3 SEPTEMBER 1943, Page 14

LIVING ROOM

Sus,—Mrs. Reilly need not be discouraged about the future. The spirit in which " Housing " is being approached today is very different from that obtaining in 1936 when the Westminster flats to which she objects were built. Indeed, in that very year, the Gas Light and Coke Company put up an estate in North Kensington which included nursery school and clubrooms, canteen and workshops, allotments and rhildren's play- grounds, flower balconies, drying oalconies, pram sheds and constant hot water for every home, at rents of 6s. 6d. and 7s. 6d. a week, excluding rates. The Guinness Trust, too, built a well-equipped family estate just before the war, and there are other experiments which will encourage her to optimism. Last, but not least, the London County Council's proposed plan for the redevelopment of London envisages the creation of neighbourhood units which will incorporate the many needs beside that of shelter, which used to be implicit in all estate development in Britain until the comparatively recent past. The pressure of a roused and informed public opinion, such as Mrs. Reilly's, will contribute to the success of this new and forward-looking policy.—Yours truly,

ELIZABETH DENBY.