Full text of "Housing conditions in Manchester & Salford; a report prepared for the Citizens' Association for the improvement of the unwholesome dwellings and surroundings of the people, with the aid of the Executive Committee"

CHESTER & SALP

OF MANCHESTER. 190A

JWAP

jHOWING j<OUSING GOlMpiTIONS IN MANCHESTER & SALfORD^

Housing Conditions

MANCHESTER & SALFORD

A Report prepared for the Citizens Association for
the Iniproveuient of the Univholesonie Dwellings
and Snrronndings of the People, with the aid of
the Executive Couiiuittee

T. R. MARR

Secretary of tJie Citizens^ Association

MANCHESTER

SHERRATT AND HUGHES

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

1904

PREFACE.

IVe ask those who read the following pages to consider carefully
what is there set forth. We have studiously avoided exaggeration
in our descriptions of existing evils, and we have stated, with a
quietness befitting the depth of our convictions, the reforms which we
consider to be ncedfid. We hope that many men and women will be
touched by the appeal which we make for those zvho live under less,
favourable conditions than themselves. To such persons the
Citizens' Association offers the opportunity of trying to remove the
evils indicated in this Report. Help, given in the form of money,
of personal service, or simply in encouragement, will be welcomed-
The A ssociation is only at the beginning of its work. Having shown
that grave evils exist, it inte7ids to work till those evils have been
removed or greatly mitigated. Doubtless as time passes fresh fields
of enquiry and of action will open to it, and fresh suggestions as to
ivays of making life in AlancJiester and Salford healthier and
happier will be made and considered. If success is to be attained,
the membership of the Association must be greatly increased.

Readers of the Report must remember that, although many
districts in a great city have a well marked general character, in
each such district there are houses wliich are of an exceptional kind.
The map which we give as a frontispiece does not attempt to do
more than indicate the general character of areas. Every house in
an area of one colour does not anszuer to the description given to
that colour ; it is enough that most of the houses answer to
the description. It must be noted that the colour assigned to
'' Warehouses, Offices'' etc., is also used for Public Buildings such
as the Assize Courts and Workhouses.

Much kind assistance has been given us while we have been
preparing this volume, to the givers of which we desire to express
our cordial thanks. JVe zvish especially to acknowledge the help
given us by Mr. f. R. Corbett, M.A., Surveyor, in preparing the
map and iti providing us witJi illustrations.

2219078

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page.

Preface

Chax>. I. Summary of results of enquiry and of recommenda-
tions of the Citizens' Association 3

Chap. II. General Account of Conditions in Manchester and
Salford.
Situation ; History and Industries ; Population and

Health; Poverty; Intemperance 10

Cha}). III. Unwholesome Conditions Considered.

Overcrowding ; Structural Defects — the Kind of
Dwelling ; Dampness and Coldness ; Darkness of
Rooms; Water Supply; Sanitary Conveniences;
Insufficient Air Space; A Note on Streets 28

Chap. IV. Districts described in Detail.

In Anooats ; in St. John's Ward ; in St. Michael's
Ward ; in Ardwick ; in Hulme ; in Chorlton-on-
Medlock; in Salford 53

Chap. V. Town Councils, Tenants and House Owners.

The Powers and Duties of Town Councils in regard to
Housing ; Tenants and their Duties ; the Rights
and Responsibilities of House Owners 70

Chap. VI. The Provision of Wholesome Houses.

(fit) By Private Enterprise; (6) by Municipal Enterprise

Transit Provisions and Building Conditions

Chap. VII. Legislative Needs

Chap. VIII. Educational and Religious Influences

Appendix A. Investigator's Schedule

„ B. Officers, Constitution and Prospectus of the
Citizens' Association

„ C. A brief list of Books on the Housing Question.
Index

101

106

108
113

115

" Of all the great social problems of modern times incident to the
growth of cities, none is claiming public attention in a greater
degree than that of the housing of the working people. Mere
housing, however, that is, merely shelter, does not solve this problem.
It only aggravates it by herding men and women together under
conditions which inevitably tend to produce disease and crime. It
is only by providing homes for the working people, that is, by
providing for them not only shelter, but shelter of such kind as to
protect life and health and to make family life jiossihle, free from
surroimdings which tend to immorality, that the evils of crowded
city life can be mitigated and overcome. Nor does it concern only
the working classes who are to be sheltered. It is of vital moment
to all the inhabitants of every city, and particularly to those of
every city governed by democratic rule. Homes are quite as much
needed to make good citizens as to make good men. According as
the working people are provided with better or poore-r homes will
the government, morals and health of a city be better or worse." —
Report of the Tenement House Commission, Neiv York.

" Moreover, modern civilization not merely draws the mass of
workers from a fixed habitation upon the soil, with those attachments
of place which have helped so much to build the character of great
nations; it has not planted them firmly in city life. Vast numbers
-are fated to a life of wandering over the face of a great city, driven
hither and thither by the shifting tide of emplopnents and
substituting for the constant Home a narrow temporary Shelter.
The material structure of sound family life is thus grievously
impaired ; the economic power of landlordism, in narrowing the
shelter of the workers, plays into the hands of the publican, whose
premises form a natural, almost a necessary, annex of the worker's
home for the husband and father, as the slum-street is for the
children." — TJie Social Problem, by John A. Hobson.

Housing Conditions in Manchester and

Salford.

CHAPTER I.

/^"^EETAIN facts as to the unwholesome aud degrading
surroundings amid which some of our fellow citizens live
are recorded in the following pages. We believe that many
people in Manchester and Salford must be ignorant of the facts,
since such conditions are allowed to exist. The reports prepared
yearly by the Medical Officers of Health tell the same story, but
unfortunately few people read those reports and still fewer
realise their significance.

Year by year it is shown in the reports that in some districts
the death-rate, especially for young children, is much above the
average for the whole town. This is sure evidence that the
conditions of life in these districts are unsatisfactory. There
are two factors in the production of a high death-rate to which
we would draw especial attention, 'poverty, and umvholesoine
houses and surroundings. Other things doubtless contribute to
make life in these districts poorer in length of days and in
achievement than in more favoured places. Chief among these
other factors stand drunkenness, thriftlessness and betting, all
due to lack of character and purpose in life.

It has not lain within the scope of our present work to tiy
to ascertain the amount of poverty in the towns. The recent
enquiries of Mr. Rowntree and of Mr. Booth have given results
which we believe can safely be applied to Manchester and
Salford (p. 24). We estimate that upwards of 212,000 persons
are in a state of poverty, and of these more than 75,000 are in a
state of severe poverty (Mr. Rowntree's " primary " poverty).

Our immediate task has been to collect materials which
would enable us to describe the houses and surroundings of the
people where the conditions are not good. A systematic survey
has been made of a few areas, chosen because we had reason to

4 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

believe the conditions there Avere bad, though not the worst that
could be found. In these areas, described in Chap. IT., we
found many families living under conditions which make decent
life well-nigh impossible. We have endeavoured to avoid
highly-coloured pictures of life in the slums, and to put before
the citizens of Manchester and Salford the bare facts. We may
here summarise these facts : — -

(a) Many houses, at present occupied, are unwholesome
because they have been badly built or are in need of repair.
Such houses are frequently damp and cold. Many of them are
old and dirty.

(&) Many back-to-back houses (which most sanitary authori-
ties say are unwholesome) still exist and are occupied.

(c) Scores of houses are without a separate water supply.
This certainly tends to discourage cleanliness, and to lower the
standard of health.

(d) In scores of cases a house has a closet shared by from
two to eight houses. In many instances the closets are badly
kept, and they are often so placed as to oifend all sense of
decency.

(e) The rooms of many houses are too dark for healthy life.
This in some places results from overshadowing by high
buildings and walls ; but more frequently from the narrowness
of the street.

(/) From similar causes many houses do not get sufficient
air.

{g) Many houses have too many people living in them for
the size and number of the rooms.

{h) Whole districts have more houses to the acre than is
consistent with health, and no district has enough open spaces
and playgrounds.

(i) The rents paid for the houses where the conditions are
unwholesome are, on the average, very little lower than those
paid for good houses in other parts of the town.

Faced with these facts, we have to urge : —

(1) That a comprehensive housing policy be formed for the
whole }fanchcster-Salford area, including the suburban and

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 5

intermediate districts as well as tliose in the centre. Until suck
a policy is adopted we cannot hope for a solution of our
diflS-Culties. At present, while houses in the poorer districts are
being closed, new residential districts are arising which, for
lack of a real policy, will before many years be little better than
slums. A comprehensive policy, as we understand it, would
provide not only for the demolition of unwholesome dwellings
and the statutory obligation to re-house the occupants, but
would also definitely provide for the growth of the towns,
planning roads, streets and open spaces for the new districts
long before they are actually required for building.

The authorities of many German towns have plans prepared
showing how new districts must be laid out, and in this way
are able to ensure that the surroundings of the dwellings shall
be wholesome. (See p. 89). t We might well imitate this
procedure. New building bye-laws are needed, and the
provision of these also forms part of a real housing policy.

(2) That the admirable work of the Sanitary Departments
needs extension. More inspectors are required. Dr. Niven has
suggested the need for a house-to-house investigation of one of
the Sanitary Districts of Manchester. We are convinced that
the authorities ought to undertake such an investigation con-
tinuously for the whole of Manchester and Salford, for the
prevention of bad conditions rather than their cure when they
have arisen. In all towns, small as well as large, experience
has proved that only by a system of careful supervision
continuously exercised by competent inspectors, is it possible to
maintain the conditions essential for health.

(3) That the Town Councils should use more fully the
powers they possess under the Housing of the Working Classes
Acts of 1890 and 1900,* and erect in many different parts of the
towns and of the country contiguous to the towns, groups of
working-class dwellings, exemplary in respect of size and
arrangement of rooms and of offices, and of pleasantness of
exterior, and provided with adequate yard space and with small
gardens. The objects of this work, which should be self-

t See, also, Supplementary Volume : " The Example of Germany."
* See, also, the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1903.

6 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

supporting, should be (a) to provide part of the supply of
wholesome dwellings needed by the towns, (h) to raise the
working-man's ideal of a dwelling, and (c) to set a higher
standard for those who are building or may build workmen's
dwellings.

(4) That, as the task of supplying the whole number of
potentially wholesome houses needed by the two towns is far
beyond their power, the Town Councils should in all possible
ways stimulate and help the community to fulfil that large part
of the task which they cannot imdertake, seeking if necessary
fresh powers from Parliament to enable them to give the
requisite stimulus and help. In addition to professional
builders, who will probably always be the chief suppliers of
houses, well-to-do persons desirous of promoting the public
welfare and building societies may be expected, under favour-
able conditions, to provide a large number of dwellings.

As no house, however roomy, well-arranged and well-built,
can be a wholesome dwelling if it have not wholesome
surroundings, and as no private person can ensure that houses
built by him shall have near them the wide streets, the open
spaces, the vegetation, which are essential parts of wholesome
environment, well-to-do citizens at present may well be
prevented from building workmen's dwellings by the fear that
any houses erected by them would be rendered unwholesome by
the failure of the Town Councils to provide them with whole-
some environment. For the purpose of ensuring that all
buildings shall have wholesome environment, and of thiis
offering inducements to well-to-do philanthropic persons to take
part in the task of providing houses for the working classes, it is
necessaiy that Town Councils shall possess and use the power
of making for all land still unbuilt on, in and near the towns,,
plans which must be strictly complied with by all who build on.
the land. These plans should indicate the position of all new
streets, and should provide that the principal streets shall be
wide and tree-planted, and that there shall be an ample amount
of playground and other kinds of open space within easy reach
of every group of houses.

If co-operative building societies, bound to provide their

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 7

members witli wholesome houses at rents bearing a fixed
relation to the cost of the houses, could easily be formed,
probably many working people desirous of living in wholesome
houses and of feeling assured that their rents would not be
raised, would become members of them. The chief obstacle to
the formation of such societies is the difficulty of obtaining
capital at low rates of interest. It is desirable that here, as in
some other countries, Town Councils shall have the power to
obtain for building societies, whose objects and rules have their
approval, and at low rates of interest, advances from public
funds, savings-banks and insurance companies, sufficient to
defray almost the whole cost of building.

(5)* That, as the land question lies at the root of the housing
difficulty, the Town Councils should acquire as much land as
possible, and that all land once obtained by a town should, as
a rule, be held in perpetuity, sites for hoiises and other
buildings being let for terms of years, and not sold, thus
ensuring that the towns shall benefit by the unearned increment
of value.

(6)* That Town Councils should have the power, which is
possessed and used by many German towns, to levy a rate on
unoccupied land within their areas, and that the declared value
for rating purposes to be the purchase price if the town requires
to buy the land. The exercise of this rating power has two good
effects — it prevents, or tends to prevent, the owners of land in or
near towns from leaving it unbuilt on until the " unearned incre-
ment " of value reaches a very large amount and thus, by bringing
land into the market earlier than it would otherwise be brought,
it tends to keep down the price of land. Similarly it prevents the
owne'rs of unwholesome dwellings from allowing them to stand
empty and forces them to either repair, replace, or sell the
dwellings. It also provides a considerable sum annually which

* Professor Chapman, a member of the Committ€e, is unable to subscribe to
the recommendation that unoccupied land should be rated, on the ground that
he is not certain (a) as to the practicability of a suitable scheme, and (b) as to
the effects and whether they would be desirable; and without considering
further evidence and investigating the matter more fully, he is not prepared
to endorse Recommendation 5 or its contrary.

8 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

can be used for the reduction of other rates. It is found that
the adoption of this system of rating, by establishing a trust-
worthy criterion of value, greatly reduces the number of appeals
against assessments for rates.

(7) That both our Town Councils and private builders in the
district should strive to attain in their building schemes — in the
general laying out of the sites as well as in the construction of
the houses — the admirable conditions obtaining in Bournville,
Port Sunlight, and other places which we have briefly described
(Chap. VI.). We have also described briefly the plan of adapt-
ing old property which is still in good condition to the needs
of the working classes. In Manchester work of this kind might
be done with much of the property in Chorlton-on-Medlock and
the neighbouring districts.

Our main purpose in including descriptions of housing
schemes adopted in other places has been to stimulate the
development of a comprehensive scheme for the improvement
of dwellings and their environment which all citizens may be
glad to help in carrying out.

(8) That our Town Councils should seek powers to enable
them to appoint Commissions, including not only members
of the Councils but other interested citizens, to consider the
needs of the locality and to make recommendations to the
Councils. A useful precedent has been afforded by the appoint-
ment of a Housing Commission in Glasgow, which has received
evidence on all sides of the question.

(9) That, in view of the difficulties which beset our Town
Councils, it is very desirable that the powers of such bodies
should be greatly extended, especially with regard to buying
land. We recognise, however, that it is useless to seek further
powers until fuller use is made of the powers which the Councils
already possess, and that it is, therefore, of the utmost import-
ance to see that the persons sent to the Councils are prepared
to make use of these powers. We believe that the growing com-
plexity of modern municipal work makes it essential to have on
the local administrative bodies a larger proportion of experts
in the various departments, some of whom should be elected for
periods of many years, should give their whole time to the work

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 9

of the municipality and be adequately paid to do so. The system
by which German towns obtain in their Town Councils a very
effective combination of paid experts elected for long periods and
of unpaid citizens elected for shorter periods of time is described
in the Supplementary Volume. It deserves notice that
of 23 persons who answered the question " Ought Mayors and the
Chairmen of Committees of Town Councils to be appointed for
long periods of time, and be paid salaries to enable them to give
all their working time to the services of the community?"
which was asked by the Association recently, 18 answered
affirmatively, 1 ambiguously, and only 4 negatively.

What can be done at once is to see that the best possible
men are sent to the Council Chambers to transact the work of the
community. This rests ultimately, of course, with the citizens
at large, and therefore in considerable degree with ministers of
religion and others who can influence the opinions of their fellow
citizens. Every possible effort should be made to dissociate
elections to municipal office from political party organisation,
and to put the interests of the whole community in the first
place. We urge on every citizen that it is his duty to be
conversant with the doings of the Town Councils and to weigh
with the greatest care the qualifications of those who seek to
represent him on those bodies.

To sum up. We see in our towns to-day many evils. Poor
physique, impaired health, and premature senility; drunken-
ness, sexual immorality and other vice ; betting and thrift-
lessness; decay of family life and lack of civic spirit; these are
all too common. We find, too, poverty, houses unwholesome
from many causes, lack of provision of open spaces and other
means for healthy recreation, narrow and gloomy streets, an
excessive amount of coal smoke, and a superabundance of
public-houses. Endless discussion takes place among those
interested in social reform as to which group of evils is cause,
which effect. The truth seems to be that we have a vicious
circle and that they are all both cause and effect. It is
therefore necessary that all who are engaged in social work, all
who are members of religious organisations, should join forces
and at any sacrifice promote all measures for the welfare of the
community.

10 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

CHAPTER II.
General Account of Conditions in Manchester and Salford.

Manchester and Salford are built upon a flat or slightly
undulating stretcli of ground, drained by the River Irwell. The
Irwell receives within the city boundaries the waters of two
tributary streams, the Medlock and the Irk.

The rivers in early times probably were of considerable value
to the manufacturing interests of the towns, but now they are so
polluted that they are a source of anxiety to those charged with
the care of the public health.

The heights which are within easy reach of Manchester on
all sides, save the west and south-west, are composed of lower
coal measure or millstone-grit rocks. These high tablelands
catch the moisture-laden clouds from the Atlantic, which are
there condensed. Between the towns and the high lands comes
the rich coalfield of South Lancashire, to which in large measure
the prosperity of Manchester is due.

The area on which Manchester and Salford are actually built
is covered by thick deposits of drift (boulder clay, sands and
gravel), due to glacial action in a remote period. The clay has
been worked to a large extent to provide the bricks with which
the town has been bviilt, and brickfields are still worked in the
north of Manchester. In the northern district, where the
ground gets higher, there is some sandstone quarrying.

The atmosphere of Manchester and Salford is exceedingly
moist, owing to its situation in the track of the wet south-west
winds.

History and Industries.

The growth of Manchester and Salford has been
exceedingly rapid in the last century. Although the towns
are of great a^e, they were relatively unimportant till the end
of the eighteenth century, when the revolution in the methods
of manufacturing textiles, especially cotton goods, caused the

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 11

concentration of the great urban population now resident in
the district.

During the nineteenth century the towns have spread rapidly
over a considerable area, absorbing the smaller villages and
townships which formerly lay just outside their boundaries. The
rapid growth of the cotton industry and of other industries,
such as engineering and chemical manufactures at first
subsidiary to the cotton, and the concentration of the cotton
" trade " in Manchester, have led to the sweeping away of many
traces of the picturesque mediseval town which centred round
the Cathedral. But bits of the old town are still to be seen,
and in passing from the centre to the suburbs one may read in
the buildings the history of the town. It is important to notice
this history, as only in this way can we understand the origin
of many of our present difficulties.

This history may be read in the buildings passed in journey-
ing in almost any direction from the Cathedral to the outskirts
of the town. We shall describe one such line. Starting from
the old Jacobean houses near the Cathedral, belonging to a time
when town and country were not so remote from each other
as they are to-day, and passing through Angel Meadow to
Rochdale Road, we may see some few eighteenth century houses.
These may be known by their pillared porticoes. To-day they
are in most cases given over to offices and workshops, though
occasionally used as lodging-houses. Beyond we come to a
district which marks the first period of expansion early in the
nineteenth century, when houses, small and unwholesome and
ill-supplied with sanitary requirements, were built near the
factories and mills. There are our slums of the present time.
Occasionally we find amongst such houses good older buildings
which tell of a suburban or country house whose garden has
been built over.

Still moving towards the outskirts of the town we pass
through streets where the houses are mean, and seem on the
down grade in many cases, but are supplied with sanitary
conveniences and small yards. This records the beginning of
modern municipal life when some care was taken to ensure that
the houses reached a certain standard, though to our ideas a low

12 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

one. Lastly, we reacli the suburban area, where the houses are
built according to modern bye-laws. They are better built and
are well supplied with sanitary appliances, but the streets are
monotonous to a degree. Houses of this description are, of
course, not confined to the suburbs, but occur among the more
recent houses in all parts of the town. In the suburban district
proper we find houses which have gardens. This marks the
districts to which the relatively well-to-do members of the
community escape.

The accompanying plan of Manchester and Salford which
we have prepared shows clearly the distribution of the industrial
and residential areas. It will be seen that an irregular octopus-
like figure covers the towns with arms reaching beyond the
suburbs. The body part covers the central district surrounding
Manchester Town Hall, which is given over almost entirely to
shops, offices, warehouses, etc., and has a very small resident
population. The arms represent the lines of communication
and of transport which join the Manchester district to other
places, i.e., the railway lines and the canals. It will be seen
that alongside these the industries and workshops are gathered
and that the residential districts lie between the arms. Near
the centre where the space between the arms is least, the
residential population is most crowded, and only towards the
outside of the town do we find frequent open spaces.

The industries of the towns may be roughly grouped in two
classes (a) the staple industries (as the manufactures of cotton,
machinery, chemicals, etc., and (6) the minor industries. The
differentiating factor in the two groups is the destination of the
products. In the group of staple industries, the production is
mainly for consumption outside the area, while in the minor
industries the produce is mainly consumed within the area.
The minor industries are those which have as their purpose to
supply the immediate needs of the inhabitants of the towns, and
chief among them stand the building and clothing trades, and
the production and distribution of food and other articles
required by the population. On the progress of the staple
industries which find employment for many persons will chiefly
depend the inflow of population to the district and its retention

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 13

in the district; so that it may be said the staple industries
determine the population. The minor industries, on the other
hand, always grow in proportion to the population, since people
must be housed, clothed and fed and get about their business.
An immense number of people are therefore engaged in the
building and furnishing trades, in the manufacture of clothing
(part of which at least is intended for export), in baking and
brewing, in shopkeeping and in the business of transport both of
people and goods.

The industries of the district may be considered from three
points of view — (a) their permanence, (6) their relation to
health, and (c) the remuneration they offer to the workers
engaged in them. The latter question is too large and difficult
for us to express views on without much more evidence than we
have obtained. While pursuing our investigations we have
constantly tried to ascertain the wage of the chief worker in a
household and the income of the family. We are aware that
for statistical purposes information obtained in this way and
which, in the majority of cases, we are not in a position to check
is useless. Yet from our general knowledge of Manchester life
we are persuaded that in very many cases the income of a
family, even when work is steady and when the wages are care-
fully expended, is insufficient to maintain physical efficiency.
The matter is discussed in the next section of this chapter.

Unskilled labourers in Manchester and Salford certainly
earn low wages, under 20s. a week on the average, and they
often have broken time when the income of the family sinks to
nothing. On the other hand, the variety of industries in the
towns and the large amount of almost unskilled labour required
gives many opportunities for the younger members of families
to find employment. The industries of Manchester and Salford
also give employment to a very large number of women workers,
among whom organisation is weak and wages are consequently
low. In the poorer parts of the towns much harm results from
the women going out to work. Not only do they themselves
often suffer from exhaustion, but their families lack the care
which is necessary if they are to grow up as good citizens. The
children grow vip of poor physique, often with feeble mental and

14 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

moral powers, and fall into the ranks of tlie unskilled and
unprofitable, who never can hope to earn decent wages, and are
driven to live in the poorer kinds of houses. The housing
question cannot be separated from the rest of the social problem.

According to our Medical Officer of Health, we in this
district cannot say that our industries are unhealthy ones. It is
true that in some cases they are carried on under unhealthy
conditions, but these in most cases can be (and, thanks to
vigilant inspection, are being) remedied. Although the
industries in themselves may not be unhealthy the pressure at
which people work in many cases leads to premature old age and
breakdown.

The permanence of the industries in our district is, however,
a point of prime importance in this discussion. If our
industries or any considerable section of them are likely to move
out of the district, it is certain that the population will move too.
The pressure on house accommodation which we are about to
consider in detail would then slacken, and reformers therefore
need to weigh carefully any proposals for the further provision
of houses. It has been remarked that cotton spinning and
weaving are now mainly carried on outside Manchester and
Salf ord ; they have, in fact, been moved to the fringe of small
towns encircling the greater ones. Will other industries follow
suit? It is certainly possible, and many manufacturers seem
tempted by the low price of land outside the towns. But even
if the manufactures do go out, it seems probable that the work
of distribution of goods will increasingly centre in this district,
and will occupy more and more people, and there seems to us no
reason for believing that the population of our towns is likely to
decrease in the near future. Besides the manufactures are not
likely to go far, and it will be seen that we contemplate the
possibility of our towns controlling the distribution and housing
of the population over much Avider areas than they at present
control.

Population axd Health.
In Manchester and Salford combined there is now a popula-
tion of considerably over three-quarters of a million, and

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 15

though the rate of increase has to some extent diminished, yet
the figures given in the subjoined table show considerable actual
increase,

PopuLATiox OF Manchester and Salford from 1841.

City of Borough of

Manchester. Salford. Totals.

Census of 1841 242,983* 70,224 313,207

1851 303,382* 87,523 390,905

1861 338,722* 102,449 441,171

1871 351,189* 124,801 475,990

1881 341,414* 176,235 517,649

1881 373,5831 — —

1881 462,303+ — —

1891 505,368t 198,139 703,507

1901 543,872+ ' 220,957 ...... 764,829

*01d area (4,293 acres). fArea as extended in 1885 (5,933 acres).
|Area as extended in 1890 (12,935 acres).

It is obvious that without the expenditure of considerably
more money and time than has been at the disposal of this
Association it is impossible to ascertain in detail the facts as to
occupation, poverty and health in the districts. But from
various sources materials are available which may serve to give
some kind of picture of the conditions of the town populations.

The 1901 census returns show that out of a total of 112,854
tenements in Manchester 61,572 are of less than five rooms ; and
out of 45,541 tenements in Salford 27,700 are of less than five
rooms. The same returns show that nearly half the population
lives in tenements of less than five rooms — 264,142 people in
Manchester, 106,649 in Salford. How they are distributed and
how overcrowded is shown in the tables on pp. 30 and 31.

The death-rate of a town, with due precautions, may be
taken as an index of the health of its population. Where
conditions are good and the people healthy, we expect a low
death-rate ; where the death-rate is high we expect to find
conditions detrimental to health existing. The Registrar-
General in his returns groups together 33 large towns, and in
this list Manchester and Salford always appear among the half-

16 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

dozen towns witli the highest death-rates, although there is
always a great influx of young and healthy people from the
country. This indicates the prevalence of bad conditions. As
stated above, the Medical Officer of Health considers that the
industries carried on in the district are not, on the whole,
prejudicial to the health of those employed in them; so, if he be
right, we must look to other conditions. The Medical Officer
suggests that insanitary conditions in and around the homes
of the people and mal-nutrition, due in some cases to poverty, in
other cases to ignorance, may be put among the chief causes of
disease. Our experience confi.rms this diagnosis and, though we
have perforce given most attention to insanitary conditions in
this report, we consider that the poverty and the ignorance
prevalent among large masses of the population require
attention.

If Manchester and Salford are examined by sanitary districts
it is seen that there are wide variations in the death-rates of the
different districts. The table given opposite shows the death-rates
for Manchester and Salford by sanitary districts for the years
1901 and 1902: —

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD.

Table Showing Area, Density of Population and Deaths in
Manchester and Salford Sanitary Districts.

(Extracted from Reports of the Medical Officers of Health for
Manchester and Salford.)

1901.

Deaths.

Area

Persons

Rate

Statistical

Estimated

to an

Total.

per

Divisions.

Population.

Acres.

Acre.

1,000.

City of Manchester 546,408 ... 12,910

I. Manchester

Township 135,006 .

II. N. Manchester 167,257

III. S. Manchester 244,145

rAncoats 45,014 .

I.JCentral 30,047

(st. George's 59,945 .

'Cheetham 37,207 .

Crumpsall 8,852 .

Blackley 8,878 .

Harpurhey 15,893 .

II.- Moston 12,161 .

Newton Heath 40,525 .

Bradford 23,766 .

Beswick 11,686 .

