HOUSING IN ST. PANCRAS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—As a regular reader of the Spectator for nearly twenty years, I should like to thank you for your appreciative refer- ences to the work of the St. Pancras House Improvement Society, with which I have been associated since its foundation.
May I therefore remind your readers that what it has done so far is merely a beginning ? The Society bought one site in 1925 and reconstructed it last year ; in 1926 it bought a much larger site, the reconstruction of which will begin this year, the plans having now passed the L.C.C. It has also recently purchased more property in the worst part of Somers Town, with a view to improving it by sympathetic manage- ment and saving it from exploitation. Its reconstruction must wait until the earlier part of the programme is completed, but unless bought by the Society it would have fallen into the hands of speculators, who only await the decontrol of rents to use such property for factory construction. The congestion in this area would thus be doubly increased, by the eviction of many families whose work ties them to this vicinity, and by a further influx of fresh factory workers. The 250,000 the Society has already raised is only enough for the purchase of its three sites and the reconstruction of the first. For the reconstruction of the second site and for paying off a mortgage on the third, almost as much will be required again. Although it only deals with a part of one particular area, it is one of those schemes of private enterprise which have always had a special appeal for readers of the Spectator, many of whom, no doubt, are already shareholders. But many more are wanted. Applications for any number of £1 shares, from one to two hundred, will be welcome, and should be made to the Hon. F. S. Hubbard, 1 Oakley Square, N.W. 1, who will gladly give any further information.—I am, Sir, &c., R. L. ATKINSON.
Portesbcry Hill, Camberley, Surrey.
[We thoroughly recommend the work of the St. Pancras House Improvement Society. Those of our readers who take up shares have the satisfaction of knowing they are helping an admirably managed institution which is working in one of London's worst plague spots.—En. Spectator.]
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