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The Slum Question: The London County Council and Decent Dwellings for the Working Classes, 1880–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

R. Vladimir Steffel
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Extract

The middle classes, seduced by the gospels of growth and of laissezfaire, abandoned the older areas of London to the artisans and laborers, to the thousands of migrants from rural England, Scotland, and Ireland, and to Jewish immigrants from Russia. By 1880 the middle classes in the suburbs were isolated from the working classes and ignorant of their poverty. Then “The Bitter Cry of Outcast London” by Andrew Mearns, the Pall Mall Gazette edited by W. T. Stead, and the writings of others exposing the squalor of the laboring classes led to a rediscovery of poverty. Many observers thought that charity would solve the problem, ome went slumming or joined the settlement movement begun at Toynbee Hall. Others, like Octavia Hill, were determined to improve the lives of the poor through the proper management and gradual upgrading of their living quarters. The philanthropic and semi-philanthropic dwellings companies such as the Peabody Trust, Guinness Trust, Improved Industrial Dwellings. East End Dwellings, and Four Percent Industrial Dwellings constructed new housing suitable for the working classes. All these efforts were limited because of the attitudes of the affluent classes toward the poor. Many believed that improvidence, intemperance, and licentiousness caused poverty and failed to realize that crowded living conditions and underemployment encouraged these vices. Beatrice Webb, who recognized this problem, wrote in her diary: “The Drink demon…undermines the constitution of a family.…There are times when one loses all faith in laisser faire [and] would suppress this poison at all hazards, before it eats the life of the nation.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , Winter 1973 , pp. 314 - 325
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1973

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References

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6 The foundations for improving the working class environment were the Nuisance Removal and Sanitary Acts, the Shaftesbury Acts, the Torrens Acts, and the Cross Acts. At first the Nuisance Removal and Sanitary Acts dealt with drainage, removal of wastes and garbage, offensive trades, and industrial air pollution; in 1855 premises injurious to health and in 1866 overcrowding were defined as nuisances. Specific housing legislation had been enacted in 1851 under Lord Shaftesbury's influence. The Laboring Classes Lodging Houses Act empowered local authorities to erect housing for the working classes, and the Common Lodging House Act provided for better management and inspection of common lodging houses. The Torrens Acts, 1868-82, were concerned with single or small groups of dwellings that were dangerous to health due to structural defects. Property owners could be required to alter structurally or demolish a dwelling which was dangerous to the health of its occupants. If owners refused to implement a magistrate's order then the local authority could do it at their expense. The Cross Acts, 1875-82, empowered local authorities to clear areas in need of rearrangement and reconstruction. The Torrens and Cross Acts were geared toward setting minimum structural standards and providing dwellings free from dampness and with sufficient natural light and ventiliation. Amendments empowered local authorities to erect working class housing.

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8 London County Council, The Housing Question in London, 1855-1900 (London, 1901), p. 19Google Scholar. (Hereafter the London County Council is cited as LCC.) Part I of the Housing of the Working Classes Act (1890) consolidated the Cross Acts (1875-82) and applied to large insanitary or slum areas; although reconstruction was mandatory it was assumed that private enterprise would purchase cleared sites. Part II consolidated the Torrens Acts (1868-82) and dealt with individual or small groups of insanitary or dangerous dwellings; reconstruction was at the discretion of local authorities. Part II incorporated the Shaftesbury Acts (1851-75) permitting the development of housing estates.

9 The Public Health (London) Act (1891) consolidated the sanitary and nuisance removal acts. When Parliament consolidated these acts for England in 1875 it had omitted London.

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12 Under the Public Health (London) Act (1891) one-half of the salaries of sanitary inspectors was payable by the Council, which was reimbursed by the Exchequer. LCC, Minutes of Proceedings, 1 Aug. 1893, p. 890Google ScholarPubMed; Public Health (London) Act, 1891, 54 & 55 Vict., ch. 56, sec. 108.

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15 LCC, Housing of the Working Classes Committee, Papers, 1901–1902Google Scholar, Case 39b, Charles Murdock, Home Office, 31 July 1902.

16 LCC, Housing of the Working Classes Committee, Minutes VII (3 Feb. 1904): 750.Google Scholar

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