^Clayton 8,289 .

fArdwick 41,454 .

Openshaw 27,358

West Gorton 29,459 .

III.- Rusholme and

Kirkmanshulme 20,544 .

Chorlton-on-Medlock 57,956 .

[Hulme 67,374 .

42 ... 11,801 ... 21-60

1,646 .

. 82 ..

3,716 .

. 27-52

7,321 .

. 23 ..

. 2,938 .

. 17-57

3,943 .

. 62 ..

. 5,147 .

. 21-08

400 .

. 113 ..

1,275 .

. 28-32

748 .

. 40 ..

878 .

. 29-22

498 .

. 120 ..

1,563 .

. 26-07

919 .

. 41 ..

528 .

. 14-19

733 .

. 12 ..

142 .

. 1604

1,840 .

5 ..

139 .

. 15-66

193 .

. 82 ..

273 .

. 17-18

1,297 .

9 ..

185 .

. 15-21

1,350 .

. 30 ..

712 .

. 17-57

288 ..

. 83 ..

524 .

. 22-05

96 ..

. 122 ..

267 .

. 22-85

605 .

. 14 ..

168 .

. 20-27

509 .

. 81 ..

865 .

. 20-87

581 .

.. 47 ..

552 .

.. 20 18

318 ..

. 93 ..

562 .

. 19-08

1,412 ..

. 15 ..

391 ..

. 19-03

646 .

. 90 ..

1.138 .

. 19-64

477 ..

. 141 ..

1,639 ..

. 24-33

HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

1902.

Deaths.

III.

Statistical
Divisions. 1

City of Manchester

I. Manchester

Township

II. N. Manchester

III. S. Manchester

f Ancoats

Estimated
'opulation.

550,355 ..

133,590 ..
171,925 ..
244,840 ..

44,731 ..
29,280 ..
59,579 ..

38,000 ..

8,955 ..

9,028 ..
16,831 ..
13,165 ..
41,046 ..
24,046 ..

11.840 ..
9,014 ..

42,039 ..
27,627 ..
29,889 ..

20.841 ..
57,685 ..
66,759 ..

^^stimated
opulation.*
221,587 ..

71,435 ..
33,743 ..
67,023 ..
49,386 ..

224,007 ..

71,229 ..
33,468 ..
68,935 ..
50,375 ..

Area

in
Acres.

. 12,910 ..

. 1,646 ..
. 7,321 ..
. 3,943 ..

400 ..

748 ..
498 ..

919 ..
733 ..

1,840 ..

193 ..

1,297 ..

. 1,350 ..

288 ..

96 ..

605 ..

509 ..
581 ..
318 ..

1,412 ..
646 ..

477 ..

Area
in
Acres.
. 1,354 ..

964 ..

390 ..
2,430 ..
1,418 ..

1,354 ..

964 ..

390 ..
2,430 ..
1,418 ..

Persons
to an
Acre.

. 43 ..

. 81 ..
. 23 ..
. 63 ..

. 112 ..
. 39 ..
. 120 ..

. 41 ..
. 12 ..
5 ..
. 87 ..
. 10 ..
. 27 ..
. 83 ..
. 123 ..
. 15 ..

. 83 ..

. 48 ..

94 ..

18 ..

89 ..

140 ..

Persons
to an
Acre.

. 42-6 ..

. 74-8 ..
. 86-5 ..

27-6..

34-6 ..

. 43-1 ..

73-9 ..

85-8 ..
28-4..
35'5...

Total.
. 11,026 .

. 3,357 .

. 2,888 .
. 4,781 .

. 1,130 .

783 .

. 1,444 .

484 .
117 .
149 .
286 .
176 .
731 .
525 .
247 .
173 .

805 .
513 .
505 .

415 .
1,074 .
1,469 .

Deat

Rate

per

1,000.

.. 20-03

, 25-13
.. 17-22
.. 1919

.. 25-26

Central

St. George's

.. 26-74
.. 24-24

fCheetham

.. 12-74

Criimpsall

. 13-07

Blacklev

. 16-50

HarjDurhev

. 16-99

Moston

Newton Heath

Bradford

Beswick

. 13-37
.. 19-86
.. 21-83

. 20-86

Clayton

. 19-19

^Ardwick

. 19-15

Openshaw

. 18-57

West Gorton

Rusholme and

Kirksmanhulme
Chorlton-on-Medlock
Hulme

. 16-90

. 16-55
. 18-62
. 22-00

1901.

Statistical 1
Divisions. P
Salford Borough ...

Regent Road

Greeno'ate

hs.

Total.

. 4,802 .

1,713 .
971 .

1,324 .
794 .

4,375 .

1,420 .

966 .
1,254 .

735 .

Rate
per
1,000.
. 21-7

. 24-0

. 28-8

Pendleton

. 19-8

Broughton

16-1

1902.

Salford Borough ...

Regent Road

Greenjiate

19-2

. 19-6

28-3

Pendleton

. 17-9

Broughton

. 14-3

* Population is estimated to the middle of each year.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 19

If reference is again made to tlie map with these figures
in mind, it will be seen that the districts with high death-rates
are those mainly occupied by the working classes, and the
districts with low death-rates are either occupied by well-to-do
people or are, like Blackley and Moston, only gradually
receiving an urban population. The map, too, shows clearly
the kinds of dwellings in the different parts of the city and it
may be noted that the high death-rate accompanies the slum
areas, and those other districts where there are many houses
on the land and few open spaces, while the low death-rates
belong to districts in which there are relatively few houses
and where the houses are larger and have gardens. It is
sufficient here to note the coincidence.

Further evidence of the absence of healthy conditions in
Manchester may be got from the following tables, for which
we are indebted to Mr. Fred Thoresby. The information has
been obtained from the " Supplement to the 59th Annual
Heport of Births, Deaths and Marriages in England " (Part II.,.
1897): —

Table Showing Deaths of Children under Five Years of

Age.

For the ten years, 1881 — 1890, the following numbers of
children under five years of age died out of each 100,000 : —

England and Wales. Manchester. Rural Districts.

Males 24,851 ... 37,674 ... 17,314

Females 21,676 ... 33,677 .. 14,483

20 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

Table Showing Expectation of Life.

For the ten years, 1881—1890, the average expectation of
life at birth was*: —

England and Wales. Manchester. Rural Districts.

Males 43-66years ... 28-78years ... 51-48years

Females 47-18 „ ... 32-67 „ ... 54-04 „

These tables reveal the disastrous effects of crowded cities
on the life of the people. The physical effects of bad houses
and surroundings, together with poor and insufficient feeding,
are shown even more graphically in the following tables, which
we have extracted from a report made by the Medical Officer
of the Salford School Board, Dr. J. Howson Ray, in March,
1903. The Salford School Board caused anthropometric
records to be taken of some boys in three of the schools and
the averages obtained are here shown and contrasted Avith the
figures given for Public School Boys (the most favoured class in
England) and for the English Artisan Class in Roberts'
"Anthropometry."

* Cf. the Manchester Life Tables by Dr. John Tatham, where a fuller
analysis of the figures will be found. On p. 34 he writes : " Looking at the
figures in another way, we may say that on an average each male child born
in Manchester Township loses 10-48 years, or 39 per cent., and each female
child 9-82 years, or 34 per cent, of the normal working period of life ; the
losses in the Outlying Townships being S'OO years, or 11 per cent, of the normal
working period for males, and 2'66 years, or 9 per cent., for females. Again
on p. 37, he writes : " Here is a population of nearly 150,000 persons paying a
tax which must be reckoned, not in pounds, shillings and pence, but in years,
months, and days — a tax amounting on the average to fully 30 per cent, of
the life-time of every member of the community. Here are men and women
entering the period of decline at an age when they ought scarcely to have
passed the prime of life. And what is particularly distressing is the thought,
that although in some respects the local conditions of life have improved within
the last half century, in other respects bad has become even worse."

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 21

Table Showing Anthropometric Records of Salford
Schoolboys.

(Constructed from a report by Dr. Howson Ray, Medical Officer,
Salford School Board.)

Head
Circum-
Age. Height. Weight. Chest, ference.
Y. M. Ft. In. St. Lbs. In. In.
English Artisan Class 1 80 39 41 — —

John Street Board School,

Pendleton (Average of

ten boys) 8 8 3 10J 3 4^ 24| 20J

Grecian Street Board School,

Broughton (Average of

ten boys) 8 4 3 111 37 24^ 20^

Trafford Road School (Average

of twelve boys) 8 7 3 11| 3 3| 24J 201

Public School Boysi 10 4 5 4 11 — —

English Artisan Class 1 10 4 2-5 4 10 — —

John Street Board School

(Average of ten boys) 10 7 4 2i 4 OJ 261 20|

(Average of nine boys) - ... 10 6 4 U 3 11 2.5f 20j-V
Grecian Street Board School

(Average of ten boys) 10 8 4 33 4 Oh 25| 20*

Trafford Road School (Average

of ten boys) 10 6 4 2i 4 25i 20f

Public School Boysi 13 4 105 6 4 — —

English Artisan Class 1 13 4 7-5 5 8 — —

John Street School (Average

of ten boys) 13 5 4 5i 4 5| 27^ 20f

Grecian Street Board School

(Average of ten boys) 13 5 4 9f 5 7f 28| 20f

Trafford Road Board School

(Average of ten boys) 13 6 4 8,% 5 281 20f

^ These figures are from C. Roberts' Manual of Anthroijometry .
The heights are given without shoes ; the weights include clothes
= 9 lbs.

2 i.e.. Excluding one boy of exceptionally large build, w^ho had
bnly recently moved into Pendleton from an outside district.

22 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

The following facts should be borne in mind in considering
these tables; we quote from the report: — " The birth-rate and
death-rate in the Pendleton district are higher than in the
Broughton district. On the other hand, the John Street School
is in a distinctly poorer neighbourhood than the Grecian Street
School, and, whilst the latter school is fairly well ventilated
and is adjacent to a large park, the John Street School is poorly
ventilated and draws its air supply largely from the ground
level, where there are narrow streets and property of a poor
description. Whilst a certain amount of the improved
physique of the boys at Grecian Street is probably due to a
better class of home and a better class and greater quantity
of food, I believe that a good deal is owing to the better ventila-
tion of this school, to the encouragement of exercises such as
swimming, and to the proximity of Albert Park, which acts
as an air reservoir for the streets and houses from which the
boys come. Contrast this with John Street School, and one
sees a poorly ventilated building, drawing its breath from the
comparatively stagnant pool of air that surrounds the premises,
children coming from poor homes and with little opportunity
for healthy recreation, a smoke-laden atmosphere limiting the
amount of bright sunlight that should be available, and

probably with insufficient and often unsuitable food

The record for the Traiford Eoad School shows that this school
is slightly above the mean of the John Street and Grecian
Street Schools, as might be expected from the character of
the school and of its surroundings."

One further observation may be made here. The notifica-
tion of cases of infectious disease permits us to ascertain in
which parts of the city these cases most frequently occur. In
Jlanchester " spot " maps are prepared weekly which show
approximately the locality of each case reported of certain
infectious diseases. Comparison of a series of these maps
shows, as might be expected, that those districts in which there
are most houses to the acre, in Avhich there are fewest open
spaces, in which the houses are of the poorest description, are
those in which cases of disease most frequently occur.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 23

Poverty.

It is difficult to gauge the amount of poverty existing in
the city and borough. To ascertain the amount with precision
would require an investigation similar to those undertaken
by Mr. Seebohm Rowntree in York^ and Mr. Charles Booth in
London^. Our actual investigation of Manchester conditions
has been carried out in areas selected because it was apparent
that the conditions of life there were unsatisfactory, and we
are consequently unable to generalise from them. In them
we found conditions as bad as any reported by Mr. Rowntree
or Mr. Booth.

As is well known, these observers, using somewhat different
methods, and working one in the metropolis, the other in York,
obtained figures respecting poverty which are nearly the same.
From a close study of their works, we are convinced that an
investigation in Manchester and Salford would yield very
similar results. If, then, we take the percentages of poverty
ascertained by Messrs. Booth and Rowntree we may calculate
the number of persons in poverty in our district, and shall be
justified in believing that the results give a fair picture of
the case.

Mr. Charles Booth and his workers ascertained that 30"7
per cent, of the population of London were in poverty, that is,
were in a greater or less degree of want. Mr. Rowntree in
York found that 2T"84 per cent, of the population was in
poverty, and remarks that his investigation was carried on
during a period of considerable prosperity, which may account
for the proportion of poverty being less than that found by
Mr. Booth.

The Census for 1901 gives the following populations: —

Manchester 543,872

Salford 220,957

Total 764,829

'"Poverty : a study of Town Life." By Seebohm Rowntree.

Macmillan and Co.
= " The Life and Labour of tlie People." Edited by Charles Booth.

Macmillan and Co.

HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

Tlie number of persons in this population living in poverty
would be —

By Mr. Booth's estimate (30-7 per cent.) 234,802

By Mr. Rowntree's estimate (27-84 per cent.) 212,928

We may assume tlien that in the two towns in 1901 at
least 212,000 persons and possibly 230,000 persons were in
want. As the prices of necessaries which were rising in 1901
have continued to rise and there has been apparently a slacken-
ing in trade it is likely that now (in 190-i) the higher figure
is the more accurate.

In Mr. Rowntree's work an interesting section deals with
what he calls "primary" poverty — the condition of those
whose total earnings are insufficient to enable them to obtain
the necessaries for physical efficiency.

This is ascertainable since these necessaries are shelter,
clothing and food. Basing his calculations on the researches
of Atwater and Drs. Dunlop and Paton, Mr. Rowntree
estimated the amount of money required to provide the food
needed to keep a man and his family in physical efficiency,
and, taking prices current in York for rent and clothing, he
ascertained the necessary expenditures on these and constructed
the table given below.

Table Showing the Minimum ]S^ecessary Expexdituiie per
Week for Families of Tarious Sizes.

Family.

1 man 3

1 woman 3

1 man and 1 woman 6

1 man, woman and child 8

„ „ 2 children 10

Food,
d.

3 .

12
15
17
19
21
24

Rent.

s. d.

1 6

Household

Sundries.

s. d.

J 9

6
6
2
9
4
11
6
1
8

o
o

Total,
d.

7
7
11 8
14 6
18 10
21 8
26
28 10
31 8
34 6
37 4

MANCHESTEE AND SALFORD.

Where tlie income of the hoiisehold fell below the
amount indicated in the table, the family was classed as
being in primary poverty. This analysis of the population
of York showed that 9'91 per cent, of the population were in a
state of primary poverty. Applying this percentage to the
Manchester and Salford population as before, we get 75,794
persons who in 1901 were living in a state of primary poverty.
We have noted that the prices of necessaries have been rising
since 1901, and in the table below we compare these with the
prices used by Mr. Howntree in his investigation. Eents in
Manchester and Salford are higher than in York, and unless
a larger proportion of heads of households get higher wages
in Manchester and Salford than in York, it is obvious that
poverty in our district must be more intense. So far as we
have been able to ascertain there is little difference between
the earnings of men engaged in the same trade in Manchester
and Salford and in York.

Table Comparing Food-Prices in York and Manchester.

Prices in

York, as PRICES IN MANCHESTER,

given by
Mr. Rowntree. A B Ct

s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.

Flour, per Stone 1 4 ,-; 1 4 ,^1 1 4 ^^ 1 3

New Milk, per pint... Ih ... U ... If ... lOi^

Skim Milk, per pint... Of... — "... 1 ...

Oatmeal, per lb 2* ... 2 ... 2 ... 2

Dried Peas, per lb. ... 2^*... 2i ... 2.^ ... 2h

Bacon, per lb 6 ... 6l- ... 8^ 4d. to lid".

Cheese, per lb 6i ... 7|- ... 8 7d.to9d.

Sugar, per lb If ... 2| ... 2 l|d.to2fd.

Potatoes, per lb Oh Zl 1 4 ^Z Sh ^^ 1

Margarine, per lb. ... 8* ... 7i- ... — " 6d.&8d.

Butter, per lb 1 1/1 & 1/2 1 lid. to 1/2

Biscuits, per lb 4 ... 4 ... 4 2 kl. to 1/4

Cocoa, per lb 1 0* 8d.l/-&l/2 8 ]/- to 1/4

Tea,perlb 1 5 ... 1 4 ... 1 4 1/4 to 3/0

Coffee, per lb 1 0*... 1 2 ... 1 lOd. to l/8

Treacle, per lb If ... Ih ... 2 ... U

Onions, per lb Oh ... l" ... 1^ ... l"

Yeast, per lb 8" ... 10 ... 8" ... 10

Currants, per lb 3i ... 3 ... 4 ... 3

Suet, per lb 8" ... 9 ... 8 ... 8

* These prices, says Mr. Rowntree, are subject to a reduction of 5 per cent., wliich is
approximately tlie dividend allowed by the Co-operative Stores to ordinary purcliasers.

t Tlie figures given in this column have been obtained from a Co-operative Society : those given
in column A and B were obtained from ordinary retail dealers in Ancoats and Bradford.

26 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

What primary poverty means and what is the condition of
upwards of 75,000 of onr fellow citizens may best be gathered
from the words of Mr. Eowntree himself. " And let us clearly
understand what ' merely physical efficiency ' means. A
family living upon the scale allowed for in this estimate must
never spend a penny on railway fare or omnibus. They must
never go into the country unless they walk. They must never
purchase a halfpenny newspaper or spend a penny to buy a
ticket for a popular concert. They must write no letters to
absent children, for they cannot afford to pay the postage.
They must never contribute anything to their church or chapel,
or give any help to a neighbour which costs them money.
They cannot save, nor can they join sick club or trade union,
because they cannot pay the necessary subscriptions. The
children must have no pocket money for dolls, marbles, or
sweets. The father must smoke no tobacco, and must drink
no beer. The mother must never buy any pretty clothes for
herself or for her children, the character of the family
wardrobe as for the family diet being governed by the regula-
tion, ' Nothing must be bougbt but that which is absolutely
necessary for the maintenance of physical health, and what is
bought must be of the plainest and most economical description.'
Should a child fall ill, it must be attended by the parish doctor.
Finally, the wage-earner must never be absent from his work
for a single day.

If any of these conditions are broken, the extra expenditure
involved is met, and can only be met by limiting the diet, or,
in other words, by sacrificing physical efficiency."^

Intemperance.
It is impossible in a survey of social conditions in Man-
chester and Salford to omit reference to intemperance. The
description given elsewhere of the homes of some Manchester
citizens may explain, if it cannot excuse, the unfortunately
frequent abuse of the public-house. Where the home is over-
crowded, dull and dismal, and where there are few or no

*" Poverty." By B. Seebohm Eowntree. Pp. 133, 134.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 27

opportunities for wholesome recreation, the public-liouse is
the only place to turn to. And ample provision of public-
houses is made. In Manchester there were 486 public-houses
and 2,394 beer and wine houses in 1902. On the population
figures for 1901, this gives one licensed house for each 189
people of all ages, a provision which must far exceed the needs
of the town. There are also many clubs at which intoxicating
liquors can be obtained by members.

During 1902, the Manchester police arrested 7,114 persons
for being drunk and disorderly and proceeded by summons
against 294 others for the same offences; a total of 8,008.
There were 1,114 persons taken into custody for other offences
who were also drunk. Although these figures show a decrease
from the previous year, they are still very high, and give an
additional force to our plea for the provision of better
dwellings and surroundings for the people. Not only are
better houses needed, but more open spaces for use in summer
and concerts and other entertainments for the winter months
are required.

28 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

CHAPTER III.

Unwholesome Conditions Considered.

In this section of tbe report we propose to describe some
of the chief factors which make districts and houses unwhole-
some. It is of the utmost importance that every citizen should
be familiar with those defects in the arrangement of houses
on the ground, in the construction of houses, and in the usage
of houses which make them unfit for healthy life. Not only
can such knowledge be employed for the protection of the
individual citizen and his family, but it ought to be claimed
as a civic duty that the inhabitants of our city should use
their knowledge and, by reporting to the sanitary authorities
instances of defective structure or bad usage of the kind to be
described, help to protect and improve the public health. The
illustrations of the conditions described have all been drawn
from Manchester and Salford.

OvEECilOWDING.

It would be unnecessary to define overcrowding if the
word were not used in a technical sense. The distribution of
population is usually stated with regard to area as so many
persons per acre or per square mile and with regard to cubic
space as, in the census returns, so many persons per house or
per room.

But in the discussion of overcrowding we are hampered
by the fact that no authoritative standards have been estab-
lished or more accurately no exact authoritative standards.
For density on area there is no official standard at all. The
late Sir B. W. liichardson has stated that to insure healthy
life to its citizens the maximum density of a city should be
25 persons to an acre. It is idle to demand at present the
adoption of such a standard in our towns, though much might
be said for enforcing it in the suburban districts by which the
town is increasing. The density in all of the statistical

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 29

divisions of Mancliester and Salford lias already been given in
the table on pp. 17 and 18.

It has long been noticed that a high density per acre is
usually accompanied by a high death rate and a high zymotic
disease rate. Manchester and Salford do not provide excep-
tions to this general statement. It is seen further, as we have
already noted, that the districts with the highest density are
those mainly occupied by the poorer parts of our city
populations.

Overcrowding of cubic space is usually measured by the census
standard of more than two people to a room. The absence of
exactitude in this standard, owing to the variations in the size
of rooms, and the absence of any definition of what constitutes
a room, is obvious. It is obvious also that the harm caused
by such overcrowding must to some extent be dependent on the
age of those inhabiting the rooms, and also on their relation-
ship, the structural state of the house, and especially on the
degree in which it is ventilated.

The amount of overcrowding, judged by census standard,
in Manchester and Salford is comparatively low. But much
overcrowding exists, and not infrequently gross instances are
to be found. The census figures for 1901, given in the
accompanying table, show the overcrowding in houses of
different sizes, and speak for themselves. The statistics to the
right of the thick vertical lines are statistics of overcrowding.

HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

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o

fcl

tfl

-4-)

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ffi

a-.

-t->

>-H

to"

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MANCHESTER AND SALFORD.

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32 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

But when we leave statistical tables and measure some of tlie
houses we find matters look worse. The amount of air space in a
room may be taken as its cubic content. In the Model
Bye-laws of the Local Government Board, 400 cubic feet of air
space is required for every person over ten years of age in any
room not exclusively used as a sleeping apartment, and 200
cubic feet for children under ten years. In rooms used exclu-
sively for sleeping the amounts are 300 and 150 respectively.
But the Army Regulations require 600 cubic feet per head in
barracks, the Metropolitan Police require 450, the Poor Law
requires 500 cubic feet. It has to be remembered that to keep
the air pure and uilcontaminated a system of ventilation much
more perfect than is found even in better class houses is
required. Physiologists have put human requirements at 880
cubic feet of fresh air every hour. To change the air in a small
room completely every hour, which would be the practical
application of the statement quoted, would cause an uncomfort-
able draught, so we are forced to the conclusion that rooms
must be made bigger and the air be changed gradually.

A few illustrations will show the conditions under which
some families live. Many other examples might be quoted, all
emphasising the same point. As we have shown above, the
Local Government Board standard, with which we make
comparisons, is a low estimate of the required air space.

No. 61, C Street is a four-roomed house with a small

scullery, occupied by a family of four adults and four children.
The living room, which also serves as a bedroom for one of
the adults, has a cubic content of 954 feet. By the Local
Government Board bye-laws aforementioned the family should
have a living room with a cubic content of 2,400 feet.

No. 39, C Street consists of two rooms, one used as a

bedroom for three adults (two men and one woman) having a
cubic content of 875 feet. From this has to be taken the
space occupied by beds and furniture.

No. 15, S Street is a back-to-back house, consisting of

two rooms, and occupied by husband and wife, wife's mother
and three children under 14. The cubic contents of each room
are 990 feet. The living room has one sleeper, the bedroom is

MANCHESTER AND SALFOED. 33

occupied by tlie father and mother and their three children.
By Local Grovernment Board standards this room should have
a cubic capacity of 1,050 cubic feet.

No. 27, S Street, a back-to-back house, has two adults

and three children sleeping in one bedroom with a cubic
content of 990 feet.

No. 10, B S Street, a back-to-back house with two

rooms, is occupied by two adults and four children. The bed-
room, with a cubic content of T33 feet, is used for a workroom
(sewing) and washing. The living room — 1,046 cubic feet — is
living room and sleeping place too for the six inmates. By
Local Government Board standards the requirements would be
1,600 cubic feet.

Other examples of overcrowding are given in the investiga-
tor's notes printed in Chapter lY.

Structural Defects. — The Kind of Dwelling.

The kinds of dwellings found in the districts of Manchester
and Salford mainly occupied by the working classes may be
considered in four groups : — (1) " through " cottages, (2)
" back-to-back " houses, (3) " tenement " houses, and (4)
" block dwellings."

" Block dwellings " (commonly called " barrack " dwellings)
are principally represented in Manchester and Salford by the
blocks built by the Corporations on sites formerly occupied by
insanitary dwellings. A large block in Ancoats, owned by a
company, was obtained by the conversion of an old mill.
There are a few other blocks, but this type is rare, and of recent
origin in this district. A block of " flat " houses may be
regarded as a row of cottages built vertically, each house being
complete in itself or sharing sanitary accommodation and the
like with its immediate neighbours on the flat. Although this
type is the usual form of dwelling in Scottish and many
continental cities, and is rapidly becoming common in London,
it is not a popular type in English towns. It is felt by tenants
that they lose to some extent the privacy of their homes, that
they are thrown into close contact with their neighbours

34 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

whether they will or not, and there is often an objection to
climbing stairs.

The building of blocks of flat dwellings by our Corporations
and by others is a matter which is discussed elsewhere (see p. 84)
in this report. Here we are mainly concerned to note the effect
of certain types of dwelling on the health of the community.
In the well-built and carefully supervised dwellings referred
to above, a marked change has taken place in the death rate
as compared with the death rates of the old insanitary property
formerly covering the sites, and from this point of view the
dwellings are a real gain to the community. The figures given
in the official reports show a reduction in the death-rate, in
the case of the Oldham Eoad Dwellings of 39 per cent., and
in the case of the Pollard Street Dwellings of 36 per cent.

" Tenement " Houses.

By " tenement " houses are meant houses of several storeys,
built originally for one family, but now occupied by two or
more. Houses of this type are not very common in Manchester
and Salford, but especially in one district many are to be
found. The part of Manchester lying between Shudehill,
Victoria Station, Ludgate Hill, and Rochdale Road contains
many old houses evidently built to accommodate a single
family each but now sometimes having a family to each room.

Referring to houses used in this way Dr. Sykes, Medical
Officer of Health for St. Pancras, says: — "It may be con-
cluded that in the old type of vertical dwelling-houses constructed
for one family, the morbidity and mortality tend to increase
in direct ratio with the increase in the number of dwellings
in the houses, the decrease in the number of rooms in the
dwellings, and the increase of the number of persons in the
rooms."

Thus in a four-roomed house originally intended for one
family, the danger of the occupants falling victims to disease,
and of fatal results from disease, increases when the house is
let as two two-roomed houses, and still further increases when
it is let as four one-roomed houses. This dansrer is also

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD.

increased by every increase in the number occupying the
separate rooms.

A few examples from the investigator's papers are given
below : —

No. 37, Street. A two-storeyed house has four rooms

and a scullery. Four families occupy it at present, each
family consisting of two adults and a child. One water-tap
and sink contained in the scullery (which measures 9ft. by 6ft.
by 8ft.) serve all four families. The observer notes that the
house is very dirty. One pail closet in the street serves for
this house and the two neighbouring houses, which each con-
tain two families.

No. 12, Street has three rooms and contains two

families, one of five individuals, another of four. The house
has no water-tap of its own ; the occupants use a tap in an
entry behind the house which is common to six houses, and a
closet used by Uvo other houses. This house is kept clean.

No. 1, Street (typical of others in the street),

is a five-roomed house occupied by four families (10 persons).
Five houses share the closet used by the inmates of this house
and 22 houses the water-tap, which is in the street. The house
and tenants are described as very dirty.

