LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
ARTISANS' DWELLINGS.
[To rat EDITOR. Mr THE BPECTATOR.1 your issue of the 4th inst., commenting on the recent speech of the Bishop of Manchester at the Social Science Congress, with reference to workmen's dwellings, you observe that "the cure of this evil [i.e., ill-constructed and unhealthy houses], which now prevails in all cities, seems impossible, unless Englishmen abandon their habit of living in separate houses. Good houses, twenty feet high, cannot be built of brick at the price which workmen can reasonably afford to pay, and as the cities grow, building tends always to become worse." Per- haps you will allow me to describe, as shortly as possible, a novel system of cottage-building, designed and executed by Mr. John Ellis, at Seacombe, Cheshire, which offers; to the working. man a well built, well ventilated, and convenient dwelling at a moderate rent, yet one which represents a handsome return on the outlay.
Mr. Ellis's cottages are built in detached hexagonal blocks, each house forming one segment of the hexagon, and having a separate entrance. A central shaft, containing flues for each house, secures economy of heat and fuel, and affords an equable temperature throughout the several rooms. Mr. Ellis utilises this centralisation of heat in providing an ingenious but simple method of ventilation, the continuous current of the main shaft carrying off the vitiated air, and making smoky rooms an im- possibility. Fresh, warmed air is admitted from a flue in the chimney-breast, which prevents draughts, as well as the smoke nuisance. The erections are two storeys high ; the ground-floor contains living room and scullery, the first and second floors each provide one large or two small bed-rooms. The shape of the rooms might be objected to, but this is in a great measure overcome by placing cupboards at the angles next to the fire- place or central shaft, so that the want of symmetry is hardly noticed.
Mr. Ellis has satisfactorily proved that by systematically arranging these blocks face to face, with a proper interval for front garden and roadway, he is able to economise building area, while providing more breathing-space to each house than can be offered by building a similar class of house in rows in the ordinary way. By dispensing with the obnoxious back- yard and passage, with their objectionable accompaniments of litter, dirt, and bad smells, extra room is gained in front for the garden. In construction, the expenses of numerous ohimney- stacks, lead flushings, and outside walls are greatly lessened. The drains are placed outside the buildings, thus preventing the escape of noxious effluvia into the house, while offering easy means of access for repairs. A double ash-pit and clbset is built as an excrescence at each angle of the hexagon.
To enter further into the advantages of this reform in cottage
building would be to trespass on your space. I merely add that among them may be counted a freer circulation of outside air, which must be purer, as the vitiated air escapes at a higher level than from the ordinary chimney ; more light and sunshine, a maximum of both being obtainable by the isolation of every six houses ; a saving in road-making, and in the space absorbed by roads and footpaths, thereby giving more garden accom- modation.
The economy effected by Mr. Ellis in the building of these dwellings has enabled him to devote more time, attention, and money to their careful construction, At a rent of 6s. per week, covering water and all other rates, the dock-labourer or common sailor of Liverpool and Birkenhead finds himself pro- vided with a clean, healthy, cheerful home. Mr. Ellis insists on the gardens being kept tidy, and he finds them a check on in- dividual slovenliness, the whole colony having a common inter- est in keeping the fronts clean and respectable, The houses are much sought after, being generally let before they are com- pleted. The appearance of a group of these cottages, sur- rounded by their neat gardens and asphalt roadways, though novel, is a decided improvement on the dismal monotony of the ordinary artisans' dwellings in our towns, and testifies to the thrift and prosperity which attend a successful attempt to im-
prove in a practical way the social and physical conditions of the working-classes.—I am, Sir, &o., A. G. L.
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