittedly but experimental steps, the use of which -is rather to demonstrate the feasibility of the task -and to gain experience in how it ought - to be tackled rather than to deal with large areas.
From Westminster there are encouraging reports and we can commend the generosity of -the Duke of West- minster (who feels his responsibilities keenly) for the move his representatives have made towards improving. the Grosvenor Estate. The scheme which the City Council proposes to develop with the help of the Duke is, indeed, a Reconstruction Scheme, and will not increase the housing accommodation -in Westminster. It is one of very great importance, however, because it is especially designed to do away with insanitary and overcrowded houses in the worst part of the recently flooded area and to erect on a part of the site modern up-to-date flats, in which, the Duke stipulates, the occupiers of the bad- houses shall be accommodated. Earlier in the year the City Council had approved another scheme which it is proposed to develop on a site of about 2i acres belonging to the Council. This scheme provides for the development of the site with shops- and offices on -the lower floors and working-class flats above. No details are at present available, but the Westminster City Council is to be congratulated on having taken a decisive step in its civic housing and to have responded to the awakened conscience of the ratepayers and the demand manifest during the past two or three years that the workers shall be decently housed. In arousing the public, the Westminster Housing ASsociation and group have done excellent work and we trust we shall hear no more of the City C,ouncil's late angry protests against " outside inter- ference." They have now taken a forward step in' consonance with public opinion, and there must be no turning back.
The chief housing authority for London is the' L.C.C., who are one of London's great landlords. To-daY they own over 27,000 houses, and have schernes under .way for building another. 14,500 hOrnes. These houses hold some 114,000 person's, that is, a population greater than that of Huddersfield or WolVerhampton, or of the whole Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone. The bulk of this building has, of course, dealt only with the growth in population. Since the War, however, the L.C.C. has done something towards slum clearance. In the years 1920-1925 it rehoused 2,184 persons, and during 1926- '1927 2,874 persons, all of wham had been displaced by various slum clearance schemes. All this goes to show that interesting and successful experiments have been made both by various Borough Councils and the L.C.C., but that is all. Clearance on a grand scale still awaits the rising- tide of public opinion, which will not tolerate the continuance of these plague spots and breeding- grounds for Communism in our midst. What has been done already should proVe useful when a really adequate slum clearance scheme is evolved.
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