" Back-to-back " Houses.

It is now fortunately impossible to build back-to-back
houses in our district, and much has been done in recent years
to remove these unwholesome dwellings from our midst.
Nevertheless a surprisingly large number of such houses is to
be found, as a reference to our key map will show.

Stkeet.

Street.
Plan of a Block of " Back-to-back " Houses.

36 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

A back-to-back bouse is one in which there is only one
open face, i.e., the outside air only reaches a small part of the
house. Such houses are usually only one room deep, and
therefore have as many storeys as there are rooms. Examples
have been quoted (see p. 59) in which there are two rooms on a
floor, the back room getting its light and air through the front
room. In back-to-back houses there is no possibility of obtain-
ing a through current of air without which it is impossible
to thoroughly ventilate a house. Much attention has been
given by Dr. Tatham, Dr. ISTiven, and other authorities on
public health matters to the mortality of the occupants of
back-to-back houses. It has been shown by these observers
that the rate of mortality from all causes is higher among the
dwellers in back-to-back houses than among the same classes
living in " through " houses, and the death rates from
pulmonary disease, phthisis and zymotic diseases is also higher.
This in itself should be suflScient reason for pressing forward
the total abolition of houses of this type.

But there are some other reasons for wishing to hasten the
departure of the back-to-back house. A back-to-back house
means no yard. Sanitary conveniences have, therefore, to be
provided either in the court on which the houses look or in the
street. Of both arrangements examples have been given in
the descriptions of districts (see p. 51). In one case, the closets
stand in a court. There are five closets in the block; they
are usually in a filthy condition, and certainly not more than
two of them are fit for use. What such arrangements entail
can, however, be better gathered from our illustrations.
The first illustration shows one side of a row of back-
to-back houses with the closets entered from the street.
These closets were found in a filthy condition, standing open
to all comers. Incidentally it may be noticed that in this last
illustration, the closet adjoins the living room and is under the
bedroom of one house. In another row of back-to-back houses
examined, it was found that the smells from the closet made
the room above uninhabitable, yet the house was let and
occupied.

s =

In Ancoats. A row of back-to-back houses. Note tap, closets
and ashplace, the latter immediately under a bedroom.

To face p. 36.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 37

It is not surprising that decent and modest people shrink
from using conveniences of this kind, probably with evil
results to their health. Nor is it surprising to find that the
manners of those who live in such conditions and accept them
are coarse.

Frequently the water supply of back-to-back houses is poor.
A tap in the street, whence all water has to be fetched, is all
the provision made. We have found instances in which six,
eight, ten, twenty, and even twenty-six houses were dependent
on one tap. From what has been said of the difficulty of
ventilating back-to-back houses and of the ascertained fact that
disease has more frequently fatal results in these houses, it is
obvious that a good and accessible water supply, which would
give every encouragement to cleanliness, is for them especially
a desideratum of the first importance.

" Through " Houses.

The " through " house is distinguished from the back-to-
back house by having at least two faces in contact with the
open air. The familiar cottage which lines so many miles of
our streets in Manchester and Salford is of this type. When
well-planned, well-built, and kept in good repair, with ample
air space around it, this type of house seems to be the most
suitable for healthy life. But the conditions must be observed.
It is not unfair to say that few houses in Manchester and
Salford occupied by the working classes are well-planned.
There are not a few examples to be found of houses, even of
recent erection, which are not well-built. Often, too, the
narrowness of the streets and of the space between the backs of
the houses, together with the long unbroken rows, makes it
impossible to have an ample air supply. Finally, examples
of lack of repair are to be found in abundance.

Plouses are badly planned which do not give the inmates
the possibility of making the fullest and best use of the space.
In the case of hundreds of houses in Manchester and Salford
the house has two rooms downstairs and two upstairs. The
iipstairs rooms are generally bedrooms ; the back room (though
sometimes the front room) downstairs is kitchen and living

38 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

room, and generally some attempt is made to keep the other
downstairs room as a parlour. The result is that the family-
overcrowds during the day a room in which cooking, washing,
etc., are carried on, and in which the children play, and then
often overcrowds two bedrooms at night. In the latter case,
overcrowding is not the only €vil. The children, even when
grown up and of different sexes, have to share the same room,
a state of affairs which cannot be regarded as desirable. In
the section of the report dealing with the erection of new
houses, we have indicated our views on the planning of houses.

Dampness and Coldness.

Faults in building show themselves in various Avays.
Hurriedly and cheaply built property is nearly always found
to be cold and damp. Dampness may be due to wetness of the
soil or subsoil, hence the importance of seeing that these are
well drained. Sometimes a house is damp owing to water
rising through the walls from the soil or percolating from the
roof. Examples of houses which suffer from this last defect
have been found. The roof has been allowed to get into a
state of disrepair; rain soaks through the ceiling and down the
bedroom walls and the atmosphere becomes laden with
moisture. That dampness is inimical to health is well-known,
but it may be well to point out that it has been conclusively
shown that attention to the proper draining of the soil and
to keeping houses dry has had a marked effect in reducing
the prevalence of phthisis, a disease which is given as the
cause of death in 1902 of 652 persons in Manchester and 380
in Salford.

Here are some remarks from the visitors' note-books : —

No. 7, Street. " House in very bad condition. Walls

and ceilings damp and falling. This house has five rooms and
is occupied by four families — 15 individuals."

No. 1, Street. " House very old and damp. Yery

dirty house and tenants. House smells."

No. 9, Street. " Walls and ceiling damp. Landlord

seems unwilling to keep house in repair."

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 39

No. 10, Street. " Back kitchen and living room very

damp. Sanitary authority has requested landlord to attend
to repairs and drains."

No. 14, Street. " Walls of rooms and floors very

damp."

No. 9, Place. " House terribly damp and back bed-
room walls literally wet; rain comes in and makes bed damp.
Every pane broken. Tenant seems inclined to be negligent,
but has no encouragement to keep house tidy owing to bad
state of house."

No. 10, Street. " Part of stair wall and bedroom wall

damp and falling in."

No. 20, Street. " Two-roomed house. Invalid child

in bed in bedroom, Avhich is very damp. Water dripping from
ceiling on to bed and floor. Wet patches in walls."

Coldness is a characteristic which frequently accompanies
dampness. Unseasoned woodwork used in the construction of
a house soon shrinks and allows cold air to enter. In jerry
built houses or in houses in bad repair coldness is due to the
flimsiness of the walls. Dr. Sykes remarks in this connection :
" The coldness and dampness within the dwelling are not only
injurious themselves, but indirectly they lead to the closure
of all openings and the stagnation of air in order to obtain
more warmth."

Due provision for ventilation should also be made in every
house which is to be occupied. In the course of our investiga-
tions we have found windows which would not open. Some-
times the tenants admitted that they had fastened the windows,
but in other cases apparently the window had never been
openable. It is true that the means of ventilation are often
not used by the tenants. One may pass along street after
street at night-time without finding a bedroom window open,
but it ought to be possible to ventilate thoroughly every room
of every house. We have been assured by an experienced
Medical Officer of Health that but for the bad building of many
houses erected in the past, which has allowed fresh air to enter
freely, there would have been even more disease in our towns
than there has been. No great improvement in health seems

40 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

to be possible in oiir towns till all houses are mucli more fully
ventilated than most houses are at present.

Occasionally houses are allowed to get into a state of
disrepair which makes them a danger to life and limb. We
have seen houses in which the staircases were rotten, wanting
steps and entirely unsafe. We have visited a house where an
incautious visitor might fall through into a coal depot below.
While this report has been taking its final form, the collapse
of three houses in Ancoats, causing loss of life, has drawn
attention to the dangers of disrepair.

Frequent references to the state of disrepair will be found
in the remarks column of the investigator's notes, printed in
the nest chapter.

Dahkness of Eooms.

Only in recent years has attention been drawn to the
importance of securing adequate lighting in houses. Even in
the houses being built to-day, and still more in houses built
when bye-laws were more lax or before building bye-laws had
been framed, enough importance is not given to the proper
lighting of rooms. In towns such as ours, where the air is
almost always charged with smoke and dust, it is difficult
enough to get sunshine, but when we allow hous-es to be built
on each side of narrow streets, or round narrow courts, or in
the shadow of great factories and warehouses, and when these
houses have small windows, and, finally, when the tenants stop
the entrance of the light available by curtains and blinds, there
can be little hope of healthy life. Our building bye-laws
now prevent the erection of houses imder such conditions, but
too many of the inhabited houses in the poorer parts of our
towns would be unwholesome if they had no other defect than
the existing darkness of their rooms. " Darkness is known to
cause anaemia and to retard the developinent of animals, and
the younger the animal is the greater the effects." Will any-
one who has seen the aneemic faces and stunted forms of the
dwellers say that lack of sunshine is not one of the greatest
defects in our city.

< "

To face ]i. Jf.0.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 41

" Direct sunshine, and even diffused daylight, warms and
dries, sets up air currents, removes stagnant air, dissipates
humidity, resolves unstable compounds and conduces to
cleanliness, and the absence of light produces opposite results,"
says Dr. Sykes. And again he adds: — "Briefly, the indica-
tions of experiment and observation are that the healthiness
of the dwelling in this country increases in proportion to the
amount of daylight and sunlight admitted. The day lighting
of habitable rooms should be such as to enable reading,
writing, and sewing to be carried on with facility."^ If rooms
which are not so lighted are not habitable, then scores of rooms
in Manchester and Salford ought to be closed.

It has been ascertained by bacteriologists that the
omnipresent disease germs are killed by exposure to direct
sunlight. This is another reason for seeing that our houses
are flooded with light if possible. Dr. Ransome, speaking at
the Jubilee Conference of the Salford Sanitary Association in
1902, quoted the following striking instance illustrating the
difference between conditions in Ancoats and the suburbs.
We give Dr. Hansome's words : — " Many years ago I pointed
out that there were certain districts in Ancoats where the
sputum of consumptives could exist for many months and
retain its virulence, while at the same time that identical
sputum, in a comparatively short period, entirely lost its power
of reproducing the disease in my own house in Bowdon. A
house thoroughly well ventilated and well lighted is practically
a safe place, even if there are consumptives dwelling in it, if
they take proper care in dealing with the material."

Incidentally the investigators mention many cases of dark
rooms, though as a rule no note has been made unless the light
was greatly obscured.

In Court, the houses are dark owing partly to the

smallness of the windows, partly to the nearness of high build-
ings.

In Street, four houses are very dark owing to the

obstruction of light by neighbouring houses.

' " Public Health and Housing," by Dr. Sykes, p. 72.

HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

In Street, rooms are dark owing to nearness of high

wall and house.

In Place, rooms dark owing to nearness of a wall and

opposite houses. " A high wall rises within three feet of back-
door making kitchen dark."

The high infantile mortality in some parts of Manchester
and Salford inhabited by the poorer Avorking classes is
mentioned in the reports of the Medical Officers of Health.

The following figures are from the report by Dr. Niven on
the Health of Manchester : —

Table Showing Proportion of Deaths under One Year.
Per IJJOO Births.

District. 1898.

Ancoats 208 .

Central 253 ..

St. George's 211 ..

Newton Heath 173 ..

Bradford 212 ..

Beswick 154 ..

Clayton 185 ..

Ardwick 205 ..

Openshaw 220 ..

Gorton (West) 217 ..

Chorlton-on-Medlock... 193 ..

Hulme 197 ..

1899.

1900

240 .

.. 213

239 .

.. 244

246 .

.. 226

196 .

.. 167

225 .

.. 209

169 .

.. 181

224 .

.. 182

215 .

. 186

216 .

.. 190

216 .

.. 191

215 .

.. 190

196 .

.. 199

1901.
234
255
231
196
200
203
304
188
211
190
184

999

Average

for

1898-

1902.

178

... 214

139

.. 226

173

.. 217

151

... 176

165

.. 205

167

.. 174

173

... 213

158

... 190

159

... 199

148

.. 192

138

.. 184

160

.. 194

The following figures are taken from a table in the report
of Dr. Tattersall on the health of Salford in 1902: —

Table Showing Proportion of Deaths under One Year.
Per 1,000 Births.

District. 1898.

Borough of Salford ... 213 ..

Regent Road 230 ..

Greengate 225 ..

Pendleton 207 ..

Broui^hton 180 ...

Average

for

1898-

1899.

1900.

1901.

1902. 1902.

211 .

.. 208 .

.. 205 .

.. 157 ... 198

248 .

.. 236 .

.. 238 .

.. 172 ... 224

209 .

224

.. 246 .

.. 178 ... 216

177 .

.. 192 .

.. 190 .

.. 147 ... 182

198 .

.. 171 .

.. 139 .

. 130 ... 163

c *

2 &

-a^

T^^o ./ace p. Jf.2.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 43

These figures show the proportion for all births (illegitimate
as well as legitimate). The mortality among illegitimate
children is much higher, but the proportion given would only
be slightly reduced if the figures were confined to legitimate
births.

Sir James Crichton Browne, in discussing the causes of
infantile mortality, asserts that the chief causes are (1) the
prevalence of overcrowding and other insanitary conditions,
including especially the absence of sunshine and fresh air,

(2) prenatal causes, due to the poverty of the parents, and

(3) improper feeding of infants. We do not seek to minimise
the other causes, but think it right to emphasise the untoward
influences of lack of light and air.

Other defects in houses which must be mentioned in this
chapter are the absence of water supply, the absence of closets
or unsatisfactory closet accommodation, the absence of means
of disposing of house refuse, ashes, etc., and the absence of
sufficient air space about the house.

Wateh Supply.

The points of importance in a water supply are that the
water be pure, sufficient in quantity and accessible to the
users. In Manchester and Salford we can claim that the first
two conditions are complied with ; but the records given in
the following pages of the investigation of typical districts
show that much might be done to improve the accessibility of
the supply. No city sanitary authority would now allow
houses to be erected in which at least one water tap for every
two houses was not provided. But what we have seen is that
in many streets a single tap has to meet the requirements of
all the houses in the street. Such a tap cannot be equally
accessible to all the houses, and some tenants must carry all
the water they need a considerable distance. We use water
freely in modern houses for cleansing purposss, when the only
labour is that of turning a tap, or at most of carrying
the water from one room to another. But if we imagine
ourselves for a moment in the position of the tenants in the
cases quoted below, having to leave our house every time water

HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

is required and then liaving to carry it some considerable
distance, we can understand how hard we make it for such
tenants to keep themselves and their houses clean.
Here are a few examples : —

Water Supply ix some Manchester Streets.
We have once found 40 houses sharing one tap.

once

, 26

once

, 22

twice

once

, 12

once

six times

thrice

five times

twice ,

Where so many houses are without a water supply, it is
perhaps superfluous to note that few working men's houses
have baths, and that, in many cases, there are no
appliances for washing clothes. It is, however, certain
that a constantly increasing proportion of new houses
built for occupation by the working classes are provided with
baths and conveniences for washing clothes. Even in the
poorer and older districts, municipal baths and washhouses
partially meet the needs of the community. The proposal put
forward by the Ladies' Public Health Society, that baths should
be established by the municipality in cottage houses in the
poorer districts is worthy of careful consideration.

Sanitary Conveniences.

To ensure healthy life, every house occupied should be
provided with suitable sanitary conveniences. A closet is
suitable when it is easily accessible and private to the occupants
of the house and is provided with a rapid and cleanly method
of removing the excreta. In a large city, Avhere houses are
closely packed together, the water-closet is, without doubt, the

-r >-. -t

►5 .=« i:

:^ Tr

A typifiil court in Clioiltoii-oii-Mecllock. Coininon water .supply
for six houses.

To face p. 44.

In a Salford court. These closets are for eleven houses ; only one
usable. All living rooms look on these. See p. 69.

In a Salford court. Some of tlie liouses which use closets
sliown above.

7'o face p. 45.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 45

only wholly suitable arrangement; ashes and other refuse
should have a special receptacle. It should be noted in passing
that the water-closet is only suitable when properly used, and
experience has shown that the substitution of water-closets for
simpler arrangements in poor districts does not work well unless
the tenants are warned as to the need for care in using them.

In Manchester and Salford we are far from having separate
closet accommodation for each house, and still further from
having a universal system of water-closets. The Superintendent
of the Cleansing Department in Manchester reported, on April
15th, 1902, that, within the city, there Avere : — Pail-closets,
73,915; midden-privies, 20,532; wet middens, 10,598; dry
middens, 740; and water-closets, 45,686.

It is right to explain that the Sanitary Committee is taking
steps to have pail-closets replaced by water-closets, and that
year by year a considerable number of changes are made. But
this change, like others, will only proceed rapidly when public
opinion demands it, and, as yet, public opinion is silent on
the matter. Medical authorities have pointed out that certain
diseases, for example typhoid fever, occur more frequently in
houses Avith privies than in houses with pail-closets, and more
frequently in houses with pail-closets than in houses with
water-closets.

Dr. P. Boobyer, Medical Officer of Health for Nottingham,
gives, in his report for 1897, the following statistics: — During
the ten years, 1887 — 96, the proportional annual incidence of
typhoid fever cases in midden-privy houses was one case in
37 houses, in pail-closet houses one in 120, and in water-closet
houses one case in 558 houses — that is, the incidence upon
houses with privies was more than three times as great as that
upon houses with pail-closets, and that upon houses with pail-
closets more than four and a half times greater than that upon
houses with water-closets.^

Not only do Manchester and Salford suffer from the
prevalence of conveniences unsatisfactory in themselves, but
the conditions are often made much worse by the inadequacy

' Public Health and Housing, by Dr. Sykes, p. 79, at. seq.

46 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

of the provision of these conveniences. The following table
exhibits the state of affairs. In many cases where several
closets are provided in a block for a number of houses (as is
frequently the case in rows of back-to-back houses and in some
courts) it is found that several of them are unfit for use, and
the number of families dependent on one convenience is
therefore increased.

Houses Sharing One Closet.

In 4

cases,

eight

houses

one closet.

„ 4

))

seven

)) 5

six

„ 13

five

„ 29

))

four

In one instance a block of 40 houses was investigated which
had six pail-closets for all the houses. In another instance 26
houses shared five closets, three of which were unusable. Again
19 houses were found sharing five closets. In another part of
the report we have referred to the fact that in some districts
houses are tenanted by several families. In some instances
this makes the lack of adequate closet accommodation even more
noticeable. We may quote, as an illustration, three houses,
one containing four rooms and two containing three rooms
each, which share one closet. These houses contained eight
families (30 persons) at the time they were visited.

Examples of three and two houses sharing one closet are
too numerous to quote.

With unsatisfactory closet accommodation usiialh^ goes
unsatisfactory provision for the disposal of ashes and refuse.
If it is necessary for a tenant to carry refuse far to put it in an
ashpit, there will be a tendency to allow refuse to accumulate
in the house and then to deposit it in the nearest available
place, i.e., the court or street. In several cases where more
than one house uses the same ashpit the accommodation is
insufficient, or the ashpit is not emptied frequently enough,
or it is kept in poor repair. From all of these causes refuse
and ashes tend to get scattered in the streets and courts and,
of course, are carried thence into the houses to make more dirt.

In Chorlton-on-Medlock. Old property in bad repair. Dirty
street.

Til St. Michael's Ward. A court with eleven houses. Note tap,
closets and ash boxes. Closet doors torn from their hinges.

To face jk ^6.

z a>

! ;« ?.

9J ^

To face p. J^.7 .

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 47

Under the conditions of modern city life the only system
which is quite satisfactory is that of having a portable bin,
emptied at frequent intervals, and so placed that spilt refuse
can readily be seen.

Insufficient Air Space about the House.

We have already spoken of the need of ample air space
within the houses if healthy conditions are to prevail. But it
has to be remembered that the air within the houses has
constantly to be renewed from the outside air, and it is
therefore of the first importance that the outside air should be
fresh, and that it should come freely in contact with the house.
Where streets are narrow and are arranged on a rectangular
plan there is a constant tendency for air to stagnate. The
wider the street the fresher will be the air in that street.
Many of the parts of Manchester which were built in the
earlier part of last century have streets which are too narrow
to allow this free circulation of the air. And what is true of
the street is even more applicable to the backs. In these older
districts — we leave back-to-back house's out of account for the
moment — the yards are small and the passages between the
yards of houses facing two parallel streets are very narrow.
In these dismal regions air stagnates. The back yards tend to
become lumber places and litter heaps ; the passages get strewn
with refuse, and the air which reaches the house is
contaminated.

In these older districts, and still too frequently in new
districts, examples of long unbroken rows of houses are to be
found. Such long rows again prevent the free circulation of
the air about the houses.

It will not be easy to remove defects of this kind already
existing in our towns. They are mainly results of the wrong
laying out of ground plans. The lesson is rather that we
should carefully look to the laying out of streets in districts
which are not at present built upon, taking care that many of
the streets shall be wide, that there shall be ample space behind
the houses, and also that at intervals in the district open spaces
of some size shall be left in which, if at all possible, trees and
flowers may be grown to further freshen the air.

48 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

We shall again refer to planning in another chapter, but
what we have said above suggests mention of another defect in
the air surrounding houses. A town under present conditions
cannot help having a smoky and polluted atmosphere. But
with care the atmosphere might be greatly improved in this
respect. It is a sad comment on our Manchester atmosphere
that it has been said that trees and plants cannot flourish here.
The atmospheric impurities which destroy the health of the
plants cannot fail to injuriously affect the health of the human
beings who live in the district. Trees and plants, too, are
important factors in contributing to the healthiness of a town
since they tend to restore the balance to the composition of the
atmosphere by removing gaseous impurities and returning
health-giving and essential oxygen.

We consider the absence of trees from our streets a matter
worthy of attention. The value of vegetation is so great, from
a moral as much as from a physical point of view, that we ven-
ture to suggest an imitation of Liverpool, which has slum districts
much like our own. There in the wider streets of the poorer
districts trees in tubs are placed, as is done here in some of the
open places in town. There are several streets in An coats, in
Hulme, and in Chorlton-on-Medlock wide enough to allow this
to be done.

The pollution of the atmosphere in our towns by coal smoke
has for long presented a grave problem to sauitary reformers.
Thanks to efficient inspection and modern appliances, the
nuisance has been greatly abated so far as factories are con-
cerned. But there still remain thousands of smoky house
chimneys. A simple inexpensive grate which would consume
its own smoke is much needed. A further reduction in the
price of gas and the introduction of economical and low-priced
cooking and heating gas-stoves would also greatly assist in
getting a pure atmosphere for Manchester and Salford.

Another defect, which is reported in a large number of
houses, is the absence of any place for the storage of food. It
is probably true that in the houses instanced above, where
overcrowding and other insanitary conditions prevail, it seldom
happens that the tenants have food to keep for any length

MANCHESTER AND SALFOED. 49

of time, l)ut food kept even from one meal-time to the next
"under such conditions must be unwholesome. In every house
there should he a properly constructed food cupboard,
ventilating to the outer air.

A Note oisr Streets.

Incidentally we have referred to the narrow streets which
are common to the districts investigated. Yery wide streets
are infrequent in Manchester even in the centre of the city.
The difficulty of getting room for two tram lines must have
made this very apparent recently. But in the poorer residen-
tial districts, it is quite easy to find scores of streets only 24
feet wide or less. In the districts described, there are streets
measuring only 15 feet across, and two streets are 9 feet 2
inches and 9 feet 4 inches respectively. These very narrow
streets have the prefix " Back " to their names, but all the
same they contain the front entrances to several houses.

The importance of the street is well put in a recent
American report on housing conditions in Chicago : — " The
streets and alleys are to the people of a well-to-do district only
a convenience for transit. In an overcrowded district there
is little else more important to the happiness and welfare of
the people. For the children the alleys are playgrounds.
They also assure, by their open spaces, light and ventilation
to the houses. If they are clean they serve this purpose to
the comfort and satisfaction of many, but if they are foul
and covered with undisturbed filth they detract from, rather
than add to, the healthiness and well-being of the community.
Streets, even more than alleys, serve the purpose of play-
grounds and open spaces. In the evenings, when the weather
permits, these places swarm with the people from the neigh-
bouring overcrowded houses.

This common property in the districts where it serves as
little more than a convenience is given some care, while in the
districts where it is a vital necessity it is wretchedly neg-
lected."

How well this description of American conditions suits

50 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

our own, those who know the poorer parts of our towns can
testify.

There are three points in connection with the streets to
which we wish to draw attention. The first we have already
mentioned, the streets are in most cases too narrow. Even
with the low two-storey buildings, it is difficult to get sunshine
to the houses if the street is only 24 feet wide. And narrow
streets also mean little air. The air gets caught between the
houses and stagnates there. Our bye-laws make it compulsory
to form new streets 36 feet wide, but even that is not enough.
The principal streets in every new district should be made
60 feet wide, with 36 feet or more for most of the side streets,
to ensure a plentiful supply of light and air to the houses.

We do not suggest that all streets should be made wide.
German experience has proved that this has the effect of
unnecessarily raising rents by making the cost to builders
greater. But every house should have a wide street near it
to serve both as a channel for fresh air and as a place of
exercise and recreation.

The next point is the paving of the streets. With the
exception of a few streets in the centre of the city which have
wood paving, our streets are paved with stone setts. In the
business parts of the towns and along the main lines of com-
m.unication this is probably necessary owing to the heavy
traffic. In the poorer districts it is noticeable that the paving
is often less well done and is not kept in as good repair as in
the principal streets. In these districts there is little or no
heavy traffic passing through the streets, so that the stone
setts are not necessary. A New York Commission, appointed
in 1894 to consider the housing of the poorest in the town,
made a careful study of the kinds of paving most suitable for
the streets in the poorer districts, and recommended the
municipality to extend as quickly as possible the system of
asphalt paving. The reasons for giving this advice are to be
found in the following extract from the report of the
Commission : —

" It would seem that this style of pavement (asphalt) is

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 51

the easiest to keep clean owing to its smoothness. Traffic
throusrh the streets on which tenement houses are built is not,
as a rule, heavy enough to require the more solid pavement
of stone. In the latter pavement, while it will stand more
heavy trucking than any other, there are small cracks or
interstices between the granite blocks, and in these dirt and
other matter lodges in such a manner as to prevent the
mechanical sweeps from removing them. Most of the material
found in street sweepings, especially in tenement districts, is
composed of animal and vegetable matter, containing micro-
organisms of pathogenic character. Not only can asphalt
pavement be thoroughly swept, but when necessary, as in cases
of threatened epidemic, it m.ay be washed as clean as the floor
of a house. Absence of noise is one the greatest advantages
of the system, especially in the more crowded tenement house
districts."

We consider that the lesson of this extract might well be
applied to many of our streets. The same lesson is taught by
the experience of Cologne, an account of which is given in the
Supplementaiy Volume.

The third point bears a close relation to the preceding one ; it
is the dirtiness of the streets. In the poorer districts the dirt
and dust of the streets must be a constant source of danger
to health. Most of the houses open straight from the street
and every gust of wind and everyone entering the house bring
a fresh supply of dirt. Where the people are not especially
careful and clean, they regard the struggle with dirt as hope-
less and frankly give it up, with ill effects to themselves and
even more to their children. Wherever the streets are
habitually dirty, one finds that the people use the street as a
receptacle for garbage and rubbish, a habit strengthened
doubtless by the frequent absence of proper places in which
to put such material.

We cannot expect the narrow streets to be widened at once,
nor can we hope that they will be at an early date paved in a
more suitable way, but we do urge that steps should be taken
to see that the streets in the poorer parts get as much attention

52 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

as those in the well-to-do districts. Sweeping in the smaller
streets and in the courts is not enough; they ought to be
washed down regularly. In Glasgow, which is deservedly
regarded as a model in many respects, great attention is given
to washing the streets, and to encourage cleanliness the
Corporation places, free of cost, hose connections in all private
streets and courts. We hope that so soon as our water supply
admits, a similar system will he established here and measures
be taken to see that it is used.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. .-53

CHAPTER IV.

Districts Desceibed in Detail.

The following pages contain descriptions of some selected
areas in Mancliester and Salford. In each case, the descrip-
tion is based on the results of a house-to-house enquiry-
carried out during 1902 and carefully checked. The areas
were chosen as the result of a general survey made in 1901
when information, in general terms, as to the conditions
prevailing in different parts of the towns, was obtained from
many clergymen, ministers, medical men, and others, whose
d\ities brought them much in contact with the people. We
are glad to say that in a number of cases, through the action
of the sanitary authorities, the areas have since been improved
or are undergoing improvement, and the conditions now are
not as described. But our areas were merely examples, and
serve to show the citizens of oiir towns under what condition
some of their neighbours live. For, although improvements
have been effected in some of the areas examined, it would not
be difficult to enumerate others in which the conditions are still
equally bad. Since the detailed examination was completed
we have submitted our descriptive summaries to the scrutiny
of ministers of religion and others working in the districts.

Following the summaries of the conditions in each district,
we have given in tabular form a series of extracts from the
visitors' note-books. These have been chosen carefully to
illustrate the good as well as the bad revealed by a systematic
investigation. It will be seen by the reader that in nearly
every district there are houses in good repair, well kept by the
tenants, and, although not up to first-class sanitary require-
ments, more or less wholesome dwellings if neighbouring
insanitary dwellings were removed. There are many houses,
in the districts described and in other parts of Manchester
and Salford, which are just beginning, from lack of repair or
from careless treatment by the tenants, to approach the line

54 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

which separates tlieni from slum property. To these houses
public attention ought to be directed as much as, if not more
than, to existing slums.

We have not indicated the exact location of the areas to
avoid causing inconvenience to individual tenants. In the
appendix, the Schedule used by the investigators is reprinted.

DiSTEICT Xo. 1 IX AXCOATS.

General. The district examined covers an area of 12"67
acres, being roughly 307 yards across and 200 yards deep. It
forms a rough parallelogram, the boundaries being streets of
fair width. The district is almost entirely residential though
factories and works are quite near. It contains nearly 600
dwellings, varying in size from six to two rooms. Houses of
the latter type are back-to-back and are gradually tending to
disappear under pressure from the Sanitary Committee of the
Corporation. The streets are narrow with few exceptions, and
there are several cul-de-sacs and courts. There is no open
space in the district, though the remains of a croft exist at
the north-east corner of the district. This is used as a play-
ground by the children and youths of the neighbourhood, but
after wet weather is in a filthy state.

The inhabitants are poor, and none of them are far removed
from actual want. In many cases the visitor found that the
family was in real distress for lack of means. " Labourer " is
the usual return given as the occupation of the head of the
household, though carter, railway worker, packer, and other
similar occupations occur. Very few skilled workers were
found in the district, and a large proportion of those found
were out of work. The investigators noted that they were
often old men, occasionally they were invalids, and in a few
cases there was evidence that they were intemperate. In a
good many instances the head of the household was a widow
earning money by charing or washing. The younger members
of the families seem to earn good wages in comparison with
their seniors, boys being employed in mills or becoming
labourers at an early age; girls going to mills or serving in
shops.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 55

Twelve licensed houses are to be found in the district and
there are many more immediately outside. This may be stated
in other words as one licence to every 40 houses. A church is just
outside the area on the south side, and at the north-east corner
there is another church with a large People's Institute and
schools in connection with it.

The most marked feature of the district on walking through
it is its dulness. There is a complete absence of trees, and
there is seemingly little attempt to grow plants or to otherwise
brighten the homes. This is the more marked since evidences
of effort in this direction are to be seen in the wider streets
before one enters the district, and even in the wider of the
streets crossing the district itself.

Population, overcroicding and health of area. The statistics
given by the Medical Officer of Health, in his latest report,
show the average density of population for Ancoats as 113
persons to the acre. This statement, of course, applies to the
400 acres included in Ancoats, much space being occupied by
railways, canals, and factories. In the small district under
discussion, the area of which is 12'6T acres, there are very
nearly 47 houses to the acre. From the figures obtained by
house-to-house visitation, the average household consists of
just over four persons, the actual figure being 433. This
gives a population density of 203 (202'64) persons to the acre.
The ill effects of overcrowding on area are discussed in another
place (p. 29). It may suffice here to compare this density
with the average density of Manchester, which is 42 persons
to the acre.

Though a high death-rate and frequent cases of illness
are perhaps to be looked for in some parts of Ancoats owing
to the large proportion of people earning low wages, and there-
fore poorly nourished, and to the large proportion who have
not the knowledge which would enable them to spend their
wages to the greatest advantage, yet some share of the blame
for the high mortality must be thrown on the close packing
of dwellings on the land, and also on the poor character of
many of these dwellings.

56 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

Another evidence of untoward conditions in Ancoats is to
be found in the report of the Medical Officer of Health, which
shows that for the year 1901, in Ancoats, 234 out of every
1,000 children born died before attaining the age of one year.*

Overcrowding in the individual houses is apparently not
very common. It has to be remembered that this is now an
offence if persisted in, and in any case may lead to incon-
venience if the sanitary authorities take action, and that
consequently some pains are taken to prevent the discovery
of its existence. On the whole, however, we are satisfied that
in this district at any rate, overcrowding by the census
standard, i.e., more than two people to a room, is relatively
uncommon. In several cases bad overcrowding even by this
lax standard has been reported, but in these cases there have
usually been large families of young children. But here
asrain attention must be drawn to the fact that in a two-roomed
house, the whole family sleeps in one bedroom, and that in a
three-roomed house with six inhabitants (which by the census
standard is not overcrowded) overcrowding will almost cer-
tainly taJie place every night.

It has been noted that the rooms of the houses in this dis-
trict are small and a little reflection at once convinces one that
healthy life in these houses is hardly possible. In a fairly
typical street of the district the size of one of the bedrooms
is 10 feet by 10 feet by 8 feet 3 inches which cubed is 825 cubic
feet. For healthy life some 800 cubic feet of fresh air is
required every hour by an adult man, and a little less by a
wom.an. In such a room as this it may be taken for granted
that there is not 800 cubic feet of air space, since furniture,
though often scanty, occupies some space. Yet rarely does
one find a room of this kind used as a sleeping place for one
person only, and examples are not lacking of three and four
(in one case six) people occupying such a room at night. And
the requirements are that the air shall be fresh. In these
houses partly for warmth, partly from ignorance, windows are

* As shown on the table given on p. 42, the rate of mortality for children
under one year dropped in 1902 to 178 per 1,000 births.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 57

not regularly opened, and they are very rarely kept open
at night, so for hours each night the occupants breathe and
re-breathe polluted and poisonous air.

A word may be said here as to the causes of this over-
crowding. Rents in the district are going up, especially for
the smaller houses. With the low earnings, often uncertain,
of those who live in the neighbourhood there goes a natural
desire to keep the fixed charges on the week's income as low
as possible. Hence a tenant, even though he dislikes the house,
will stay, lest he should find it impossible to get an equally
cheap house elsewhere. Another factor, slight as yet, is said
to be at work keeping some of the dAvellers in the district still
in their overcrowded houses. It is that agents and landlords
have a natural prejudice against tenants from a neighbourhood
which has a bad name, and thus a tenant may be prevented
from finding a better house. How far this statement is true
we do not know.

The houses. There are not many one-roomed dwellings in
this district. By far the larger number are two-roomed and
four-roomed houses. Many of the former are back-to-back
dwellings; the latter are of the familiar " two up, two down "
type. A good many three-roomed houses are to be found, most
of them with a small scullery. In the case of other than back-
to-back houses, the most frequent ground of complaint is that
the houses are kept in poor repair. In many cases walls and
oeilings are falling; often, too, the houses are damp owing to
neglect of roof repairs. There is no doubt that in some cases
the internal disrepair of the house is due primarily to the
carelessness of the tenants, but in other cases the age of the
house should be sufiicient ground for careful and systematic
repairing. It has been said more than once by tenants — we
do not know with how much truth — that the landlord will not
execute repairs because the property is to be condemned. The
pity is that the condemnation is not made effective.

Rents show a considerable range. For a two-roomed house
in one street the same rent is asked as for a four-roomed house
in a neighbouring street. The cost of a two-roomed house is
from 2s. 9d. to 4s. 6d. weekly, the average rental being 3s. 5d.
Three rooms are rented at from 2s. 9d. to 5s. 9d. weekly; the

58 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

average rent being just under 4s. 3d. per week. A four-
roomed house lets at from 3s. 3d. to 7s., the average being
almost 4s. lOd. One room with a scullery rents at 3s. 2d,,
without a scullery at 2s. 6d. Five-roomed houses let at rents
varying from 5s. 6d. to 6s. 6d. Of the houses examined, 44'5
per cent, had four rooms, 34'8 per cent, two rooms, 15'7 per
cent, three rooms, 3 per cent, five rooms, and 2 per cent, one
room.

District No. 2 in St. John's Ward.

The investigation in this district has covered only a small
area, but the results are important. The area described below
abuts on a street occupied for the most part by professional
men's chambers and on one of the most important business
thoroughfares in the city.

Special attention has been given to a series of courts lead-
ing off a narrow back street. Three of these courts are culs-de-
sac. The other two, which lie on the opposite side of the
street, have narrow exits into the street beyond.

The three cul-de-sac courts to the north contain 25
dwelling-houses, a shop, and a lodging-house. Each court is
21 yards long; one is 10^ feet, the other two are 17| feet wide.
The width of the street on which they open is 24 feet. The
courts are flagged, with a gutter in the centre, but the fall
is poor and the water often stands.

The houses are all old, probably built early last century,
three storeys high and back-to-back. The average population
at the time of investigation was 4' 75 persons to a house. Two
of the houses were to let and on a more recent visit, it was
found that another house was to let. The tenants chiefly
belong to the unskilled labour class.

The rent of each house is 4s. 3d. per week, except for the
corner houses facing the street, which let at 4s. 6d. Each
house covers an area of 12 feet 6 inches by 15 feet. Each
contains a living room measuring 11 feet 9 inches by 20 feet
6 inches by 8 feet 4 inches, a bedroom of the same size and
another bedroom 14 feet 5 inches by 10 feet 6 inches by 7 feet
4 inches. There are no pantries a ad no provision for the

I>]

Hea«l of Hoiiseho
pation, and Eamiti |y,

Striker, 20/-
Moulder, 40/-

Labourer, 19/

Labourer, 22/

Market man.
Carter, 22/-

Labourer, 20/

Baker, 26/-
Wife of soldiei

Widow, sewiii:

To fncs page 5S.

Mines ANU UKMAltKS

yes

yes
yes

yes

yes
yes

: yes

Back-to-back house, end of row. Entry beside it.

Ceilings and walls very damp and cracked.
Smells from privy and drains. Tenant said sanitary

authorities were putting pressure on landlord to

repair house.
Daughter of tenant and four children temporary

residents.
House dark, owing to small windows. Closet very

old and tumble-down. One room is not used.
Walls damp. Yard shared by two houses.

Husband at Gibraltar. Wife allowed Is. lid. per
day. Six sleepers in bedroom of 893 cub. ft.

House very dirty, and damp from continuous washing
going on in house. Water standing in yard.

Distirict No. X — in Anooa.'ts.

.^ooaas.

occ'SJJnL

co™T,o.,o,r»«„oe.a

„r™«.

-'^;;;;r^

i."i!I!l! JU''i£nSSS SSSd.

CklUmi

£>»

|„_.

1 n„.ii

"zr

~i^w

1 ^^^1^^ ^.^ij 1'1-HOtJCS

KcMirr

D«D[.t

Kind.

CU,.! S^

n.»u

•hwUV

:»

IShwttw.

.>»nT«i')

..newp-

SUiket, 20/- (71

olivclsi^

3/0

Ino

yea

yes

p.a

fair

yes

Back- to-back house, end of row. Entry litaitle it.
Ceilings and walla very damp and craiked.

Moulder. 40/- (!)

4/9

yes

ye»

yes

.Midden
Privy

yes

Smells from privy and drains. Tenant said sanitary
authorities were putting pressure on laiidlurd to
repair hoiiae.

Daughter of tenant and four children temporary
reeidenta.

Honee dark, owing to small w-indowB. Clcset verv

Ubourer. 19/-

4/6

see

yes

W.C.

ye.

yea

yes

Ubourer.22/-

—

V-

yes

yea

Midden

ya.

yee

Privy

old and tumble-down. One room ia not us<-d.

Miirltetinftn.35/-(T)

V-

yes

yea

yee

W.C.

J-ea

yes

jes

Walls damp. Yard shared by two hoiiscfe.

Cuter. 22/-

Three ions and two
daughters work.
STREET.

6*Sc

5/6

yee

yes

yee

P.C.

yes

yea

yes

Uhourer.20/-

Daughter, toffee
factory. 4/-

5/6

Je«

yes

J-C6

W.C.

ye.

yes

Bnker.26/-

—

2iSc

V-

«»

yea

yes

w.a

y<«

yes

—

yes

Wifr of soldier

2iSc

*l-

yes

W.C.

yes

yea

yes

Husband at Gibraltar. Wiie allowed Is. lid. per
day. Six sleepers in bedroom of 883 cub. ft.

Widow, sewing, 3/-

Daughter, takes in
waehing, 5/6, son,
" nipper," 6/-

STBEET.

—

4/3

yes

W.C.

yea

—

yes

House very dirty, and damp from continuous washing

going on in house. Water standing in yard.

Ubourer. 18/-

3iSc

4/31

yes

W.C.

yes

yee

Extra Jd. on rent is charged for cleaning cloeels

STREET.

Glass-niould maker

3/3

P.C.

Back-to-back house. Four cloeeta for eight hou8t<.
Tenants say they prefer two-roome<l bouse, ns
there is less house- work

Shop-keeper

Daughter, millhand
0/-

3/6

PC.

Extra bedroom over closets. Closeta very dirty.
Ashes spilt all over seats.

Waterman. 2S/-

—

4/6

y<8

yes

W.C.

yes

—

yes

Kitchen damp.

Pavior.30/-

3/6

P.C.

Wareliousoman

—

3SSc

V-

yea

yes

W.C.

yes

STREET.

mil hand. 26/-

Daughter, millhand
pays 10/-, daugh-
ter, ditto, pays 7/4
Bon. warehouse-
man.il/-

4*Sc

6/3

yes

PC.

fair

yes

Smells from drains. Walls and ceilings damp and
crumbling.

1(J

Saw.ver.21/-

4/-

yes

P.C.

Back-to-back house. Closet filthy and unusable.

— out of work

3/9

yes

P.C.

yes

Back-to-back house. Entry, where cloeeta are. smells
badly. Refuse and dirty water are thro'mi there.

labourer. 24/-

Son. in office. 10/-
Dauglilcr. in miU.
9/-. Daughter, in
mill.O/-

4iSc

6/-

yes

yts

yes

PC,

fair

yes

y<a

House lias a cellar.

STREET.

Moulder.40/-(r)

—

5/6

yes

W.C.

yes

—

yes

Chip seller. 3/-

2/9

yes

yea

P.C.

Second bedroom over closets, and smell comes through
floor. House in very bad repair.

Flanneletteraifler. 18/

TERRACE.

2/9

yes

ye.

P.C.

Bedroom cold, damp, and vermin-infected. Smells
badly. Family lives and sleeps in one room.

Moulder, out of work

2/9

yes

yea

W.C.

yes

Uving room dork, owing to nearness of a hooniing.
YmxI shared with next house.

STREET.

Widow, aged

Son. card cutter.

S/-to9/-
Wife. weaver. 11/-

tol2/-
STREET.

—

3/3

yra

W.C.

yea

—

Labourer. 21/-

3£Sc

4/-

yes

yea

W.C.

yea

Scullery window fixed.

Labourer, out of work

—

3/9

yes

P.C.

yes

—

yes

Very bad repair ; roof defective, and both bedpoome

very damp. House generally dirty and dismal

Tenant aaya it has been cleaned once by lindlord

Labourer, 21/-

Daughter.milt hand

6/-
STREET.

5/-

yes

yea

yes

W.C.

yes

m past twelve years.
Roof in bad condition ; lets water through.

Printers' cutter. 24/-

5/3

yea

yes

yea

P.C.

fair

yea

yes

Jart sheet maker. 24/-

Twosona. 10/-

0/-

yes

W.C.

yea

yes

Overcronded house. Seven sleepers in one bedrrom-
Bedrooms very dirty and unwholescme m
appearance. Tenant lived in street 30 years-

Cliarwoman

Son. " nipper." 7/-
Daughter. mUl.lO/-

0/-

yee

y»

yes

yea

W.C.

yea

yes

House lately altered and rent raised. Kitchen so
built that liall ia in darkness. United income of
family makes about £1 per week, out cf which
Os. is paid for rent.

Labourer. 18/-

—

3/0

yes

,ves

P.C.

yes

—

Baek-to-back house.

Labourer.23/-(*)

4&Sc

5/2

foir

yes

ye.

P.C.

yes

Scullery walla all but falling in ; rain comes through on
stairs, and front bedroom ii damp.

Labourer. 18/-

4/-

yes

yea

W.C.

,vea

yes

—

yes

Yard shared by two houses.

Joiner. out of work

Son. Ry. servant.

brella maker, pays
7/9. d'fr pays 9/0

4<tSe

5/6

yes

PC.

fair

yes

Kitchen floor very weak and shaky. Fue sleepers
in one bedroom, four in another. One person
sleeps in the living-room.

STREET.

Widow, washer-

Son. labourer, 21/-

3/6

yes

yea

yes

PC,

yea

—

Back-to-baek house with ceUar. Mother and two

woman oceasionally

Son. labourer. 7/-

sons sleep in bedroom.

Journeyman painter.

Daughter. shirt-
maker. 8/-. daugh-
ter, doubler. 7/-

3/9

yes

jea

ye.

P.C.

\tA

Baek-to-back bouse, the second bedroom bi-mg
partly over closet.

Dis-tz-ict No. X— in Antioa.ts.~Continued.

■-

^^^

lOTAI, 1

w.voi™.vorTH»Hoi;si

omcEs.

„,„

,.'nril"s:S£SSi.

""^""i^. """"

tu>.

.■i-

«.uu. Isr™.

,.,■

««.t

taCwil

ncur ! i>«npT nukt wmsom

I'..

OMBt

.-^

>o™ A-su .,..M,u;Ka

abviw

«»u»

— out o( work

Wife, waaiiing. 0/-

3 l4»S<

5/3

yes

>-es

no 1 no

yes

P.C.

fur

ye.

—

yes

Son. office boy. fl/-

Daughter. shirt-

maker. 4/-

— out of work

—

V-

yes

ye.

P.C.

ye.

—

Hoiwc old and in bad n-pnir. Five Hlet'pcra in one

Iroii-tumor. outof
ivork

Wile, washing. 6/-
Daughterpay8 7/-
SonpaysU/-

4jtSc

5/3

y»

ye.

yea

P.C.

fair

yea

ye«

Ubourer.20/-

STKEET.

3/4

yes

yea

P.C

Difliiaed cellar. Smells from clc«et«. House cold,
dranghty. and damp.

CtrdcuMoMO/-

3iSc

3/3

yea

y»

P.C

.vcs

yes

House in bad repair, inside and out. Tenant has
complained, but fcara to be too insistent lest he
be turned out. Ooset in bad repair.

Labourer. 18/-

Wile, washing. 4/-

Son-/O.«on(i/-

STBKET.

—

3* 8c

3/3

yes

w.c.

yes

—

yea

Flooring of living room in bad repair.

Widow, wjwher-

Daughter, cap-

—

6/-

y«

ye.

yes

w.c

yes

ye.

yea

,vom.n.l/Operday
Uboiirer.20/-

maker, 6/-

Sou(Hl)9/-

—

V-

ye.

yra

yes

P-C.

yes

—

yes

Ba«.'k rooms \-ery damp. Vord used by five housnt.

Uaughter(U)5/-

PLACE.

Ubourer. 18/-

3/9

y«

P.C.

yes

This row of back-to-back houses (—Place) s in a
bad state of repair inaide and out.

STREET.

GlA4suiakor

COURT-

3/9

ye<!

P.C

yes

A dirty liouse; overcrowded bedroom.

Labourer

STREET.

3tSc

3/6

yes

Midden
Privy

yes

HouBo filthy. Windows of small bedroom and
scullery will not open.

S.OT-er 22/-

—

4/3

yea

yes

W.C

y«s

yes

—

ycfl

Yard very dirtv. Tenant complains of damp

kitchen.
Beautifully clean house. Pcullery window wr-nl

Agedn.an

Son. labourer, out

3*Sc

4/6

yea

yes

P.C

yes

yee

of work, daughter

open.

Widow

y-toV- .

Son-in-law, piecer,
18/6, daughter U/-

STREET.

3iSc

4/11

ye.

J-es

P.C.

ye.

yes

yea

Yard drain choked. Tenant receives penaion trom
railway company ns her husband waa kdled
whUe working for t hem-

Labourer, 22/-

—

3 4Sc

3/9

yes

P.C

yea

—

ytM

Yard blocked by an old pigeon bouse.

Labourer. 20/-

Son. mossage-boy,
0/-,dauBhter,nincl-
er, 8/-.3aiicht«r.
bobbin- earner. 6/-

3JtSc

3/10

yes

W.C.

yes

ynB

yea

Pigeons and a dog kept in yard. Five sleepen" in
each betlroom.

Ironworkar. outof
work (chopping
sticks)

HtSu

3/0

ye.

yes

yes ■

Eight occupantB sleep in one bedroom. One bed-
room diaiLied owing to largo hole in roof, which
admits rain. Another bedroom is used as a
pigeon-house. Living-room full of aticka and all

family working there. Kitchen only uaed to

Ptore'rubbish.

Labourer. 8/- to 9/-

8on. aandpapcrer,
7/-to8/-..on.
packer. 10/-. son-
in-law. labourer,

20/-

3/10

yea

yes

P.C.

yes

yea

Closet pail full and overllowiiiL".

PLACE.

Fltttr'j laboilIi>r,24/-

3/0

ye.

yes

ye.

yes

P.C

n"^

yes

At back of this and next houaes is a narrow paved
entry. A high wall rises within 3ft, of back door,
making kitchen dark. Two clcscta for nine

Labouriir. 18/-

3&Sc

3/2

ye.

yea

ditto

The amallir bedroom is directly over two pail cloecta,
used bv all famihes in — Place, and open to any-
one- Both bedrooms at prwent dUused ; they
smell most offensively from cloaete. Flooring is
defective, and the rooms reck.

STREET.

Warehouseman. 20/-

3/0

!">

ye.

yes

P.C.

.vea

ye.

aoaet in sort of forecourt before dcor of house. whi< h
is back-to-back. House damp: part of stair
an<l bedroom walb falling in.

Labouror. 17/8

STREET.

3/2

y«

ye.

P.C

yes

yra

House has cellar, used for wanhing.

B«tinxl blacksmith

Grandson. 8/-

3£Sc

5/0

yes

yea

yes

W.C

ye.

yes

Tailor. 24/-

Wife. tailorosB.10/-

—

V-

yes

y<»

W.C

ye.

yes

—

Front room damp. House dirty and unpleaaant.

Out of repair.
Ooset in disgracoful condition ; bad smells. Bock-tc-

Labourer. 18/-

yes

yea

back house.

Labourer. 20/-

3/9

ye.

yes

ye.

P.C

fair

yes

Back-to-back house ivitli cellar, where is water tap.

Labourer. 18/-
Cartor. 20/-

STREET.

2
2

4
2

2
2

3^
3/0

ye.

ye.
yi».

J«

PC.

P.C

4
3

ye.
yea

Back-to-back house. Cellar not used. Six sleejera

Back to-back house with cellar, in which is water tap.
sink, and eoprer. Pad smells frcm cellar drain.

Olasf blower

Son.glass cutter ,8/

4asc

5/3

y»

ye.

P.C

fair

ye.

—

y«

Carter. 25/-

Son. mill hand.lO/-
Daughter. jacket-
maker's apprentice

4>9

ye.

yes

ye.

Water tap is in a cellar. oIho . ]< thw boiler.

•

Diatplct Ifo. X — ix& Mja.<3oa,1ia.~Continued.

'—

■ — -

LODORU* 1 ^j^TOTA^^ 1

^^Z^

„, „, „,E „„„,t

tmcKs.

■

.^Si'^iSSSSSSt

'^^'''""''i'i.iS'. ''"'"^

■11,1 L'u.

.a„.

S!KI

IWt

tt!| n...

n«mpT

OM. IwKj:!.

cuwt 1 ii*i2L

.'wrt3

I, ih.r.

Ui,*nl!7

■«'"*•

Uboiirer.20/-

3/1

no 1 no

Midden
Privy

no 5 , no

Six sleepcra iu iHdrootn. kack-to-back houses

Confectioner

—

4/9

1 ye«

yi»

no yea

Midden
Privy
Midden

fair 3 ya

—

Wit«r tftp and clotheR boUer in cellar.

Widow

Daughter, cap.
maker, 12/^

3/-

1 ao

no no

no 1 6 no

Very bad ameil in home when vigitod. owing to

Privy

receptacle in hotisc being used insirad of Btreet
clceet

STREET.

Corporation labourer

Son. 7/-

5/9

;«

no yea

w.a

ye. ! 1 i yo

ye.

Furniture maker. 20/-
to 50/-

4&Sc

6/S

no 1 yea

p.a

ye«

I 1 ye.

—

J™

Tenant left countrv to I>e near work. Whole family
sleeps in one room.

Labourer

3/6

P.C.

yea

3 no

_ outofvrork

3/6

yea

P.C.

yea

3 1 no

House damp. Tenant complains of high rents in
the district.

Ubouier. 57/-

Brother pavs 10/-

—

6/-

yea

yee

yea

P.C.

fair

1 i| ye.

—

yea

Wheel might

Daughter. milt
hand. .1/0

—

sat So

6/0

y«

yea

P.a

ye.

I 1 ye.

—

yea

Tramway aerrant.

3«Sc

6/0

yea

W.C

yes ' 1 yea

yea j

Very rotten, old houHe : rain loming through roof

23/-

into bedrooms. Window frames coming out

House cold and draughty. Landlord pays no

STREET.

Labonrer. 20/-

Son. 6/-

—

3/0

yes

no [ yes

P.C

yea 4 no

Six BJcepere in one room, one in living-rDoin.

Labourer, out of work

3tSc

4/3

yes 1 no

P.C.

yea 1 | yea

ye.

Rooms dark because of narrow street.

STREET.

Cop-reeler,8/-lo9/-

Niece, winder. 13/-

- I

—

2&8c

3/0

,«

yes

no 1 yea

P.C

! 3 ye.

Tenant works at home ; reeling niachine taking np
m\icli bpacc. House very clean.

Labourer

218c

3/0

°°

ye.

no 1 yea

P.C

' 1 3 ,1 J"

House in shocking repair, cold, and damp. Floater
falling from walls ; hole from living-tooni through

Retired, 0/- from
traile uiuon

Son pays 12/-
Daugliter paya 9/-

SftSc

5/0

yea

yea [ yes

P.C

ye. , 2

ye.

yea

House in very bad repair. Only two bedroomi used
as rain comes into the other. Kitchen walls very

Sonpa.V8 9/-

damp.

Daughter paya 9/-

8on paya 0/-

Widow

—

4/3

yes

yea

P.C,

ye. 1

.^"c.

—

yes

Tenant gets 19s. 6d. weekly from lier lodgere.

Widow

Son. moulder, paya
11/-; son. barber,
out of work ; aon
raiser, paya 8/-;
two daughters, mill
hand^, pay 10/6

4&Sc

6/-

joa

yea

P.C

yea

Overcrowded house. Smells from cloaet.

Carter. 18/-

4tSc

4/3

yea

P.C

1 j

ye.

This and neighbouring houses said to lie well looked
after by landlord, who readily attends to ccm-

plaintB. Houses, however, are very old and

tumbling to pieces, needing constant repairs.

1211

Cabinet-maker, 20/-

4/3

y"(!)

yea

no yes

P.C

yes

ye.

yea

Back bedroom wall bulging outwards. Has been

to22/-

patched up and repointed.

130

Labourer.20/-

4/3

y»

yea

yes 1 yea

P.C

yea

ye.

yes

Roof of closet—Iorge liagatones and plaster— fell in
a few days ago. Might have killed or seriously
injured anyone below. Already repaired.

134

Labourer, 20/-

—

4/3

yea

no 1 yea (

P.C

yea 1 1

yea

yes

Rain comw through to back bedroom.

144

Painter.outofwork

Son. porter. 9/-

—

4/3

yea

no ; yes 1

P.C

no 1 I

yea

—

jea 1

Smells from closet. Passage and scullery damp.

Daughter. 3/-
STR^ET,

Labourer,20/-(1)

V-

yea

(ae»
note)

y<8

yes

P.C

See

(01 m

House in good repair, but closets had. Twocloeeta
are provided for six houses in block. One is
without a seat, full of ashes and refuse, and not
used. Other without a key.

STREET.

Widow, hawker

Son in foundry
Twodaughtorain
mill

3/8

»«*.

yea

jea

P.C

y<«

yea

Smoke from neighbouring works makes windovs
black occasionally.

Porter and hawker

4tSc

4/2

r«

yoB

yea

P.C

yea

yee

Tenant sUbles a donkey under small bock bedroon-.

ll/9(!)

Tenants of neighbouring houses complain of
smell from stable. Another stable ncrosa street
is also complained of. A slaughter-house is
opposite. Chemical works not far off.

STREET.

Labourer, 22/-

Son. 7/-
Son. 5/-

3&Sc

4/4

yea

. °°

yea

W.C

yes

yea

yes

Family very poor. Xo bed in second bedroom ;
three boys sleep on a heap of straw and old
clothoa.

Labouror. 21/-

STREET,

3tSc

4/4

yea

no , ya

W.C

yes 1

yes

House overcrowded. Lodger (wife's sister) pays 4e.
weekly.

Widow

Daughter, tailoreaa
9/-, two «on. out of

3/0

J«"

ye.

P.C

Back-to-back house. Four sleepers in one room.

Wareliouaeman. 18/-

work

3/6

yea

W.C

ye.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 59

cashing of clothes. Each house has an oven, and also a water-
ap and sink in a cupboard.

The houses are kept in very fair repair and most of the
:enants appear to be cleanly. The rooms are well ventilated,
iach having a fireplace and an openable window and they are
ry. The windows are not large, and partly owing to this,
partly owing to the neighbouring buildings, the rooms are
lark. The closets are pail closets placed in the court, one
being provided for every three houses. One set are kept
locked, but the others are open. Two ashpits are provided for
every five houses.

Of fourteen families questioned, no fewer than nine said
they could live away from the district if they could have a
cheap tram service before 6 a.m. Most of them added that
they were attached to the district by old associations and would
be reluctant to move.

The courts on the south side of the street also contain old

houses, which are kept in poor repair by the landlord and are

also neglected by the tenants. Many of the floors and stair-

' ases were found in such bad repair that they were described

J the investigator as dangerous. Rents vary from 2s. 6d.

. 4s.

Seventeen houses have three rooms, one has two rooms, two
ive four rooms, and one has six rooms. The size of the
'oms varies from 10 feet 6 inches by 10 feet 6 inches to 16
I it it by 10 feet 8 inches; the average floor area is about 11 feet
square. The houses are all back-to-back. The four and six-
roomed houses mentioned have two rooms on a floor; the back
one receiving its light from the front room through a window
in the partition wall. The larger court is 19| feet wide at one
end, but only 12 feet wide at the other. Of two houses it is
reported that the top rooms are closed up, as the roof leaks
beyond possibility of repair. One house has a small scullery.
Several houses have cellars, though these are not always in
use. One locked cellar contained refuse from which un-
pleasant odours reached the room above through gaps in the
floor.

60 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

There is only one water-tap for all the houses in the two
courts and this is apparently used by 26 families. It is placed
in the larger court beside the closets and in frosty weather
is frequently out of order. The sanitary conveniences are
pail closets, placed in the court and facing the house doors.
They are described as being in a very unwholesome condition,
only two out of five being fit to use. The doors have neither
lock nor other fastening. A tenant explained that keys had
at one time been provided, but they got lost and the locks were
then broken off. People from the next street also use the
closets.*

District No. 3 ix St. Michael's Ward.
The part of this district investigated has been frequently
cited by writers dealing with housing conditions in Manchester*
as an example of what a district ought not to be. It has been
included in this investigation as an illustration of a process
which may take place in other districts of Manchester. Several
streets in the district are lined by houses of considerable age
and evidently built for moderately well-to-do families. As the
neighbourhood became less desirable, these families have
m.oved to other parts, and the houses have been occupied by
poorer families and finally have become lodging-houses. Two
types of lodging-houses occur, the common lodging-house,
which for our present purpose is left out of account, and, the
house " let in furnished lodgings," which is used as a more
or less permanent home. In the latter type, the rooms are
sparingly furnished and a tenant, who sometimes resides in the
house but often does not, sublets the rooms, singly or two
together, to separate families. The houses thus become of the
" tenement " type (see p. 34). Modern hygiene protests against
a one-roomed house, even when provided with modern sanitary
appliances. This type of lodging-house, of which examples

* Note. — Since this description was written, great changes have been made in
the area. The back-to-back houses have been converted into through
houses and proper sanitary accommodation ^provided. We are, however,
informed that the ^<tate of tliese houses had been mucli as -we describe
it for many years.

I>is

To J ace page 60

10
15

14
16

Hi'ad of Hnusehold, Oc
patioii, and Earnings Sbe

NOTES AND REMARKS

Carter, 20/-

Elcctriciaii's lahoi

Labourer, 17/-
Boatman

Widow, waslier-
\\oinaii, 5/-
Labourer

Docker
Waslierwoiiiaii

Labourer
Iceman

Shopkeeper (wido

Salesman

Packing-case mak

Newspaper agent
Drainer

Florist
No tenant

Coalheaver

Back- to- back house. Closet supposed to be for three
houses. Li reality one closet is used by all families
in court. A water tap in the centre is used by all
families in this court and next, in all about 26.

Floor of top room so weak as to be dangerous.
Family lives and sleeps in one room (see note
above).

Ceilings and wall in bad repair. Bad smells from
court.

Back-to-back house like otliers in court. Each floor
has two rooms, the back one cut off from front
room and receiving light by window in the par-
tition. Top floor closed because roof leaks. Man
and wife lodge in first floor rooms ; tenants on
ground floor rooms.

House shares narrow yard in which are two closets
for tliree houses.

Closets (see next note) so bad that tenants use closet
belonging to a friend in a neighbouring street.

Five pail closets serve 19 houses. Closets in filthy
state, used by strangers from street. Water supply
from next court (see note above).

Claset common to other houses in court, only 3yds.
from house door.

Closets in this case are locked.

Closet used is one of those in court noted above.

This house has a cellar in w hich is water tap.
Two closets in Place serve five houses, of which

this is one.

Court on which house opens is 5iyds. wide,
back-to-back. Overcrowded.

House

Tenant has lived in country and wants to get back
there, but cannot under existing circumstances
get into town in time for work.

The ashpit serves nine houses in this place.

The two extra bedrooms in this house are over the
ashpit for the next place.

Back-to-back house. Five houses share two closela.

Disti?ict No. 2— in St. John's lAfard.

5 Labourar, 17/-
8 Boatman

3 Widow, washer-
Labouror

Waalierwoiuaii

Shopkeeper (widow)
Salesman

Packing-caec niukor
Newspaper agt^iit

PLACE,
newsboy

I Dack-to-back liouso. Closet supposed to bo for three
l| houses. Li reality oiio doeetis used by ail famUjoti
". in court. A water tap in the centre is used by all
,, families in this trourt mid next, in nil about 2U.

Kioor of top room so weak ofl to be dangerous.
FiLuiily lives and sloops in ouo room (soo iioto
I above).

Ceilings and wall in bad repair. Bud Bmella from

, Back-to-back bouse like otiicre in court. Lacl floor

bos two rooms, the baek oiio <ut oR (ro fro t

room and receiving light by window tl c par

I tition. Top floor closed Wcause roof leaks Man

I and wife lodge in first tloor rooms ; tei auts o

I ground floor rooms.

!{ House slimes narrow yard in whieb are t\ o clvicta

II for three bouses.

I'loaolfl (sec next note) so hiu\ that tenanta use cloeet
belonging to a friend iu a neighbouring street.

Five pail eloaota serve ID bouses. Closets in filthy
state, used by strangers from street. Water supply
from next court (see note above).

Closet common to other houses in court, only Syds.
from house door.

Closcta in this coeo ore loukod.

Closet used is one of tlioae in court noted above.

This house has a cellar in wliich is water tap,
Two closets in Place serve five houses, of wliich

Tenant baa Uvcd i

Five houses share t

' Washing is done at
I a pot on living-r

i used as workshop. Whole family (six)

me, clothes being boiled in
m firo and dried in attic,
a bedroom.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD.

are found in Angel Meadow, sometimes does not even liave tlie
sanitary provision, wliich, according to modern ideas, would be
considered adequate if the house were occupied only by one
family.

The district is a poor one. More than the usual difficulty
has been experienced in getting information as to the occupa-
tions of the inhabitants. Information was obtained from 102
households. Of these the heads of the household —

In 47 cases said

they were labourers.

„ 15

„ porters (market and others).

„ 13

„ hawkers.

„ 2

„ flower dealers.

„ 2

„ brokers.

„ 7

„ carters.

„ 5

„ shoemakers.

In 11 cases the head of the household was a widow with no
defined occupation, an income being derived from casual
employment, from children's labour, or from parish relief.

In all 11 streets and four courts, containing 273 houses,
have been examined. Owing to clearances in connection with
railway extensions at one corner of the district, and as a result
of interference by the City Council in other parts, a number
of houses have been closed and are in process of demolition.
It is understood that other houses in the district are also
scheduled and will be closed.

From a sanitary point of view the district is in a backward
state. Most of the houses are old; in many instances they are
in want of structural repair, and they are frequently damp.
Where there are yards they are small and gloomy, and used
as receptacles for refuse. The water supply is deficient ; rarely
does a house possess a water-tap for its own exclusive use. The
figures given in this table give some idea of the state of affairs,
though only a personal inspection of the streets and of the
taps can give a true picture.

HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

In A
B
C
D
E
F

H
I

Houses vShaeixg One Wate

Street

r-Tap.

40 houses.

With tlie exception of 20 houses, each of which has a w.c,
the conveniences are pail closets. In several streets the closets
are placed, as is usual with back-to-back houses, in a group,
and are entered directly from the street. Used as they are
by members of more than one household, and by casual visitors
from the street, the sense of the responsibility for keeping the
closets clean and wholesome seems to have departed from the
district. The doors stand open and frequently display a reek-
ing, filthy, and sickening accumulation which reflects not only
on the dwellers in the district, but on the citizens at large who
allow such things to exist. The photographs reproduced fail
to indicate adequately the conditions which prevail.

Twenty-three cases were found of one-roomed dwellings.
In all cases the room was let as a furnished lodging on the
system which seems characteristic of the neighbourhood. The
rents charged per furnished room vary from 4s. to 5s. lOd. and
the average is nearly os. 2d. per week. When it is remembered
that the sanitary condition of many of these houses is
deplorable and that the furnishing is nominal, consisting
usually of a bed, with some sort of table, and, it may be, a
chair or two — often of a very makeshift kind — the rents
charged do not seem too low. On the other hand, it must be
said that there is evidence that tenants frequently leave without
paying rent.

The rents of unfurnished two-roomed houses vary from
2s. 6d. to 4s. 3d. per week; if there is a scullery from 3s. 6d.

T>t

To /are pat/e GS.

Hi'ad of Hoiiseliold
paiiuii, and Kamin^ i

NOTKS AND KKMARKS

11 Uncertain

12;

27
29

Market porter,

Labourer, 18/-
Hawker, 26/-

Toy maker, 28yjri
Labourer, 22/-
Dyer, pajrs wife y

Labourer, 19/-

yes

Cutler, out of \v
Railwav labou:

19/-
Slipper maker.

Carter, 28/-

i"^

House let in lodgings, three families having a room
each. House very dirty and neglected. Walls
and ceilings damp and cracked.

Attic bedroom damp ; rain comes in tlirough ceiling.

House let as " furnished " lodgings.

Industry carried on at home.

Yard is shared by three houses.

Yard as above. House very damp. Two front

rooms in very bad repair.
House neglected both by landlord and tenant.

Two families in house, each occupy two rooms.

Family of immigrant aliens.
This house is let " furnished."

Dlstplot mo. 3— in St. 9Xiolia,el's IVard.

^^^^

1 TOTAL

'1^

ov or TUB UOUSli

OFHCKS

™[ — '

S«l,pl.'m,nI4,T E.mon.

pBUun, •<rf linvln*, suied.

3UUd.

v^^

AdlUI..

SjIml

ri^";

Rn,t.

£S^

QMnt

DunpT Dart! wSd?,t,

Itlo±

a-., I!:;Z

now It,

.hSliS

IT vis*

NOTES A-NU UKM.VRK3

1 I o,-nr

1 STREET.

DncerWin

4JkS

5/3

yea

yes

P.C.

4 {' no

Home let in lodgings, three faoiLhes having a room

[

each. House very dirty and neglected, WalU

and ceilings damp and cracked.

STREET.

Market porter, 14/-

Wife, 10/-
Daughter,0/-

3<tS

4/9

yes

P.C.

ye.

Attic bedroom damp ; rain eomes in tlirough ceiling.

12;

Labovirer. 18/-
H«wker. 26/-

Wife. 8/-
STREET.

2
3

5/6
5/10

\y«

y<«

yes

P.C

House let as " furnished " lodguigs.

Toy maker. 28/-

—

6/6

yes

w.c

yes

yee

—

yes

Industry carried on at borne.

Labo.iror.22/-

4/3

yes

w.c.

yes

Yard iH shared by three liouaea.

Dyer. pays wife 9/-

Son pays 1*2/-
Son paya 3/-

—

5/9

yes

w.c.

yes

Yard aa nbove. House very damp. Two front
rooms in very bad repair.

Labouror. 19/-

STREET.

3/10

yee

yes

P.C

yes

House nogloctwl both by landlord and tenant.

Cutler. out ol work
Roil wav labourer,

19/-
Slipper maker, 24/-

Wife bawkcr, 8/-

2
2

3/3
2/6

yee

yes

P.C.

Two families in house, each occupy two rooms.

3/9

ycB

yffl

yes

P.C.

yee

Family of immigrant aliens.

STREET.

Carter.28/-

Wife, charwoman,
6/-

—

6/-

yes

yea

yee

P.C.

Tliis house is let " fumislied."

Labourer. out of work

3/6

yea

yes

P.C.

Back-to-hack house. Five sleepers in bedroom of

990 cub. ft. aoeeta in shocking state.

Street mujician, 2/6
per (lay

Wife, cleaning, 5/-

2&Sc

V-

yes

y<«

P.C.

House let " furnished." First tenant pays 3/6 rent.
House damp and dirty.

Marketportcr, 19/-

0/4

yea

yes

yee

P.C.

fair

yes

«1

Slippeniiaker. 16/-

Wife, cap-maker.

—

6>-

yea

yes

P.C

—

yes

House smells close and unwholesome. Two rooms

8/-

are used aa workroorae. Tenants aliens.

A
0511

Ma^kotpo^t«^. 17/-
Hawkor, 17/-
Hotel porter, 16/-

Daughter, 10/-
Wife. cleaning. 10/-

2
3
2

6/3

a/10

5/3

yra

yee
yes

|p.a

yes

yea J

Tap in kitchen serves for three families in bouse.
The house is let as " furnished " lodgings.

Carter, 16/-

Wife, 12/-
STREET.

4/6

yes

P.O.

yes

no-

Floora and walla of back rooms damp. House very
dirty. Aivful stench from kitchen.

HBwker,33/-(T)

V-

yes

yea

P.C

yes

—

House Slthy and damp.

Carter, 24/-

STREET.

3/6

yea

ye.

P.C.

Back-to-back house ; very damp. Six sleepers in

— out of work

TwoflOns."nippere"
5/- each.

3jtSc

4/6

yee

yes

P.C

yes

y»

Yard common to three houses.

Widow, charwoman.
6/-

V-

yes

yee

RC.

Back-to-back house, old and damp. Ono room
occupied by man and wife (lodgers, another by
three widon-s. First pay 2/- weekly, widows
pay 1/0 each weekly.

Warehouaeinan, 22/- —

4/3

■\

Tenant a rents house at 4/3 weekly. ai:d lets at

2211

Labourer, 18/- —

1/6

{no

yea

yes

P.C

no]

amounts stated to sub-tenants. Top room is

Widow.aewing.B/- —

—

1/3

)

in very bad repair.

Market porter, 17/6 —

3jtSc

■V-

yes

w.c.

yes

yea

Warehousenian, 20/- —

—

7/-

yes

w.c

yea

yes

—

yes

Kitchen very damp.

STREET.

Waaherwoman, 9/- —

6/-

yee

yes

P.C

Tliree couples live in three furnished rooms, each
paying 5/- per week rent. House very old and

damp, and dirty.

Brush-maker, out of

6/6

yee

yes

P.C

yes

House has a cellar in which is water-tap. Tenant

work

farms out several houses in furnished lodgings.

Labourer. 22/-

—

6/2

yes

P.C

fair

yes

—

yea

Macbinisl, 28/-

V-

yes

yea

Three fanuliea (lodgers) each pay 5/3 weekly for
furnished room Seven sleepers in room of
1,170 cub. ft. House in very bad condition : walls
and ceilings damp and falling.

Widow, out relief, 3/-

STREET

4/6

yes

yee

yes

P.C

Two lodgers each pay 2/6 per week.

Widow, mantlemaker

12/-
Labourer, 18/-

Daughter, 6/-

—

3/3

yee

yes

P.C

fair

yes

—

Back-to-back house. Living-room uaetl as workroom.

Wife, 10/-

3&Sc

5/6

yes

P.C

fnir

yes

yea

Widow, aliopkoeper

5/0

yee

yes

W.C.

yes

yea

yes

Kitchen used as grocer's shop. Upstairs rooms are,
let furnUlied at 4/9 and 4/8 per week.

PLACE

Widow, eiiarwoman

Son, alippor maker.

3*Sc

V-

yes

yea

yes

P.C'

yea

—

yes

House very damp. Offensive smells from drains.

6/-

pa.va 12/-. daughter
warehouae. paya
10/-, daughter,
restaurant, pays 4/-

Uncortoin

STREET.

-'!

3<tSc

6/-

yee

yes

P.C

yea

Shoemaker. 23/-

—

2 4 80

4/6

yea

P.C

yes

—

House dirty ; has a close smell. Seven sleepers in

Mackiiitoih maker.

—

3/-

yes

P.C

yes

Back-to-baek house; very old; walls falling in. Very

19/0

damp ; swarms with rata.

STREET.

2/3 per day

—

6/9

yes

w.c

yes

yea

—

yes

Three rooms let as furnished lodgings to three couples.

COURT.

Wire worker. 30/-

5/3

yes

House let partly furnished. Closets in court in
filthy condition, without doon. or seats, and are
used casually by people from outside. House
old, damp, and walls are falling.

District No.

—in St.

Miohaera

VfTeiveL.— Continued.

UJDO™.

OCCOPAJOS.

»,„,T,ni„o„»

onncBi

p/u^2lidw™inlpi8»£l

0«£p.ti™/^ tUmlntn

Ko-ol

InOoocI

1 1 Doall

1 1 NftOf

IIOIUM

tuihm

^(mB urn bkm,vbks

""^

""•■

'""'"■ H""

|lk»™.

""'•

|Kn.ltt

ChMf

P>jnpt| tWrkf |wtndo-

Kind. [ Cl«nl \„*^°^^

•h>rine

»Y«n

STBEET.

Ubonrer, 19/-

—

3/0

yes

yo«

yea

v.v.

yea

—

Kooim dark owing to low ccilingB.

Ubourer, 18/-

—

4/6

yea

yes

P.C.

yes

—

ye.

Hooms at back dark awing to nearncits of otlicr

M«rkrtportCT.20/-

3£S

4/0

yea

yta

l-.C.

HouBc Very dirty and donip.

Hswkor, 2»/-

.Son pay. 12/-

—

5/3

yc«

S^-'^-

.vea

yve

—

yes

l-odger paj-a 5/~ per week.

Hiv«to,22/-

Wif'<. tripe and fish

shop. 20/-
Sou pays 8/-
STBEET.

V-

ycB

yes

w.c

yes

yea

Housii damp. Living-room used aa (ripo and fritd-
fisli eliop.

Works in Fisli Market

—

3&Sc

4/9

ye.

yea

P.C.

27
3Tj

Wasliorironiiui. 6/-
L«boiirer,20/-
Hawkor. 20/-

1
2

IS So

3/3
5/10
4/-

yo!
n°

y»

yo>
.vea

yea
yeel
yesi

P.C.
PC.

yes

°„°|

Iliis lioufio let iu fumiehcd lodgings ; contains
four familice, each occupying a single room.

Laboiirer, 25/-

5/3

yea

y»

yesj

°l

Olio family takes in a lodger to sliare room. Houeo

I'otmr, 18/-

Wife. wiiJihinK. C/-

—

5/3

yea

(

very dirty. Water tap in scullery.

STREET.

Uiiccrtain

—

5/9

yea

ye.

yes

P.C

ycfl

House Tery dirty, damp, and dark. Smells foul.

.STREET.

Widow. ba»ker, 18/-
Tanor,23/-

STREET.

3
2

3/6
3/3

yen
no

yea

yes
yes

P.C.
P.C.

3
3

14
14

Baek-to-back house.

Back-to-back house, old and very dirty.

112

Labourer, 20/-

Daugliter. 8/-
Uaughter. G/-
Son pays 12/0

—

4JtSc

0/-

yes

yea

w.c.

yes

y«

—

yea

House hss a cellar.

148

Warehouseman. 23/-

3SSe

4/9

yea

yes

w.c.

yea

IS4

Hawker.32/-(T)

STREET,

3*Sc

6/9

yea

yes

w.c.

yes

yea

Walls and ceilings of back rooms damp.

Labourer. 18/-

Wife, lelh ■■ chipe."

10/-
ROW,

V-

y««

yea

yes

P.C.

yes

Yard shared with next house. Home old and damp
is let " furnished."

Tailor, 30/-

6/-

yes

fair

yes

P.C.

yes

yea

One room is used as workroom. Tenants Kussians.

Shopkeeper

5^3

y«a

yes

P.C

One room used as grocer's shop. House badly in

Haivker, 22/-

4 0/-

yea

yes

P.C.

yes

House very damp.

3/9

yes

P.C.

House and tenants very untidy.

Hawker. 22/-

Wife.woaherwoman,

5/0
LANE,

—

^/-

yes

y«o

yea

yes

p.a

yea

—

House let " furnished."

Shoemaker, 30/-

5/9

yea

yes

W.C.

yea

yes

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 65

to 4s. 6d. per week. The average rent for two rooms is aboiit
3s. 4d. ; for two rooms and scullery 3s. 9d. B\it two-roomed
houses are also let " furnished " at rentals varying from 4s. 8d.
to 7s. ; the average rental being 5s. lOd.

For three unfurnished rooms, we found that a rent varying
from 3s. 3d. to 5s. lOd. was asked ; the average rent being
4s. 2^d. More than half the three-roomed houses visited had
sculleries; the rents of these are higher, from 3s. 6d. to 6s. ^
the average being 4s. 8d. Only six of the three-roomed houses
visited were let furnished, the rents being from 5s. 3d. to 7s.
(two houses at 5s. IHd.) ; the average 5s. 9^d.

Four-roomed houses were found to be rented at from 3s. 6d.
to 8s. The average rent was about 5s. 6d. per week. The
average rent of the houses with sculleries was a trifle lower,
about 5s. 5|d., and 11 houses were let furnished at an average
rent of 5s. 6d. The four-roomed houses used as common
lodging-houses are rented at lis. 6d. each.

Some 19 five-roomed houses were visited, one-third of them
let as furnished lodgings. For houses of five unfurnished
rooms rents vary from 6s. to 9s. (the latter rent being excep-
tionally high), with an average of 6s. 2d. Furnished the
average is 6s. 4d.

It will be noticed that the same money commands a con-
siderable range in accommodation, and in the case of four-
roomed houses, there is little difference in the cost of an
unfurnished and a " furnished " house. The average rents of
furnished houses are interesting when compared.

Average Wekkly Ee^jtal.

One Room. Two Rooms. Tliree Rooms. Four Rooms. Five Rooms.
5s. 2d. 5s. lOd. 5s. 9id. 5s. 8d. 6s. 4d.

We would remind readers that the rentals have in nearly
all cases been given by the tenants and that our investigation
only covered a limited area. But from comparison with
information supplied by others, we believe the account we have
given in the foregoing pages to be true of the greater part of
the residential district contiguous to Smithfield Market.

64 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

District No. 4 in Ardwick.

A small district in Ardwick Ward lias been investigated,
lying near tlie L. and N.-W. Railway. Many persons must
liave noticed the closely packed and gloomy streets seen from
the railway just before entering London Road Station from
the south. Our purpose has been to get information which
would enable those who reach Manchester by train to realise
the condition under which people live in these streets.

The area investigated is bounded on three sides by
important streets. It contains 31 streets and 476 houses, of
which 37 were unoccupied when the visits were made. There
are 11 licensed houses in the area, or one to every 43 residences
and there are many licensed houses in the streets near the
district investigated. Two mills, a brewery, a mission room,
and a school are also in the district. There are two open spaces
not very far from the district, one of them arranged as a
recreation ground.

Most of the houses are old, not a few are worn out. The
streets are narrow and dark, and houses are built so close to
the railway that they are deprived of light. ^ No fewer than 71
of the houses visited are back-to-back. Many of the dwellers in
the district are poor. The occupations followed are similar
to those reported from other districts investigated — labourers,
carters, warehousemen, platelayers, etc., with a small proportion
of skilled workers.

In several cases in this district the tenants complained of
smells from the drains. The smells were evident to the visitor
but it is not known how far they may be attributed to the
drains. The streets— especially the back ones — and the entries
are dirty, and are used as receptacles for refuse. Sixty-nine
Tiouses have no separate water supply, and share five taps in
this manner : —

^ An extensive clearance in view of railway extension has removed the
houses referred to, although there are houses to be seen on the other side of
the railway which have dark rooms.

Sb o

In Ardwic'k. Interior ot the court seen in picture above. Ten
houses to one water-tap.

To face p. 64.

I>i

To face page 65.

33
35

6
12

Head of Household
patlon, and Earning

Driller, 24/-

Shapcr, 29/-
Fouiidryinan, ^es

Moulder, 20/- ^es
Carter, 22/- res

Carter, 26/- .^es

Painter, 35/-

res

Washerworaaiipo
(see note)

Watchman, 20

NOTES AXD REMARKS

ymells from closet. Hou&e old and damp. Five

sleep in one bedroom, four in another. Tap in

yard.
House very damp.
Rooms very small. Bedroom for two adults has

cubic content of 512ft. Typical of other houses*

in street.
House very dirty.
Lodgers pay 2s. weekly for living room. Very dirty

house.
House has usable cellar. Three bedrooms.

House has cellar, in which is copper for clothe^

washing.
Husband of tenant in South Africa; sends wife 2s. 6cl.

weekly. Her mother lodges with her, pays 3».

Smells from closet. Rooms low and dark.
House old and damp. Said to be condemned.

I>is4>x>lof> N'o. 4 — in ArAsrtols..

'^~

"u>GKits. ocp^j*^„

co™mo,„,™t.„os,.

WATER

■

^KSasSSiSSi^

' '-^ "■"■

.l,U»|i. MM.

2i"™

li,^

ii™i.

lass

ClauiT

„r,| ^,

wUfdSi.

CiMDt

.!=

VrS^'?

N^ AXD KKSUnKS

STKEhT.

Driller, 24/-

Son, •' nipper" (15)

— — |[ 3

6/3

)«

yes

>«*

P.C.

yes

—

yea

KmellH from oloaet. Houhe old and damp. Five

0/-

sleep in one liedroom, four in another. Tap in

Sh»pcr.29/-

6/-

yes

yo.

P.C.

yes

Hoiiae very damp.

Foundrymim.30/-

Son. corporation
employ^ 2!/-. .on
milkman. 0/-

31Sc

6/-

yes

P.C.

fair

yea

Rooms very small. Bedroom for two ndiilta haa
cubie content of 5l2ft. Typical of other house*

Moulder.20/-

—

6/-

.ves

yea

p.a

yea

—

yes

Hoiiae very dirty.

3.)

CurlOT. 22/-

Wife washes. 0/-

—

V-

yts

yes

P.G

Dirty

yea

—

yea

Lodgers pay 28. weekly for ]i\-ing room. Very dirty

STBEET.

houHe.

C«rt«r.20/-

Twodaugbtoreand

—

S^Sc

6/9

yea

P.C.

yes

—

yee

Honae lias usable cellar. Three bedrooms.

'°!I_

4iSc

.5/0

yea

yes

yos

w.c.

yea

yes

yc8

PainMr, 35/-

stheetT

5&.Sc

5/9

y»

yos

P.C.

yes

House haa cellar, in whtth ia copper for clothix

Wasberwomwi, 8/6

—

3tiSc

4/-

yes

yos

ye.

P.C.

Husband of tenant in Soutli Africa; senda wife 2s. Od.

(seenotol

weekly. Her mother lodges with lier, puj-s 3^

Smells from closet. Rooms low and dark.

Wi.Khiii«n.20/-

wfe waahes, 6/-

—

2/0

yes

ye.

yes

P.C.

yea

yes

"House old ond damp. Said to be condemned.

STREET.

—

3/2

yes

P.C.

Rnflc-fii-hai 1; Imii^r. Tap in entry. Smells from

PLACE.

■ Irjuti- C'l iiiiil liiHota. House dirty.

—

2/9

yea

yes

P.C.

Hit' 1 Im-1.1. I, l-,.l,-r.

Widow, muhra

STREET.

2/9

yea

yes

P.C.

I'.i. i. 1,1,,. 1, 1,,.:,., . Smells from drains {!) Three
athili- sl.ip 111 lUf bedroom (825 cub. ft.).

Lurrymiin, 24/-

—

4/6

yes

P.C.

yes

—

jes

House, very dirty and damp.

Ubonrer, 18/-

3iSc

4/-

yes

yea

P.C.

Dirty

yet

yes

Four children sleep in bedroom containing 277 cub. ft.

Corporation labourer

23/-
Lurryinan,25/-

Wife washes, 4/-

—

4tSc

5/0

yea

PC.

Dirty

yes

—

yee

Lodger pays Ss. per week ; occupies living-room.

Twodaughterspay

4iSc

5/0

yes

P.C.

yea

—

yes

Five persona sleep in each of two bedrooma-

8/-. .on pays 4/-

Fniit««r

COURT.

4SSc

6/0

yes

P.C.

JOB

yes

Living-room used as store-room House very old
and damp. Ceilings in back rooms weak and
falling. House infested by rats.

Carriage cleaner, 24/-

—

3 4Sc

3/6

yea

yes

P.C.

—

Houses entered from eourt in which are situated

STREET.

closets and ta]i. Smells from drains.

Saviyer,28/-

—

3/9

yea

yos

WC.

yes

—

Back to-back bouse. Four sleepers in room of

850 cub. ft
Back-to-back house. Two ledgers steep in living-

3/9

yea

yes

w.c.

yes

room, and four sleepera in bedroom.

Coach painter, 30/-

—

3/9

yes

w.c.

yes

—

Six sleepers occupy one bedroom of 850 cub. ft.

BCTLDINGS.

Lurryman. 22/-

2/0

yes

PC.

Back-to-back house. Five sleep in one room.

STREET.

Water got from tap in ne.\t street.

Labourer. 18/-

Wife irons, 6/-

—

4/3

yes

yea

P.C.

yes

—

yes

Cart«r,20/-

Wife cleans, 4/-

S/e

yes

yea

P.C.

Dirty

yes

HouHp very dirty and <lanip.

Wldow

Tlueeobildrenwork

—

3/3

yes

yea

p.a

yea

—

Backtoback h'mise. Tenant worse of liquor nt

time of visit. Uirly house.
Smells from drains.

Labourer, 17/-

„

4/3

yes

w.c.

yes

—

yes

Corpor-lion lab'r.23/-
Widow.»'d-chop-r2/-

BCILDINGS.

5
3 '

4
4

4/3

V-

yes

yea
yes

w.c.

P.C.

y<«

yea

yes
yea

Tenant receives poorrolief.29.0d. weekly. Lodgers pay2s.

Uncertain

Wife cleans

373

yes

no yes

P.C.

no 3

Five sleepers in room of 990 cub. ft. House said to

STREET.

bo condemned ititU others in block.

Packer. 22/-

3t.Sc

4/9

yes

yiB

PC.

no ' 1

yes

—

yes

Houflc very dirty. Bad smells from yard.

Labourer. 19/-

Son. 5/-

3 4Sc

4/8

yes

P.C.

no 3

yes

Verv damp Iioiu-e and very dirty.

Uibourer. 22/-

34Sc

4/8

yea

yes

PC.

no 1 3

yes

Hou'^i- old ; hits once been two back-to- bock bouses.

Scarcely any furniture in house ; table and two

STREBI.

chairs in kitchen and three beds upstairs.

Cycle-maker. 25/-

Daughter. .5/-

3»Sc

4/9

yes

yea

P.C.

yes

Labourer, 18/-

Son pays 12/-

—

3&Sc

5/-

yee

yea

P.C.

yes

—

yes

Five sleepers in one bedroom containing 5C5 cub. ft.

Parior,24/-

3*Sc

8/-

yes

PC.

yes

Clerk,30/-

Wife keeps shop

—

3t
shop

5/3

y«

yes

yea

P.C.

fair

yea

—

yes

Kitchen used as shop. Yard covered in ond used as

scullery.
Very old house; smells from drains. Five

.Mccllanic, 34/-

5/6

yes

yea

P.C.

yea

yes

sleepers in room of 880 cub. ft.

Ubonrer. 19/-

Daughter. 4/-
STREET.

■'

4&Sc

6/0

yes

P.C.

yes

>xs

Widow, waslier-

Son. " nipper," 5/3

—

2tSc

3/9

yes

yea

P.C.

yes

—

yes

All sleep in one room. 924 cub. ft. House to be

Daughter, 7/-

demolished for railway extension?.

Carler, 24/-

Daughter. 6/-

—

4 4Sc

4/9

yea

w.c.

yes

—

yes

Wife bedridden invalid for six yearv.

Horaeinan,20/-

Daughter, 5/-
STREBT.

3t.Sc

3/9

yes

P.C.

yes

House damp and dirty.

Warehoiiae"dr«aer"

Son and daughter

—

6/-

yes

yej

w.c.

yes

—

yea

— out of work

Wifcshirtmakor.
12/-. sou, 5/-,
daughter. 8/-

4&Sc

V-

yes

P.C.

yes

Back rooms dark from nearness of buildings nt back. "

Carter, 2*/-

—

4*Sc

V-

y<s

yes

yea

P.C.

yes

—

yea

House damp. .Smells from drains and closet. Back
rooms dark.

Bn;wer'a labourer,

18/0
Corporation labourer.

3/4

yea

PC.

yea

•es

4/9

yes

yes 1 yes

P.C.

no ', 4

yea

House old and damp. Rooms dark owing to neamesa

23/-

of houses at back. Tenant very dirty. ClosotlUthy.

Carrier.24/-

—

4* Si

4/3

yos

yes

no yes

P.C.

yea

-yea

House old and damp. Walls falling.

Widow, charwoman.
6/-

Son p.ys 12/-
DaugiiterpaysS/-

3 4Sr

V-

yes

yea

ys« yea

PC.

yes

Uuwlioleeome smells from closets in entry.

Salt hawker. 12/-

Daugliter.2/-

—

4SSc

4/3

yea

no yos

PC.

fsir

yes

—

yes

Ubourer.2(l/-

Wife. cleaning. 2/-

—

3itSc

4/-

ves

Vi.

yes yes

P.C.

Tee

—

|no

House old and damp : walls fallinp. Closet filthy.

rS^

Dlstplct No. 4— In A.rA'vri.o'k.— Continued.

.«-„«.„..

LOnoaas.

occcpAwre

OOM>™.,o.,na.o™^

orricKa

...TS..

1 Itn-l.

'""""■*°"'™'°"*'"°'

euud.

«.,u

SJ^T!

liSi

«-■•

lis?!

D>mplj n^l

c™,

81.^

1 «OTBi A,D aOUSKS

STKEBT.

10 Umplighter.23/-

—

4/6

y<»

yes

P.C.

fair

yes ! -

18 I*boaier, 19/-

—

4/6

yes

yo!

W.C.

yes

—

yes

Back rooms very damp.

PLACE.

3 Labourer, 18/-

—

4/6

yee

yes

P.C.

yee

—

yes

9 Vwi driver, out of

Wife, charwoman,

—

3&Sc

4/0

yee

y<e

yea

P.C.

yea

—

yes

House terrilily damp : back beeiroom walls wet.

work

2/ftpcrday

Rain cornea in and makes bed damp. Windows
broken. Tenant inclined to be negligent and

STREET.

2 Uhourer. 19/6

4/6

y»

yee

}■«

yes

P.C.

yes

Kitchen damp. Water tap in cellar.

3 ChftrwomaQ,V6

Two.on«payl2/-
each, two dauglitera
8/- each

4JiSc

6/6

yes

yea

P.C.

yos

yes

House very damp. Smells from back {1 yard).

LANE.

23 Labourer, 18/-

Wife, cleaning, 4/-

—

■■>/-

yes

P.C.

no : 12

IJack-to-baek house.

32 Labourer, 18/-

Sonpaysl2/-
Daughter, 8/-
STKEET.

■'

4/6

yes

yee

P.C.

yes —

y™

•i Labourer, out o{ work

Wife, w aaliiug ; aoii,
barber, 6/-

3/-

yes

y«

P.C.

no 15

I!ack.to.hack house.

5 ' Washerwoman, 9/-

Daughtcr, 5/-

—

3&8c

V-

yee

yes

P.C.

yea 1 —

yes

BUILDINGS.

- !

—

3/-

y«

yes

W.C.

yea

yea '. —

liaek-to.back house.

Labourer, 21/-

3/9

yea

yes

P.C.

yes —

yes

STREET.

Wi(iow,ihittfini»bor

10/-
Ubourer,20/-

Son, carter, 20/-

—

3/9

y«»

yo«

yes

P.C.

yes j -

yea

Yard slisred with next house.

—

iiSc

6/-

yee

yes

je«

P.C.

yea

yes

House extremely Glthy. Tenant very untidy and

negligent. House is damp, old, and dark, and

swarms with rats, winch appear even in the

day time.

Porler,20/-

Wife, wnalier-
Wife, wna'her.

—

3iSc

3/9

yes

P.C

yes

Labouror, 18/6

4<[Sc

5/-

yes

P.C.

yea

ivodgor pays 2s. weekly. Five sleep in one room of

womin, li/-

iiOS cub. ft.

Labourer, 21/-

Wifc, Imwkcr, 12/-

—

4&Sc

6/-

yea

yes

W.C.

yes

—

yes

Yarxl of this and other houses in street very small.

Hod carrier, 22/-

Son pays 10/-

strSt.

5/0

y<"

yee

yes

W.C.

yco

yes

House has a cellar.

Labouror, 20/-

—

oiSc

4/3

yee

yes

P.C.

fair

yes

}0»

STREET.

Painter, out of work

—

3 a: 8c

3/9

yoB

yes

P.C

fair

yes

WarelioiiBeman, 14/-

TwosonspaylO/-

—

SiiSc

5/-

y«6

yi»

yes

I'.C.

yes

—

yos

House very damp.

Labourer, 24/-

'"-

4/0

y»

yos

P.C.

fair

yes

yea

House very dirty. Back rooms damp. Only two

rooms are need as bedrooms.
Yard ahared with next house.

Tailor,30/-
Widow, ebopkeoper

SSlSc

6/9

yoB

yee

yes

W.C.

yffl

yes

—

.1/0

yes

P.O.

fair

yes

—

Front room used as shop. House in bad repair.

Widow, cherwoman.

6/-
Ki.ocker.up, 20/-

Son, labourer, 18/-

—

3/5

yra

yes

P.O.

yea

Bnck.to.back house.

3/-

yo8

yea

P.C.

liack.to.haek house.

Labourer, out cA work

Wife, hawker, 30/-
Daughter pays 8/~
Daughter pays 4/-

3/-

yes

yea

yes

P.O.

Back.to.back house. All sis occupants sleep in one

— out of work

STREET.

■~

4/9

yes

P.C

yes

yea

Yard shsred by three houses.

Uailway Borvant^lS/-

4/6

yes

yos

P.C

yes

Rain comes in througli roof of back bedroom. Tenant
untidy. Bad smell from drains.

Labourer, 28/-

—

4/9

yea

ye.

yes

y«

P.C.

yes

yea

House dsmp. Tenant given to drink and neglccta
work.

Labourer, 20/-

Daughter, 4/-

4/6

y<«

yts

yes

P.C.

yes

rort.r,21/-

Daughter, 4/0 _ 1 _

4 .1 II 4

4/6

P.C.

yes

House dirty and neglected.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 05

20 houses

use

1 tap.

•'

5 taps.

Sanitary conveniences are more numerous than in some
other districts examined, and on the whole are better kept.
There are 31 water closets; 25 houses have one each, while
other 12 houses have one w.c. between two houses. In 287
cases, the house has a separate pail closet ; the remaining houses
share pail closets ; five, four, three or two houses using one.

The houses visited were two, three, four, or five-roomed.
Rents for two-roomed houses vary from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 9d. ; the
average rent being about 3s. Id. Rents of three-roomed
houses, which in most cases have a scullery, vary from 3s. to
5s. ; average rent 4s. Id. Four-roomed houses have rents from
3s. 6d. to 6s. ; with an average of 4s. 7|d. Two four-roomed
houses used as shops pay rents of 7s. lid. and 12s. Five-
roomed houses are rented at from 4s. 3d. to 6s. ; the average
rent being 5s. 6^d. More than half of the houses examined
have four rooms.

There were 71 back-to-back houses among those visited.
Some houses which were back-to-back have been made
" through " houses. The visitors' reports for street after street
remark that the houses are damp and that bad smells prevail.
In very many instances the visitor notes that the house is
dirty and out of repair.

DiSTEICT Xo. 5 IN HULME.

The area investigated in ITulme is a small one of seven
streets, comprising 143 houses. The area adjoins one which
has received much attention from the authorities because of
the insanitary property in it, and in the streets examined
there are a number of houses which have been altered to
" through " from back-to-back houses. Back-to-back houses,
however, still remain in the area.

66 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

There are five licensed houses in the area, and others just
outside.

The houses contain two, three or four rooms, and in one
case five rooms. The two-roomed houses are in the streets
in which the houses are back-to-back. In very few cases is
there a scullery and only three houses had cellars.

Sixteen of the houses, in very bad repair, were said to be
condemned. In another street eight houses are said to be
much in want of repair, the walls and ceilings being cracked
and falling, and the houses damp. Evil smells are a cause of
complaint. The smells are due to neighbouring manufactories.

As in other districts where there are many back-to-back
houses, the supply of water and of sanitary conveniences is
most inadequate. To 30 dwellings there is only one tap, which
the investigator notes is always leaking. Another 11 houses
share one tap. In another street 10 houses have only one tap,
placed in a narrow entry between them. Seven other houses
have one tap.

Thirty-two houses have water closets; one closet to two
houses. Most of the houses have each a pail closet. But in
several streets the closet accommodation varies from one closet
for four houses to one closet for eight houses. The closets are
not well kept and are offensive.

The inhabitants are poor, labourers for the most part, with,
according to their statements, low earnings.

The rents charged in the district are : For a two-roomed
house, from 3s. 3d. to 4s. 6d., the average for the houses visited
being just over 4s. per week; for a three-roomed house, from
3s. 3d. to 4s., the average rent being about 3s. 7d. ; for a three-
roomed house, with a sculleiy, from 4s. 3d. to 5s. 3d., the average
being 4s. 6|d. ; and for a four-roomed house, from 3s. 9d. to 6s.,
the average rent being 4s. 8^d. per week. One house of five
rooms and a scullery was let at 6s. 4d. per week. The curious
fact that three-roomed houses are let at lower rents than two-
roomed houses is accounted for in this case by the inclusion of a
considerable number of old houses in bad repair among the
three-roomed houses.

I>i£

Hp:iiiofHnimpliold
patiun, iiiid Eaniini;'-

To face 2^(^(1^ ^^•

NOTES AND REMARKS

14
23

French polisher
Labourer, 19/6

10 ! Flagger, 20/-
Labourer, 19/-
Carter, 22/-

Charwoinan. 10 ;

to 12
Packer, out of w

Factor}- hand, 1

Labourer, 18/-

Labourer, 14/-

Laund ry woman

Converted back-to-back house. Yard shared -with

another liouse.
Rooms very small and overcrowded bedrooms.

House in bad repair.
Five sleepers in one room.

House in poor repair. Bad smells from closet.

House one in a row of back-to-back houses which

have been reconstructed to give yards.
Exceptionally clean and respectable family.

Tenants untidy ; given to drink.

This and neighbouring houses are condemned.
Tenants are living free rent. Smells from rubber
factory apparent.

Back-to-back house. Eight closets are placed
together in centre of block, about one closet for
three houses. Behind closets is awash-house with
a copper, but the tenants say it is seldom used.

Disti^io^ MTo. 5— in^ Hulme.

S PVenoli polislier. 22/-

I Labourer. 19/6

10 j FiagEer,20/-
U Lftl>OHrer. 19/-
23 Carter. 22/-

7 I Charwoman. 10/-
to 12/-

3 Packer, out of work

15 I Factory hand, 17/-

4 I Labourer, 18/-

C Labourer, 14/-

6 Porter. 16/- to 18/-

7 Dj-or's labourer, out
I of work

1'- WarehouBeman (see
not<.)

Son, ■■ nipper," 6/-

9/-, daughter, fac-
tory hand. 6/-
Daughtcr, 4/-

STREET.

Wife washes, 1/6

Son, rubber factory

6/-
LaddT). 10/-
Lad.(I5),8/6

Son, " nipper," 5/-

UJ Staj-maker, 3/G

i
la I Wotteeorter

R Labourer

4 Unable to work

Ivibourer,21/-
"'idow, waterproof
-works. 10/-

Son, box -maker
Son. labourer
COrRT.
Wife, laundry-

STREET. '

Son, waterprnofor.

7/-. daughter, 6/-

Hon, errand boy.O/-
Daughter, shirt-

3
4

4/3
6/-

3&Sc
2

V-
V-

V-

4/9

4/3

3/3

3&Sc

6/3

4/6

2
4

4/0
4/3
4>3

3/9

?«■

yes

- i

jes

" i

>■>»

yes

r»

Sse
note

"„S

22
22

2
3

22
22

Seo
note

2
2

J-cs

— 1

JUS

8eo
note

yes

yo5

yes

1
1

yes

0.
G

Converted baek-to-back house. Yard shared w

another house.
Rooms very small and overcrowded bedrooi

Houfle in bad repair.
Five sleepers in one room.

Houdo in poor repair. Bad amella from closet.

House one in a row of back-to-1iack houHea wh

have been reconatructed to give yards.
Exceptionally clean and respectable family.

Tenants untidy ; given to drink.

Back-t
Baolc-t

and one bedroom.
Back-to-baok house. Lada work close at hand.

Lodger pays 2/- for room.
Back-to-baclc house. Tenant gone soldiering. Only

kitchen used. Stairs barred up. House anielbi

foul.
In coiling of top room is a largo hole and roof is

almoet without slates. Large hole in floor of

room over kitchen. House damp and draughty.

of other houses
e has a cellar.

A covered yard is under same roof as houeea. one
yard being common to three houses in this atreet
and two :n next. Each yard contains two closets
for five houses and two coppers for clothes weshinc
purposes.

Tliia and neighbouring hout.es share yards and closets
with next street (aeo note above). Living-room
used as washroom- House very dirty and ill-

Husband only at homo week e

week. Back bedroom damp and ploater falling
from walls,
ouae dirty ; tenant careless.

•■A —

c o

To Jace p. 67

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 67

District No. 6 in Chorlton-upon-Medlock

The area investigated in this district is irregular in outline,
and really consists of several small contiguous areas. The
district contains many old houses, but the steady encroachment
of the business part of the town is constantly causing their
disappearance. In no part of the town have we found worse
conditions prevailing among the homes of the people. In many
streets the houses are small, overshadowed by high buildings
and walls, in bad repair, and very deficient in conveniences.
There are several groups of back-to-back dwellings.^

There are no shops or public-houses in the streets covered
by the house-to-house investigation, but in neighbouring streets
there are many licensed houses. The tenants in the area seem
poorer than in any other district examined, and the houses and
their surroundings are dirtier and less cared for than in other
parts of the town. Many houses are said to be damp, and of
several the investigators report that rain comes in through the
roofs. There were frequent complaints made that the houses
swarmed with vermin, and that sour, nauseating smells from
ashpits and privies were noticeable. The investigators in every
case report that the district gives them the impression of
hopeless squalor and misery.

The residents in the district depend almost entirely on casual
and very irregular work. Of 39 heads of households who stated
their occupations, eleven were labourers, seven were charwomen,
three were carters, two stonemasons, two hawkers, two warehouse
porters ; while the following occupations had each one repre-
sentative : — Watchman, bootmender, dyeworker, property-
repairer, iron-driller, leather-dresser, painter, plumber, tailor,
blacksmith, box-cutter, waste-worker.

The houses visited contained four, three or two rooms. The
two-roomed houses were all back-to-back houses. The rents
current were : For a four-roomed house, 4s. 6d. per week ; for a

' We have learned while this report was in the press, that some of the
back-to-back houses mentioned are being converted into " through " houses.
Opposite, a picture is given of the houses in process of conversion.

68 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

three-roomed house, from 3s. 9d. to 3s. 6d. per week (only two
houses of three rooms being let at the lower rental) ; for two-
roomed houses, from 3s. 6d. to 3s. 3d. per week. It will be seen,
on comparison with the figures given for other districts, that the
rents of two-roomed houses are slightly higher, and of three-
and four-roomed houses slightly lower in this district than the
averages of other districts.

District No. 7 in Salford.

The area investigated forms a rough triangle. On two sides
it is bounded by works and factories. The third side is formed
by a street of some importance in which many of the houses
are used as small shops by confectioners, greengrocers,
provision dealers, and the like. There are five licensed houses
in the area, two with full licenses, one with a beer " on," and
two with beer " off '•' licenses. In one of the boundary streets
and facing the area are five licensed houses.

A school and mission room are within the area, and there
is a well-equipped Lads' Club outside. It is a district of mean
streets ; the streets themselves narrow and dirty, the houses old,
out of repair, and many occupied by careless and untidy
tenants. In the near neighbourhood the sanitary authorities
have made several clearances, notably of back-to-back houses.
The plot on which these houses stood is at present vacant,
advertised as a building lot. The district would benefit if
steps could be taken to preserve the site as an open space. In
one part of the area, the houses have been carefully repaired
and the backs especially improved. In these cases a patent
ashbin has replaced the old ashpit or barrel which is still to be
seen in neighbouring streets. Smells, which are unpleasant
if not unwholesome, are caused by one or more of the factories
near.

There are 310 houses in the area investigated, and of these
99 are back-to-back. Only in one street of the fifteen in the
area are there cellars to the houses. The cellars on one side
of this street have apparently been formerly occupied as
separate dwellings, but they are now closed. Those on the

I>i&

Head of Houscliold
pation, and Earnings

3
15

Labourer, 18/

Box cutter, 2.5

Labourer, 22/-
Hawker, 5/-

Labourer, 20/- ho

Dyer, 30/-
Charwonian, 1

To face page 68.

NOTES AND REMARKS

Three houses share yard in wliicli are a closet and
wash-place. House dirty. Dark owing to near-
ness of wall.

Wall behind house darkens living room. Seven
sleepers in one room. Houses infested by ver-
min (mice and bugs).

Evil smells from closets behind belonging to other
houses. House has cellar which is unfit for use.

All sleep in one room.

Back-to-back house. Walls wet and structure m
bad repair. Roof leaks. One tap in street
apparently serves some 50 houses in this and
next street. Six closets and one ash place serve
one side of street. Closets in filthy condition.

Very damp house. Roof falling in. House dark
because of nearness of opposite houses. Six
sleepei's in one room.

Tenant says she had sometines to go to — Street

DistPiot No.

6— in

ChoFlton-uposm-

dlook.

To face page 68.

H»d<.Mi™»Mld 0<ru-

U,DCB8a

occT

A«m

roKomoHorr

omoBi

ws™

Kf.

cwm™

In etna 1 1

„„ l.'!.S.

KOTTiS AKI) RKHAA

'*°°°'

Mt.

Adalf

""""■

"™'-

nw>| a-"r| lumpt

0.rl.

™™'

aiBcL

Cl^I.!

Sbari^

ii<>-<» 11*1 (luring

STREET.

Lnboiirer. 18/-

■*

4/6

yes no no

yes

P.C.

yee -

Tliree houses shftre yui-d in wliicli are a closet and
wash-place. House dirty. Dark owing to near-
ness of wall.

Box cutler, iV-

—

4/li

yoB 1 no no

yea

yes

P.C.

yes —

yea

Wall behind house darkens living room. Seven

sleepers in one room. Housub infested by ver-

rain (mice and bugs).

Labourer, ^-J/-

—

•2

3/0

yes 1 no no

yea

P.C.

Evil smells from closets behind belonging to other
houses. Househascellarwhich is unfit for uao.

Hawker, 5/-

—

■2

3/3

yOB 1 yes

yes

P.C.

All sleep in one room.

PLACE.

Ubourer, ao/-

3/6

no yes

ye.

yes

P.C.

See

See
note

Back-to-back houste. Walls wot and structure in
bad repair. Roof leaks. One tap in street
apparently serves some 60 houses in this and

next street. Siv closets and one aeli place serve

f>nf M'lf nf ■^trrrt PlosetB in filthy condition.

Dyer, 30/-

3/3

yes

I^c.

ditto

V<:rv.h>n<|. -> lli.i.f falling in. House dark

li--i .11-1 -1 III iMM— of opposite huuscs. Six

Charwoman. 11/-

■2

3/6

ye.-

yea

yes

p.a

ditto

Tcii.int -riv- -h.' jj.nl Mirnetines to go to — Street
wiih a Imckel to (etch water. House damp ;
infested with vennin.

Property repairer

—

•2

3/8

yes

P.C.

ditto

House filthy. Tenant seems to be breedin" rabbits
in living room ; nine or ten running at large on
lloor.

Houaeverydamp; roof broken up. Stables behind
give off stencil. Rats from stable.

I»

Iron-dnller, U/.

3/0

yea

yes

P.C. no

ditto

Carter, 20/-

—

3/9

yea

yes

P.C. 1 no

ditto

Houses on this side of street not so damp as those

i 1 1

on other side.

Stoneiiiaaon, 2//-

—

3/6

yea 1 I'.O. no 1

ditto

House scarcely damp, but very dirty.

■13

WarehoUBOman

3/0

yea

ye. 1 P.O. no 1

ditto

yee

This house has a. tiny yard, in which is closet.
Tenant takes in washing, which she docs in paiU

jli

Waeherwoman

—

3/0

yea

yes P.C. no

ditto

and bowls in living room. The water tap iit at

_ _

other end of the street from this house.

Distplot No. 7— in Salfopd.

,p.lM/-
lAl)ourcr, 18/-

3 I Knfflck*
S Jobber,,.,
8 Labourer. 18/

JO Labourvr, 1

S2 Charwoman, 10/-

2 I Wc&vOT,23/-

12 I Bricksottcr. out of

13 I Labouror, IH/-

14 Lal)oiiror.20/-

20 I Mu(IIeraan,2S/-
1 I Labourer, 18/0
Waroiiouj»oiiirui,23/-

2 I Corporation labourvr
22/-
Ubourer, 10/0
Cart«r, 2.1/-

Millor'Hlaliourt>r. 10
Millliniid (widow).
10/-

STREBT.

Wife. cliArwoman,
11/-

Hon, " nipper," 5/-
STHKKT.

ooil-iii-Jnw imv

17/-
STREBT.
Wifo, ouibor'

Sun, 11/.. ijnuijlitor,

»/-
Bl'ILDINGS.

Two«oiut, UtLcllO/-
Daughter, 10/-

3
4

2
3

4
2

—

1 T"

I'.C.

p.a
p.c.
w.c.
v.c

y««

?«•

r.c

w.c

y<»

ye»

w.a
w.c.

y<«

w.c.

w.a

Midden

w.c

I'.a

yai

w.c.

yea

w.a
w.c.

yes
y<«

w.a

y<«

yes

je«

w.c.

Privy

yes

yes
yce

W.a

Midden
Privy

yes

yc»

yce
ycB

.Midden

VI.C.
Midden
Privy

yes

y
y

p.a
p.a

i;^

p.a

w.a

yes

y
y
ya

W.a
p.a
p.a

Back-to back house. Very damp. CloMt tiltliy.

Back-to-bavk hou>«. Damp. Cloiet filthy.

Houac Bmi'Ila foul, and U very dirt"

House very dirty.

House dirty aad overcrowded.

Tenant negligent. House damp and very dirty.

House damp and rat inleated.

House very dirty. This house has a cellar used for

washing.
House damp. Oflonsivo smells from the privies

Back-to-back houac with cellar. Dirty.
Bavk-to-boek house with cellar. Huflband and wife
with wife's mother occupy bedroom.

Back-

ipy I
>back house with cellar
vith her daughter.

child.

A comparatively large house (4 rooms uith scullery
and ceUar). One room ia kept as a parlour.
House untidy and damp.

House has a scullery 8ft. by Sft.. two bedrooms of
nearly same sizo have four and five slecpora

Dirty house.

Back-to-back boui

House dirty and damp.
Back windou's obscured by entry t
in very bad repair.

All tonoiita complain of smollb from privies.

Back-to-bock house. Closet common to tivo bousra,
Bnck-to-back house. Huaband. wife, wife'a mother,
and two children occupy tho bedroom.

Four-roomed house witli small scullery. Parlour
entered from lobby. Closet in filthy condition.
House damp and in need of repair. Kach bed-
room has five sleepeni.

iion and very dirty. Lodger pays

1/0.

L walla (ailing.

MANCHESTEB AND SALFORD. 69

other side of the street are used for wood-chopping, storing, etc.
Many of the houses in the area are said to be damp and to be
infested by rats and other vermin. In the back passages
between the houses and in the courts pools of stagnant water
are standing several days after there has been rain.

Each house has its own water-tap. The majority of the
houses have yards and closets. Many of the yards are very
untidy, and ashpits and closets are m many cases in a filthy
condition. In one street, where clothes are dried after w^ashing
day, 12 ashpits are without doors. The street is a wide back-
street.

In 3 cases 7 houses share 1 closet.

In 2 „ 5

In 6 „ 4 „ „ „

In 2 ,, 3

In 9 „ 2

In practice the number of houses using one closet must be
greater than the figures given above indicate, as several closets
are quite unfit for use. In one court there are three closets
for 11 houses, but only one of the closets can be used, the
others being entirely dilapidat-ed.

The residents in the area are, for the most part, unskilled
labourers, though a few describe themselves as mechanics,
joiners, and so on. When questioned as to their earnings they,
in most cases, put them at less than a pound per week.

The rents are, on an average, for a two-roomed house,
3s. 2jd., and the same average rent obtains for two rooms with
a cellar ; for a three-roomed house 4s. ; for three rooms and a
scullery 4s. 6d. ; for a four-roomed house 4s. 9d. In one street
there are four-roomed houses with sculleries which let at 4s.

On the folding page details are given of a number of
Jiouses.

70 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

CHAPTER Y.

Town Councils, House Owneiis, and Tenants.

In the preceding chapters, we have endeavoured to give a
picture of existing conditions in typical parts of Manchester
and Salford. We may now with advantage consider what are
the powers and what are the limitations of our Town Councils
and others in dealing with these conditions.

(a) Town Councils. Very extensive powers in dealing with
unwholesome conditions in the houses of the people are now
given to Town Councils. As the local health authority, the
Town Council has power to close insanitary houses and, if they
cannot be remedied, to have them demolished. Where the
general conditions of the property in a neighbourhood are
detrimental to the health of the inhabitants, the area may be
scheduled and cleared. A wide discretion is left to the local
authority as to what conditions are detrimental to health.
These conditions may be overcrowding on the land, bad build-
ing, bad repair and the like, or a combination of any or all of
these.

The Town Council is also entrusted with the supervision
of new dwellings erected in the city, and it is its duty to care-
fully examine the plans, and supervise the work while in pro-
gress to ensure that new houses shall be at least sanitary
dwellings.

These duties are imposed on Town Councils mainly by
legislation of the type of the Public Health Acts. The results
of the municipal action, which has been taken under this kind
of legislation, are to be found in the lowered death-rates in
our towns, and in the relative infrequency of the most
dangerous infectious diseases nowadays as compared with 20
or 30 years ago. But although the average expectation of life
may be greater and the liability to disease less, it is open to
doubt whether the vitality of our town populations has im-
proved during, say, the last 30 years. Evidence goes to show
that in physique, vitality, and energy our town populations

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 71

of to-day compare unfavourably M'ith those of earlier years,
although, on the whole, wages are higher and food is cheaper.
And to-day the proportion of our people influenced by town
conditions of life is far higher than it was 30 years ago.

The duties mentioned are carried out by committees of the
Town Councils, in Manchester principally by the Sanitary
Committee and the Improvement and Buildings Committee.
Other Committees, for example, the Cleansing, Parks, Water-
works, Paving and Sewering Committees, attend to matters
closely connected with the public health. The executive work
of the Sanitary Committee is done by the Medical Officer of
Health, the Sanitary Superintendent, and a staff of inspectors.
The sanitary inspectors have districts allotted to them and are
expected to keep a close watch for conditions prejudicial to
health. The reports are submitted to the Medical Officer of
Health, who advises the committee on the steps to be taken.
In the event of infectious disease occurring in his district, the
sanitary inspector has to see that the instructions of the Medical
Officer are carried out. It will be obvious that the efficient
performance of those duties is only possible when the inspector
has a small district. Eegular inspection of every house in the
district ought to be made and such inspection should be
welcomed by the citizens. But the difficulty of efficient inspec-
tion must at present be great. In 1903, Manchester had 28
district inspectors at work, with, by the last census returns,
108,957 inhahited houses. This gives each inspector an average
of 3,891 houses to supervise, a number, we believe, to be too
large for one man. An increase in the number of inspectors
is urgently needed. A number of other inspectors are engaged
on special work.^

In Salford the Health Committee of the Council performs
functions similar to those of the Sanitary Committee of Man-
chester. The executive officials are, as in Manchester, the
Medical Officer and the sanitary inspectors. Here, too, a large
increase in the inspecting staff is desirable, though the work of
remedying existing bad conditions is in Salford being very
actively carried out. The 1901 census records 44,001 inhabited
houses in Salford. In 1903, the inspecting staff consisted of

' The visitors of the Ladies' Public Health Society help in the work of
Sanitary inspection both in IManchester and Salford.

72 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

a chief and an assistant inspector, six district inspectors and
a lady inspector, with others engaged in special work. If the
district inspectors only have areas assigned to them, each of
them has, on an average, 7,337 houses.

The work done by the existing staffs, both in City and
Borough, deserves hearty approval from the citizens. We feel
that this can best be given by an expression of public opinion
in favour of more frequent and more detailed inspection and,
as we have pointed out, this will necessarily mean an increase
in the numbers of the staflf.

Legislation during the last quarter of the nineteenth cen-
tury, and especially during the last decade, has extended the
power of Town Councils far beyond the mere suppression of
conditions injurious to health. Parliament has recognised that
action in this direction almost certainly involves dishousing part
of the population, and that a part for which suitable accom-
modation seems more and more diflScult to find, and also that a
deficiency in the siipply of wholesome houses is responsible for
overcrowding and other insanitary conditions. It has, therefore,
given municipalities power to erect houses for the working
classes. In the earlier acts this was confined to the power
of rebuilding on sites previously occupied by insani-
tary dwellings, but, under the Housing of the Working Classes
Acts, 1890 and 1900, this power has been widened so that now
the local authority may acquire land for house building pur-
poses either within or without the town boundaries. An account
of the building operations carried on by the Town Councils of
Manchester and Salford and of other towns will be found in
the succeeding chapter.

(b) Tenants. It would be out of place here to discuss at
length the rights of tenants. Briefly the tenant is entitled to
insist that the dwelling for which he pays rent shall be sanitary,
and, as a ratepayer, he is entitled to expect good surroundings
to his dwelling. That many people in our towns live in
dwellings which are not sanitary has been amply demonstrated.
In some of these cases the tenants hesitate to complain for
fear that they may be turned out, or that, if any improvement
is effected, the rent may be raised, which in many instances

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 73

would mean ejection. The action of our local authorities, too,
is to some extent limited by similar considerations. To make
large clearances in some parts of the city is desirable, but,
until provision has been made elsewhere for those who will be
dishoused, the authorities dare not take action lest matters
become worse in other districts. The most insanitary areas are
those occupied by the poorest classes, who are often the least
intelligent and most careless part of the population. They
cannot be expected to take the initiative in remedying matters,
and the community, on its own behalf as much as on their
behalf, must see that they are given the external conditions
of healthy life. We have already described the powers in this
direction possessed by our Town Councils. Much good use
of these powers has been made in recent years. "We think that
the half-hearted support given to the Town Councils by the
ratepayers is one of the chief obstacles to the fuller use of
these powers.

(c) Owners. Just as tenants are entitled to decent dwellings
so the owners of houses are entitled to reasonably careful treat-
ment of their property. There is no doubt that there are many
cases in which the insanitary and unwholesome state of a house
is due primarily to the carelessness or even to the wanton
destructiveness of the occupier. It is necessary to insist on
this, as frequently the whole blame is thrown on the owner.
But while it is difficult for the tenant in many cases to obtain
a remedy owing to his weakness, the owner, by his relative
strength, should find it easy to protect himself. It is true
that popular feeling tends to side more readily with the tenant
than with the owner, but we feel sure that a consistent policy
among the owners of house property in refusing as tenants
those who misuse their dwellings either by overcrowding or
by lack of cleanliness, or by actual injury to the structure,
would meet with the cordial approval of all interested in better-
ing housing conditions. From an economic standpoint the
position of the landlord would be improved by such action since
there would be less likelihood of interference by the health
authorities, less need for expenditure on upkeep, and greater
certainty of a return from the tenants. The co-operation of

74 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

the Property Owners' Association and similar bodies on such
lines would be a welcome aid towards the improvement of the
healthiness of the district.

It may be incidentally noted that combined action on these
lines by property owners would ultimately throw on the com-
munity the necessity of making provision for those rejected.
The scheme of Mr. John Mann (of Glasgow), which has the
approval of Professor Smart, deserves consideration. The
suggestion, put briefly, is that the Town Council should erect
dwellings of the simplest possible kind, substantial in structure,
with indestructible fixtures, and let at rents which Avould
simply cover the cost. The residents in these dwellings would
be under close supervision of a quasi-police sort. Here the
rejected ones would readily be accepted. They would find
sanitary conditions and would be disciplined into better ways.
The author of the scheme claims that, even if it did not pay
its way, the community would save by the improvement in
health, and the reduction in crime brought about by the
segregation of these undesirables. Moral influences could, of
course, be brought to bear on them more readily than under
the present system, where they are spread over considerable
areas. If the scheme were carried out, it would practically
mean the provision of furnished or semi-furnished lodgings
for families similar to those already provided by the Town
Councils for men in their model lodging-houses.*

^ For fuller details, see " The Housing Problem and the Municipality," by-
Prof. Wm. Smart. 1902, Id. Glasgow : Adshead and Son, Union Street.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 75

CHAPTER YI.

The Peovision of Wholesome Houses.

We liave in a previous chapter described some of tlie evil
conditions existing in Manchester and Salford. Similar condi-
tions exist or have existed in many other cities in Great
Britain and on the continent, and it is of interest to Manchester
citizens to know what has been done elsewhere to cope with
these evils. In this chapter we propose to give some account
of what has been accomplished by private individuals and com-
panies and by Town Councils.

(a) Private Effort. In dealing with bad housing conditions,
it is obviously best to take steps to prevent the further
deterioration of property and, if possible, to make bad property
habitable. Work of this kind has been carried on by Miss
Octavia Hill and her friends in London and by other organisa-
tions throughout the country. Old property has been pur-
chased and carefully repaired and every effort made to keep
it in good repair. Miss Hill introduced the system of having
lady rent-collectors, who establish friendly relations with the
tenants and represent the landlord. Educative influences can
thus be brought to bear on those tenants who by their careless-
ness and ignorance do harm to the houses in which they reside.
The system is essentially one of personal management and
responsibility. In Miss Hill's experiments there has been a
reasonable return on the capital invested.

In Leeds, largely owing to the efforts of Mr. Edmund Wilson,
a limited liability Company has for many years successfully
carried on work of a similar kind. It has acquired blocks of
property in the more crowded parts of the town, and, by
judicious weeding of the worst houses, and careful management
of the others, has saved to the town as decent dwellings many
houses which otherwise would have been slum property. An
interesting account of the work from the pen of Mr. Wilson is
to be found in the " Journal of the Society of Arts " for
9th February, 1900.

76 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

In otlier towns, various organisations have undertaken rent
collecting on Miss Hill's lines. They collect rents regularly
on the understanding that the landlords will carry out such
repairs as they consider desirable, and at the same time, by
their personal influence brought to bear on the tenants, they help
to raise the individuals as well as their surroundings. Work
of this kind is done by some of the ladies of the Kyrle Society
in the poorer parts of Glasgow and by the Social Union in
Edinburgh. The latter organisation was recently asked by the
Edinburgh Town Council to " factor " (i.e., act as agents for)
some new blocks of dwellings it had erected.

The value of work of this kind lies in saving for the com-
munity a number of houses, which, if treated as so much of
the property in the poorer parts of our towns is treated, would
soon become uninhabitable and still further increase the
difficulties in the way of providing wholesome surroundings
for the people.

In London and elsewhere, many companies have been
formed to carry out schemes for the better housing of the
people. In many cases such companies are limited by their
articles of association to a relatively low dividend, say four
per cent. Should a surplus be available, it is variously applied
to the improvement of the properties, to extending the scheme,
to providing facilities for recreation for the tenants, or some-
times in giving a bonus, equivalent to a discount on the rental,
to those tenants who have paid regularly. Such companies
attract the capital of those who are content with a small return
and who have a sense of responsibility respecting the use made
of their capital.

Although most companies of this kind have built the
dwellings they own, several of them have bought old properties
which they have remodelled and made wholesome. In every
case attempts have been made to provide dwellings in accord
with modern sanitary requirements. It may be noted in pass-
ing that the Glasgow Working Men's Dwellings Company
Limited, which has both reconstructed property and newly
built dwellings, finds the old property the more remunerative.

Mention must also be made of philanthropic organisations

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 77

like tlie Peabody Trust, which have done much to provide good
houses, albeit in block dwellings, for some of the working
classes. As the earnings of the capital invested accumulate,
a fund is formed which will be used in building more houses.
The houses are let at rents which an ordinary business under-
taking would charge.

The work of such companies and organisations has shown
that it is possible, provided the investor is satisfied with a
small return on his capital, to give the tenant as much (or more)
accommodation as he would get in less satisfactory property
for the same money. A large extension of enterprise of this
type would doubtless do much to reduce or remove the housing
difficulties of the present time. But there is no sign of a move
in this direction, probably because, while the return offered is
not sufficiently attractive to the ordinary investor, those who
would invest capital in such schemes get little encouragement
from the municipality. Persons who would take part in such
schemes from a desire to benefit the people must wish to have
some assurance respecting the surroundings of their property
which cannot be obtained with our hap-hazard methods of
town extension.

Although the reconstruction and adaptation of old property
has in most cases been confined to block dwellings, which are
not found in our district, a similar method might be applied
with a reasonable hope of success to some of the large houses
in parts of Chorlton-on-Medlock and elsewhere. Many large
houses in good condition are there standing empty. The rents
wanted for them in their present form are too high for working
class families, but, if each house were adapted, as it might be,
for two families, we believe that they could be let at rents
which would be remunerative. Such reconstructed houses
would be very similar to the cottage flats which have been
found successful in other towns.

Another way in which the housing problem may be made
less acute is by employers of labour arranging to house the
families of their workers. In recent years there have been
many schemes of this kind carried out, both in this country

78 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

and elsewliere. Where a good plan is adopted and care is
taken to see that the houses are well built and that the
surroundings are good, there is much to be said in favour of
such a scheme. On the other side, there is always the objection
that the worker has little independence when he occupies a
house owned by the employer. No work, no home ! is said to
be a current saying among agricultural labourers in England,
and other workers are inclined to look askance at any scheme
which might conceivably put them in such a position.

The provision of houses for the workers at Saltaire and at
Aintree and by several large collieries might be cited as
examples of this method of dealing with the question. But
it may be well to take perhaps the best known among recent
English schemes, that of Messrs. Lever Brothers, Limited, at
Port Sunlight. This firm has housed a large number of its
workpeople in a village close to their works. The enterprise
is frankly unremunerative. The income from rents only covers
the cost of maintenance and repairs and does not yield a divi-
dend on the capital invested. The head of the firm describes
the scheme as " prosperity sharing " — the best means he can
find of sharing profits with his workpeople — and he has recently
stated that the firm gets a return in the better health and conse-
quent increased efficiency of the workers. The value of the
scheme to those who are interested in the general question of
housing lies in the fact that at Port Sunlight the housing
conditions are almost ideal. The houses are well built and well
planned. A large Avell-lighted living room with a smaller
back kitchen or scullery is provided on the ground floor and
there are three bedrooms upstairs. A bath-room has been
provided in nearly every house. In every case there is a small
garden-patch in front of the house, and at the back there is
a good yard with the necessary offices. In different parts of
the village there are allotments which are let at nominal rents.
Besides the allotments there are numerous open spaces, the
roads are wide and well planted with trees, and recreation
grounds are provided where tennis, bowls, cricket and football
may be played. In this way the surroundings of the houses
are made pleasant, and the cheerfulness of the village is in-

LEVER BROS. LTD., PORT SUNLIGHT, CHESHIRE.
THE "SUNLIGHT" PLAN.

FRONT ELEVATION.
GROUND PLAN. I§J FLOOR PLAN.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 79

creased by the care wliicli has been taken to secure variety of
form and colour in the exteriors of the houses.

The experiment of Messrs. Lever Brothers is of great value,
first, to those who sympathise with the aims of the Garden
City Association in its proposal to take industries into the
country and to establish new towns there on model lines; and,
secondly, to all who are concerned with the housing of the
people, since the village sets an ideal which is not altogether
out of reach.

Similar housing schemes have been developed on a large
scale by employers of labour in Germany, France, Switzerland
and America. The most important on the Continent is that
established by the firm of Krupp at Essen, where dwellings for
over 26,000 persons have been provided.

The name of Bourneville will almost certainly occur to most
readers at this stage. Bourneville differs from Port Sunlight
in that residents are not necessarily in the employment of
those who provided the houses. Mr. Cadbury, who began the
scheme, has now handed it over to a Trust, which lets the
houses to suitable people, and proposes to utilise the profits,
as they accrue, in the first place, to build more houses of a
similar kind at Bourneville, and, ultimately, to buy land and
to establish similar estates in other parts of the country.

As at Port Sunlight, the internal arrangements at Bourne-
ville and their surroundings are almost ideal. Mr. George
Cadbury, the founder of the Trust, has a strong belief in the
value of gardening as a civilising influence, and he has
arranged that each house on the estate shall have one-sixth of
an acre of land. This land is carefully laid out and part of
the garden is planted with fruit trees. Mr. Cadbury says that
he has found town dwellers who moved to Bourneville took to
gardening as a duck takes to water. A feature of the Bourne-
ville Trust of interest to town dwellers is that it aims at pur-
chasing land outside the towns where it is comparatively cheap
and at restricting the density of population on area to a
reasonable number, about 30 per acre.

There is still another way in which private effort may be
made to help in the provision of houses, viz., through building

80 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

and co-operative societies. Building societies and their
metliods are too well known to need more than a passing
reference. They have in a large number of cases enabled the
more prosperous among working men to build houses for them-
selves or to purchase houses. But they have also frequently
enabled a man of little capital to become owner of a few
houses, and this in many cases has bad results. Such an owner
frequently finds himself unable to keep the property in good
repair and a number of such owners may be a considerable
hindrance to sanitary reform.

In a great many cases co-operative societies have established
building society departments and have done the same work as
the ordinary building society. In other cases the (">-operative
society has itself purchased land, laid it out, and erer.ed houses
which it has afterwards sold or rented to its membt ;;- or others.
Where the houses are sold, there is, unless some .spocial pains
are taken in laying out the estate and planning ili(> houses
little to differentiate this from an ordinary building society.
But if such pains are taken and good houses are built on wide
streets and with plenty of open space about them, and if the
houses are only let to the members and others so that the society
can always keep control over them, then a real contribution
to the housing accommodation of the district will be made.
The difficulty which many co-operative societies have in finding
a field for the investment of their capital might well be over-
come by the development of building estates on such lines.
Several societies in England have carried out large schemes,
notably the societies at Leeds and Woolwich. If the societies
in and around Manchester were to acquire and develope estates
of considerable size, giving special attention to the quality of
the houses and their surroundings, a practical step towards
the improvement of local conditions would have been taken.

(b) Mxinicipal Effort. The existence almost everywhere of
the housing problem and its persistence in spite of private
efforts to deal with it have forced public bodies to attempt its
solution. The powers given to Town Councils in Great Britain
iave been mentioned in a previous chapter. It will be remem-
bered that they relate to [a) insanitary areas and houses and

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 81

(b) the provision of new liouses. There is scarcely any town
in wliich steps have not been taken to improve or to remove
insanitary houses or areas. An owner is bound to put his
property into a state of repair and make it sanitary on the
instruction of the health authority, or, if he neglects to do this,
the authority may do the work and charge it to the owner.
Where an area is found to be insanitary a scheme for dealing
with it has to be drawn up and an order obtained by the Town
Council, which then, either by agreement or compulsorily,
obtains possession of the property. The property may then
be in whole or in part demolished. The improvement in the
healthiness of the area when clearances of this kind have taken
place is most marked and has been well exemplified both in
have quoted (p. 30) the figures for Manchester and Salford.
houses, at rents similar to those charged in the demolished
houses and equally near the places of employment, available
for those dishoused, they will crowd into dwellings already
occupied near the cleared area, and thus again create insanitary
houses and areas. In our towns, as we gather from the census
returns, overcrowding exists to a considerable extent. We
have quoted (p. 30) the figures for Manchester and Salford.
We may infer from these either that there are not enough
houses for the population or that there are not enough at rents
within reach of those who overcrowd. From the Census figures,
on the assumption that the average family consists of five
persons, it would seem that there are more than enough houses
for the existing population. It is also true that in some parts
of the towns there are many unoccupied houses. We are,
therefore, forced to the conclusion that there is a deficiency in
house accommodation at rents within the reach of the working
classes. To provide houses simply for those who are at present
overcrowded would necessitate the building of thousands of
houses. But, as we have endeavoured to show in our account
of selected areas, many of the existing houses are unfit for
human habitation. The two Town Councils are fully aware of
this, and they are continually weeding out the worst houses.
So long as there is a deficiency of house room, however, they
cannot do much. It is of the first importance — indeed it is a

82 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

condition precedent to an adequate treatment of the problem —
that the Town Councils should set themselves to ascertain
accurately the extent of this deficiency.

Private enterprise, as represented by the ordinary builder
or by companies or societies like those described in the previous
section, has failed to supply the deficiency and there is no
evidence forthcoming that in the near future, under present
conditions, it will make it up. Year by year the natural
increase of the population makes matters worse. Apparently
the ordinary builder hesitates to sink capital in erecting houses
for those whose expenditure in rent can only be small. He
finds apparently the risks too great for the return he could get,
and if he builds workmen's dwellings, builds for the better
paid artisan.

Under these circumstances the community has to consider
what it can do to solve the problem. It may, through the Town
Council, acquire old property and make it habitable again, as
has been done by the borough of Camberwell ; it may clear
insanitary areas and build houses on the cleared sites; or it
may acquire land, which may be within or outside the city
boundaries, and either get others to build on that land or
build there itself. The powers given to the Town Council by
law put it in a very strong position for carrying out any of
these schemes, since it can compel owners to sell land. With
the security of the rates, it can borrow money for building
at low rates of interest. On the other hand, the Town Council
is at a disadvantage in building, as the scheme and the detailed
plans have to be approved not only by the Council but by the
Local Government Board, and the inquiries necessitated by this
condition often lead to great delay in getting the work accom-
plished. The conditions of municipal building, too, are much
more severe than those of private enterprise, since the Local
Government Board rules are more stringent than local bye-laws.

If a Town Council decides to build it is faced with two
questions : — For whom ? and Where ? The Acts of Parliament
give power to provide houses for the working classes, but do
not define these classes. There is consequently a considerable
diversity in the dwellings erected by Town Councils. Some

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 83

Councils have aimed at building primarily for those whose
earnings are low, and, it may be, irregular. In other
cases, the needs of skilled artisans and craftsmen have been
considered. The Acts, too, give the local authority a wide
discretion as to the site of the building scheme, though this
discretion may be limited by circumstances. The accommoda-
tion provided may be in the form of ordinary dwelling-houses
or of special lodging-houses. Both Manchester and Salford
have made part of their housing schemes, the provision of
model lodging-houses for men, Manchester at Walton House,
Ancoats, Salford at Bloom Street. The Manchester lodging-
house has beds for 363 men, the Salford lodging-house for 285.

We may consider two cases which indicate the powers of
the Town Council. In the one case, a Town Council may
decide to deal with an insanitary or slum area under Part I. of
the 1890 Act, In preparing a scheme, the Town Council is
bound to consider the needs of the tenants to be displaced, and
the Act states that the confirming authority (the Local Govern-
ment Board in the case of provincial towns) may require
provision to be made in the same area or near to it for the
tenants dishoused.

In the second case, the Town Council, realising the
need for providing good dwellings, may purchase land, under
Part III. of the Act, either inside or outside the town
boundaries and there carry out a housing scheme.

In most large towns, some action has been taken under
Part I. of the Act in dealing with insanitary areas, and
numerous examples can be found of good dwellings built by
Town Councils on areas which were formerly covered by slums.
In Manchester, work of this sort has been carried out by the
Town Council in Ancoats, where the Oldham Road Dwellings
and the cottages and tenements in neighbouring streets and the
Pollard Street Dwellings replace property which was very-
insanitary. Similar work has been done in Salford, resulting
in the Queen Street Artizans' Dwellings and the King Street
Cottages. There is much to be said against rebuilding
dwelling-houses on cleared insanitary areas. The worst slums,
the oldest and most dilapidated property is usually near the
9

81 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

centre of the town. Year by year, the need of the business
community for office and warehouse accommodation and for
shops becomes greater, and land in the centre of the town, con-
venient for business purposes, naturally becomes more and more
valuable. It is consequently, as a rule, a very costly process
to house people on the areas which have been cleared. In
almost all cases the land is too dear to allow of the erection of
cottage property and there is not only the English dislike to
block dwellings to consider, but the recognised fact that these
dwellings are less satisfactory than well-built cottages, although
they may be infinitely better than the slum cottages which
preceded them. The cost of a housing scheme of this kind is
also increased by the compensation usually paid to the owners
of the property.

It is maintained in favour of schemes of this kind that
workers must live near their work, and it is therefore absolutely
necessary to provide houses on or near the spot for those dis-
housed. Of course, many workers like to live, and do live, near
their work, even when the surroundings must tend to lower their
value as workers, but, on the other hand, we have ample
evidence, not only from the results of our enquiries but from
the rapid growth of suburban residential districts, and from
the crowds who use the workmen's cars and trains to and from
town in the early morning, that a very large proportion of
workers do not live near their work. It is possible that market
porters and some others may have to live near their work, but,
even in those cases, the need requires proof. We have in
another place (p. 28) drawn attention to the overcrowding on
area which exists, and we have insisted on the need for more
space about dwellings. If buildings are erected on costly land,
it is obvious that less land can be given to each house than
where the land is cheaper, as it usually is on the outskirts of
a town.

The difference in the cost of land in the centre of tlie town
and in the suburbs is well illustrated by the history of Man-
chester schemes. The land in Ancoats, cleared and afterwards
built on, cost at Oldham Road £5 6s. 9d. per square yard, at
Pollard Street £1 14s. 10|d. per square yard, and in Hulme,

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 85

at Chester Street, the cost was £2 13s. 5d. per square yard.
Two years ago the Town Council purchased about 238 acres at
Blackley for £35,643 10s,, which is about 7|d. per square yard.

But a still greater difficulty in connection with housing
schemes which involve clearance is that of finding accommoda-
tion for the people dishoused. Even if provision is made on the
same site for those Avho occupied the houses which are
demolished, there must be a considerable interval while build-
ing is going on when the people must find room elsewhere.
Some will probably move away from the district, but, in nearly
all cases, it is found that those dishoused crowd into neigh-
bouring houses and thus make unwholesome conditions there.

It is, too, the common experience that a very small propor-
tion of the tenants dishoused return to the area when the new
houses, which must be more costly than the old ones, are
erected.

We consider that the only satisfactory plan is for the Town
Council to estimate carefully the deficiency in house accommoda-
tion existing and the additional deficiency likely to be created
when imwholesome houses are closed. Steps should be taken to
encourage the erection of good and wholesome houses, preferably
in the less densely peopled parts of the town and in the country
districts lying outside or just on the town boundary. Care should
be taken in any scheme of the kind to provide houses of different
types to encourage the movement to the outer districts of all
classes of the community. When some progress has been made
in this direction, the sanitary authority should be vigorous
in demanding the closing of unwholesome dwellings, and,
where areas are cleared, should endeavour to keep a consider-
able portion of the space unbuilt on as lungs for the crowded
part of the town. In Salford, where a large number of areas
have been cleared in recent years, we notice that many of
these areas are advertised for sale as building sites. In our
opinion it is highly desirable that the Borough Council should
acquire some of these and retain them as open spaces.

In London, Gflasgow, and Liverpool extensive schemes of
clearance have been carried out and houses have been erected
on the cleared sites. In London and Glasgow the new dwell-

86 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

ings have in nearly every case been block dwellings. These
schemes reduce the population on a given area and ensure
well built and, subject to the drawbacks of block dwellings,
wholesome surroundings.

In Liverpool an immense scheme is being carried out in
one of the poorest quarters. For many years the Town Council
has been at work on the district closing and clearing small areas
and erecting dwellings of different types — in some cases blocks
and in other cases cottages. In the most recently completed
section of the work the new houses are built in three-storey
blocks, each tenement having two or three rooms. The blocks
have been carefully planned and arranged so as to give the
houses the greatest possible amount of sunshine and air. Each
tenement has a w.c. and an ashbin, and a central station
supplies hot water to a tap in each house. The building is
practically indestructible and should disease or vermin get in,
a house can be " stoved " or washed down with a hose.

The policy in Liverpool has been and still is to try to house
the poor and very poor in the crowded part of the town.
Necessarily, therefore, houses which are both cheap and
sanitary have to be provided. An experiment is now being
made with the object of providing very cheap houses. A
three-storey building is being erected at an estimated cost
of about £100 per three room tenement. The material used is
concrete formed of crushed clinker from the refuse destructors
with Portland cement. The sides, floors and roofs of each room
are moulded in one piece at the destructor depot, conveyed to
the site of building and put in place. This experiment will be
watched with great interest.

"We have indicated above, however, our conviction that the
most hopeful line of work is to take action under Part III. of
the Housing of the "Working Classes Act, and to provide
dwellings without regard to any qiiestion of the clearance of
insanitary areas, if it is shown that there is a need for more
houses. As yet municipalities have not taken as much advan-
tage of Part III. as might have been expected, but popular
feeling seems now to have been aroused and it is to be hoped
that progress may be rapid. The town of Richmond in Surrey

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 87

has tlie honour of leading the way and the Richmond Scheme
is now well-known. The Town Council there has built 119
cottages of six, five, and four rooms each. The external appear-
ance of the cottages is pleasant and small gardens are provided.
The rentals are low for houses of so many rooms, varying from
6s. to 7s. 6d. per week. Twelve cottage-flats were also erected,
the ground floor houses being let at 4s. 6d. per week and the
upper floor houses at 5s. 6d. per week. The scheme has been
self-supporting.

London has several large schemes in progress at the present
time, and in other parts of the country action is being taken.

The Manchester Town Council has acquired 238 acres at
Blackley under Part III. The erection of houses is now pro-
ceeding, though there has been considerable delay in carrying
through the scheme. The Manchester scheme, which provides
for 203 cottages, has been carefully planned. Baths are to be
provided in the majority of the houses, which will have three
bedrooms. About one-third of the houses will have a large
living room and small scullery, but no parlour, and the living
rooms will be arranged to face the south, thus ensuring a
maximum both of air and light in the room most used.

The houses will have small gardens, and allotments are
being provided on the estate, which will be let to such tenants
as require them. The scheme is intended to be self-supporting.

We are strongly of opinion that Town Councils should
encourage building as much as possible and invite private
builders and associations formed for the purpose to co-operate
in the provision of wholesom.e dwellings for the working classes.
The Act of 1900 gives the Town Council power, with the consent
of the Local Government Board, to lease land acquired under
Part III. The Act also states that societies, companies, and
private individuals engaged in providing houses for the work-
ing classes may borrow money, not exceeding one moiety of the
value. of the estate or buildings to be mortgaged, and repayable
within forty years, from the Public Works Loan Commissioners.
It is to be noted that at the expiration of the lease the
municipality would obtain complete possession of the buildings
and that in the meantime as owner of the land it could insist

88 HOUSING COXDITIOXS IN

on any conditions tlioiiglit desirable as to the type and arrange-
ment of buildings. Some provision, too, would have to be made
for the efficient repairing of the dwellings, or doubtless the
commonly-experienced difficulty that owners, near the end of
a lease, will not spend money on repairs, would be encountered.

In Germany, the system of promoting the supply of whole-
some dwellings for workpeople by the co-operation of building
societies and others, who erect dwellings on land owned by the
Town Council and largely aided by loans of capital at low rates of
interest, has been widely adopted. (See Supplementary Volume.)

The Prussian Government, partly for the purpose of build-
ing dwellings for railway or other workmen employed by the
State, partly for the purpose of lending to building societies
or to Town Councils to be used by them directly or else lent
by them to building societies, has in the recent past provided
sums equivalent to £1,600,000, and purposes providing £600,000
more this year.

In Germany the law allows savings banks and the insurance
institutions created in the new system of compulsory insurance
of workpeople to use a considerable proportion of their vast
funds in loans lo building societies, and the power is largely
used. One insurance institution has lent £545,000 to defray the
cost of workmen's dwellings, charging from 3 per cent, to 3^
per cent, interest. Some Town Councils promote the formation
of building societies by taking some of their shares as well
as by making them loans at low rates of interest. German
towns possess much land and some Town Councils use part of
the town land to aid building societies. They lease land to the
societies at low rents for comparatively short terms of
years — about 60 years — and also lend them nearly the whole
of the cost of building. This can be done safely as at the end
of the term of years the house becomes the property of the
town to which the site already belongs. In some cases, too,
part of the cost of street-making and sewering is remitted by
Town Councils in favour of building societies. In the Ehine
Province, building societies thus helped, provided 2,174
dwellings in the year 1901, which amounted to one-sixth part
of the number of workmen's dwellings needed at that time.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 89

In 1902, there were 113 building societies in the E-hine
Province. Sixty German societies iiave erected 5,450 dwell-
ings.

What strikes one on surveying the work done in English
towns is that theiie is no well defined policy in dealing with
housing. In dealing with water supply or tramways, some
attempt is made to consider the needs of the whole town and
a comprehensive scheme is drawn up even if the work has to be
carried out in stages. But in housing the policy seems to be
one of patching, and again, with possibly a few exceptions, we
do not hear of a local authority making a comprehensive survey
of the housing conditions and the housing needs of its district.
Manchester and Salford both seem to fail in this respect. Yet
the need of a clear policy is evident. Owing to lack of fore-
sight, whole districts are being covered with houses and no
provision is made for open spaces. On the fringe of the towns
where other local authorities have control, and where building
bye-laws are in some respects less restricting than in Man-
chester and Salford, much building has been going on in recent
years. In these districts unwholesome and insanitary areas
are being created, and the evil of bad housing conditions is
being spread over a larger and larger area. It is highly
desirable that the larger centres of population should have
control over building conditions in their immediate outskirts.
But even this power would be of little value unless a compre-
hensive policy had been adopted. In this respect German
towns are far ahead of us. Nearly all large German towns have
building plans. To the preparation of these plans, a large
amount of thought and trouble is given and experts are fre-
quently called in to advise.

The preparation of such a building plan involves several
things which we have already urged or are about to urge. It
demands, first, careful inspection to ascertain existing conditions
and to enable reliable estimates to be made of the needs of the
towns not only at the moment but in future years. In framing
such an estimate, it is probable that the Town Councils would
gain valuable assistance by appointing a special commission,
comprising not only members of the Council, but other repre-

90 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

sentative citizens, which would examine witnesses and discuss
the subject from all points of view. Such a municipal
commission to deal with housing has been appointed by the
Town Council of Glasgow, at the instigation of Professor Smart.

The next stage would be to prepare for the wliole district,
plans showing how it should be developed, indicating both the
houses and areas which ought, for convenience of traffic, for
health, or for general amenity, to be cleared, and also the lines
which should be followed by new roads and streets and the areas
which ought to be left unbuilt on. This may seem a big
scheme, but, as we have stated, it has been adopted in Germany.
It is our opinion that the policy of patching, i.e., of dealing with
small areas or houses as attention is drawn to them, making
slight changes in bye-laws, or erecting small groups of houses,
while good so far as it goes, will never result in a healthy
Manchester or a healthy Salford. There should be a clear
understanding of what is being aimed at, even if the actual
ATork can only proceed by short stages.

In the preparation of building plans many large German
towns have now adopted the principle of zones. The more
distant a zone is from the central district of the town, the
smaller is the proportion of each site which may be covered
with building, and the smaller is the number of storeys allowed.
This arrangement has been seen to be so necessary, that the
kingdom of Saxony, by a most valuable Act of Parliament
passed in 1900, has made it compulsory for all towns in the
kingdom. (See Supplementaiy Volume.) It is recognised that in
the preparation of building plans for towns great attention
must be given to so arranging the direction of streets that all
dwellings may receive as much sunshine as possible. It is
also thought desirable to arrange that factories and other
" works " shall be confined to certain districts. Great efforts
are now being made to promote the erection of a large number
of small houses, especially of " one family houses " for working
people. The insistence on the need for leaving a large propor-
tion of land uncovered in the oiiter parts of towns is due both
to the conviction that it is an arrangement necessary for the
health of the inhabitants of all parts of the town, and' also to

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 91

the belief that, by thus making it impossible to house a large
number of persons on a given area of land, the price of land,
in districts where it is not already dear, is prevented from
rising as much as it would do otherwise.

As Mannheim is chiefly a manufacturing town and has
very carefully considered how it can increase its power to com-
pete successfully with other German and with foreign towns,
the arrangements adopted by its Town Council to guide the
growth of the town, if compared with the arrangements made
by our Town Council to guide the growth of Manchester, will
enable us to form an opinion as to whether the German or the
English system of municipal government is the more efficient.
The description of the building plan for Mannheim prepared
by Professor Baumeister, which is published in Nos. 69, 70,
and 71 of the Centralhlatt der Baiiverwaltung, shows that the
new part of the town will be provided with a remarkably com-
plete system of raihvay lines of the ordinary width, leading
from goods stations in all directions, for goods traffic, which
will enable every manufactory to load goods on to trucks on its
own premises. Carriage, therefore, will be exceptionally cheap
in the town.

Yet the Town Council, who are thinking so much of
economical working, recognise that even their poorest citizens
are men and women, whose bodies and minds need wholesome
recreation and an abundant supply of fresh air, of light, and
of the influence of flowers and trees. The building plan, there-
fore, provides for the creation of avenue-streets of widths
varying from 24 to 43 yards, and Professor Baumeister adds : —
" Of course, care has been taken to provide open spaces,
decorative shrubberies, parks, and sites for public buildings."
The width of ordinary streets varies from d>\ to 21f yards.

Transit Peo visions.

A factor of increasing importance in the solution of
housing difficulties is the provision of improved means
of transit in our towns. All that has been said about
overcrowding on area and about the cost of land in the towns
emphasises the need for going with building schemes to where

92 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

cheap land is plentiful. Such land is still to be found on the
fringe of our towns and beyond the town boundaries. No great
movement of workers to the outskirts of the town can be
expected unless houses are plentiful and good, and there is
easy, quick and cheap communication with town. The worker
need not live near his work if he can readily get to and from
it without unduly extending his working day. Most town
dwellers, too, like to remain within easy reach of the amuse-
ments and interests of town and, unless this is possible, will
rather remain in town than suifer isolation.

Trains and tramways have for long made it possible for
many workers to live far from their work, but until a year ago
or less there was much room for improvement in our district.
The recent provision of electric tram services by the municipali-
ties has, however, greatly extended the choice of dwelling
places for working men.

Should the tramway undertakings in Manchester and Sal-
ford succeed, as similar enterprises have done elsewhere, it
ought to be possible to imitate Glasgow and other towns and
greatly reduce the cost of travelling. With fares at a half-
penny per mile and a penny for three miles, suburban residence
becomes possible for many workers. The only other necessary
condition is that there should be an ample service of quick
cars. This most towns are providing. The scheme gradually
being developed by the Manchester Corporation of providing
through routes in every direction will do much to make the
use of the trams and of suburban residential districts popular.

The local train service opens many suitable residential dis-
tricts to working men, but a considerable extension of the
service and reduction in fares is needed to make this as effective
as it might be.

It is very important that in the development of our tramway
system care should be taken to supply lines to thinly peopled
districts as well as those which have already considerable popu-
lations. In this way the provision of houses may be
encouraged. But it is also important that the departments of
our Town Councils should work in harmony, and that care
should be taken by those concerned with the provision of

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 93

dwellings to secure land for their erection before the tramways
are extended in a new direction. As soon as the tramway is
extended, often as soon as the scheme is formulated, the price
of land near the lines goes up. This increase in value really
belongs to the community which has made it, and it is fitting
that so far as possible the community should reap the benefit
of it. The provision of tramways or other means of transit
will not by itself lessen the housing difficulty ; cheap, good and
comfortable houses are also wanted and these cannot be
provided where land is costly. We urge, therefore, that the
Housing Committees and the Tramway Committees should work
hand in hand to provide opportunities for more wholesome
conditions of life.

It is also absolutely necessary for the prevention of the
growth of new overcrowded areas by the sides of new tram
routes that careful building plans for the district to and
through which new lines are to pass shall be prepared by the
controlling authorities before the tram lines are constructed.
The planning of town extensions has already been discussed.
(See p. 89 et seq.)

Building Conditions.

New houses have to be erected in conformity with the local
bye-laws which are based on the Model Bye-laws of the Local
Government Board. Although such bye-laws have, as was
intended, the effect of securing on the whole reasonably healthy
conditions in the houses erected, yet, in some ways, they act
injuriously on house building. In the first place, the tendency
to build so as to provide the minimum requirements of the bye-
laws largely accounts for the miles of houses of exactly
the same pattern and appearance to be found in all our large
towns. The lack of elasticity in the bye-laws prevents the
builder from responding to the different demands of town and
suburban conditions. The u&e of cheaper building material
is also rendered difficult. Timber, concrete, and steel, all of
which give opportunities for a much needed variety in the
external appearance of houses besides being cheaper than the

94 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

ordinary brick or stone walls, can scarcely be used under the
existing regulations. In this connection reference should be
made to the Saxon Building Laws described in the Supplementary
Volume.

On the other hand, the bye-laws do little to regulate such
important matters as the area and cubic content of rooms. We
are glad to note that Manchester has recently (1902) obtained
sanction for a bye-law which provides that one room on the
ground floor of every new house shall have an area of at
least 144 square feet. But there is still need for a bye-law
regulating the cubic content of rooms intended to be used for
sleeping purposes.

Apart from the requirements of the bye-laws, there is need
for an improvement in the planning of houses. The interiors
of the houses in working class districts in Manchester and
Salford are not less monotonous than the exteriors. The
arrangement of space in a house has little or no relation to the
ordinary life of the family occupying the house. The living-
room or kitchen, frequently too small for the many functions
it has to ser^'e in a working-class household, might, with advan-
tage, be enlarged at the expense of the seldom-used front room
or parlour. The model houses at Bourneville and Port Sun-
light are on the plan suggested, which has also been adopted
for some of the houses about to be erected at Blackley. Then
there is an obvious need for more houses with at least three
bedrooms, although houses with two may suffice for small
families. The desirability of every house being provided with
a bath is now generally admitted, but progress in this direction
is slow. This may in part be set down to the cost and the
difficulty of finding a suitable place to put a bath. In the
last few years several ingenious and comparatively cheap
schemes have been adopted. At Bourneville, in some cases a
bath has been sunk in the scullery floor and covered, when not
in use, by a trap door. In other places, a bath has been put
in the scullery and covered in so that it forms a sideboard or
table. An ingenious range and boiler, devised by Mr. Cornes,
of Leek, has made it possible for him to provide in some
cottages he has built at Leek a bath with hot and cold water

A MANCHESTER COTTAGE PLAN.

CKUUXD FLOOR.

UEDROOM FLOOR.

To picc p. Uo,

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 95^

in the scullery at much less cost than with the ordinary
arrangement.

It is not to be expected that the average builder will provide
houses of the kind we suggest, especially as the public is
apparently fairly contented with the houses at present built.
But it would be well if Town Councils, in carrying out housing
schemes, set a standard a little in advance of the popular
demand by improving the plans and convenience of the houses.
A comparison of the plans we give of a typical Manchester
cottage and of a Port Sunlight cottage (see p. 78) will, we
believe, be of interest.

96 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

CHAPTER YII.

Legislative Needs.

Althougli municipalities have been given extensive powers
for dealing with housing and generally for protecting health
hy the legislation of the last half century, experience has
shown that further legislation is needed before it will be
possible to solve the housing problem.

In various places in our report we have suggested courses
which demand further legislation; at this point, we propose to
summarise the legislative measures which seem to us to be
needed now.

(1) There is primarily need for legislation in regard to
land. Every inducement should be given to the municipality
to acquire and hold land. In this connection the reforms
needed are : — {a) The repeal of any clauses which compel the
Town Councils to dispose of surplus land when improvement
schemes have been carried out; (6) power to acquire land for
future needs (at present land can only be purchased when it
is actually required for a scheme about to be carried out) ;

(c) power of compulsory purchase, at a fair market price, with-
out compensation for compulsion (the present practice is to
give 10 per cent, on the price for compulsory purchase) ; and

(d) a simplification of the mechanism of " conveying " land.
It has been pointed out jnany times that dear land makes

dear houses. Much cheap land, therefore, must be made avail-
able for house building if houses are not to be dear. This can
be effected by the Town Councils purchasing land on the out-
skirts of the town w^hile its market value is that of agricultural
land or little more. It is the first duty of the municipality
in dealing with the housing question to see that new houses
are as wholesome and well-built as possible and that their
surroundings are good, and for the provision of these condi-
tions it is most important to have command of land.

It seems to us extremely desirable that, if Town Councils
•obtain power to buy land as they find opportunities, a separate

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 97

Committee, under tlie guidance of a competent salaried chair-
man, appointed for a long term of years, should be created
to select, buy and manage the land acquired by the town ; and
that this Committee should have placed at its disposal a con-
siderable sum, raised by loan, the interest on which should be
defrayed by the income derived from the land bought for the
town. This system has been very successfully adopted by the
towns of Duesseldorf and Erfurt. (See Supplementary Volume.)

Another reform, desirable both because it would add to the
wealth of the community and considerably increase the amount
of land available for building, would much facilitate the com-
pulsory purchase of land by Town Councils.

(2) The reform is the rating of unbuilt-upon land within
the town boundaries. At present, rates are levied on the total
ratable value of land and buildings, if the premises are
occupied ; but unbuilt-on land is not rated on its value as a site,
but only on the sum which it produces annually. Many
reformers suggest that the value of the land and the buildings
should be separated and separate rates levied on them, and
that, in the case of unbuilt-on land, a rate should be levied
on its value as a site. We believe that a rate should be levied
on the values of such sites as are not built on and are within
the town areas, open spaces dedicated to the public use, gardens
and allotments being excepted.

The pressure of population in our towns has largely increased
the demand for houses. Land is needed on which new houses
can be built. Such land as might be used for building pur-
poses rapidly increases in value since the demand for land tends
to outrun the supply. As unbuilt-on land is not charged with
rates, some landowners prefer to hold their land, while its
value rises, hoping later to obtain a high price for it. This
holding of unbuilt-on land in towns is injurious to the
community in two ways.

Firstly, as houses cannot be built on the land held, it
increases the competition for other land which is open for
building and sends its price up, and thus either ensures that
houses built on adequately large sites are let at high rents,
which cannot be paid by the working classes, or that houses

98 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

at low rents are built too much crowded together on the ground
and with a minimum of accommodation.

Secondly, the owner who holds up land does not make a
fair contribution to the local revenue. If his land is used
for grazing or other agricultural purposes, it is assessed
accordingly. Its value as agricultural land is low, and the
rates payable in that respect are at present reduced by half
under the Agricultural Rating Act. If the land is unoccupied,
no rates are paid at all. It is obviously unfair that land should
be rated at a nominal value, when its real value (i.e., the price
for which it will sell as a building site) is being steadily raised
by the community. We, as we have already said, therefore
think that such land should be rated so that it may pay its fair
quota to the expenses of the toAvn and in order that land may
be brought into the market. Another possible advantage is
that the assessed value for rating purposes might be taken as
the purchase price should the municipality think it desirable
to buy it, and the process of acquiring land might thus be
simplified.

In Germany, the rating of sites not yet built on has been
adopted by many towns. In the following passage, the results
of the system are briefly described : — " This system of rating,
which is so urgently needed in this country, was strongly
recommended, in 1899, to those German Town Councils which
had not already adopted it, by the Prussian Finance Minister.
It has been adopted by Crefeld, Breslau, Aachen, Duesseldorf,
Elberfeld, Charlottenburg, Kiel, Wiesbaden, and 62 other
German towns. Berlin, which has not yet adopted it, is said
to be about to do so. It is calculated that the introduction
of the system in Halle will have these results: — One owner
of building land worth £55,350, who now pays a rate of £1 14s.
a year, will have to pay £137 a year. Another speculator holds
land worth £72,300. He pays 13s. a year, and will have to
pay £179. In Dortmund, a speculator who used to pay 3s.
had his rate raised to £50 a year. When the new method of
rating was begun in Breslau, in 1900, speculators in land had
to pay an increase of rates of £15,250 a year. In Cologne,
under the old system, there were in one year 2,703 appeals

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 99

against 21,292 assessments. Under the new system of rating
land at its selling value, tliere were only 174 appeals against
30,000 assessments.""^

At a meeting held in Weissenfels on June 5tli and 6tli,
1903, Councillor Reimarus, of Magdeburg, where the rate is
levied, thus summarised the advantages obtained by the intro-
duction of this system of rating :■ — " (1) The rate on the selling
value is free from the defects which come of the inflexibility
of the old rate on land and the insufHci-ent flexibility of the
rate on buildings. (2) The new system of rating makes it
possible to apportion the burden of rating more justly and
more equally among the different classes of ratepayers than
could be done before, and, in particular, it ensures a degree
of rating of unbuilt-on land appropriate to the relation of that
kind of property to other kinds, with the further result that the
increased revenue thus gained can be used for lessening the
rates on dwellings, and it abolishes the privilege hitherto
granted to places of business, with the same results as have been
mentioned. It establishes a right relation of the rating of
the larger houses to that of houses of medium size and that of
small houses, the last named having their rates considerably
reduced." — Soziale Praxis, July 16, 1903.

(3) To encourage house building it must be made easy to
obtain capital, and, unless the houses are to be let at rentals too
high for the working classes to pay, capital must be obtainable at
low rates of interest. It is highly desirable that Government
should issue housing loans at lower rates of interest than are
at present charged, and also that a considerable extension of
the period of repayment should be permitted. The period of
repayment at present varies from 30 to 60 years, and it is
thought that an extension to 80 years for houses and to 100 for
land might be made. It seems desirable also that savings
banks should be encouraged to lend money to building societies
which build under regulations approved by the Town Councils.

(4) It is very desirable that municipalities should have

'See "Ought Mayors, etc., to be paid salaries," by T. C. Horsfall,
Manchester, 1903, p. 26. (Reprinted in Supplementary Volume, p. 31.)

100 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

power to insist on being notified of all proposed demolitions
of liouse property, or of the conversion of house property into
offices, etc., and that they should have power to insist on the
provision of fresh accommodation before the demolition is
proceeded Avith.

(5) Power should be given to a municipality to close the
houses in a slum after accommodation has been found for the
inhabitants and to remove the houses at the owner's expense.
The justification of siich a demand lies in the fact that a slum
is a nuisance, often on a large scale, and is a menace to the
physical and moral health of the whole community.

(6) The municipality should be compelled to insist in its
building bye-laws on the provision of larger rooms in houses
with, say, a minimum of 600 cubic feet of space per person.

(T) The Town Councils of large centres of population which
tend to overflow their boundaries should be given power to
supervise the building plans of the outside districts. Unless
this is done it is quite possible fur a series of slums to be
created on the fringe of the town. Manchester-Salford,
where there is a ring of authorities with different bye-laws, and
with different policies in regard to housing surrounding the
towns, is a case in point. In some of the outh'ing suburbs
where the bye-laws of the local authority have not been
sufficiently exacting, many houses have been built which
simply spread some of the worst conditions of town life over
a larger area. Power to incorporate such districts by an easier
process than at present exists might, with advantage, be given
to the larger towns.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. lOl

CHAPTER VIII.

Educational and Religious Influences.

Tliiis far, our report has mainly dealt with what may be
called the environmental side of the housing question. We
have been discussing the external conditions required for
healthy life, and have considered how far these are to be
found in Manchester and Salford, and what steps ought to be
taken to supply them in so far as they are wanting. But
there is another side of the question to which we must devote
some attention. To many social reformers this other side
seems all important, and it must at least be admitted that no
effectual reform can be obtained by action simply from the
outside. There is, for example, little use in providing good
houses if the people who are to live in these houses do not
know how to iise them rightly, or if, by self-indulgence or from
other causes, they nullify the benefit of good and wholesome
surroundings. Nor will there be any marked tendency to
supply good houses until there comes a real demand for such
houses from people prepared to live full and decent lives if they
can obtain wholesome dwellings.

It is fitting, therefore, that we should consider the agencies
which are making for the improvement of the people them-
selves, and see how they help in the work of getting better
houses and surroundings.

Among the chief means of effecting improvement of
character and habits we put the influence of our schools. It
should be an essential part of the work of every school to instil
some knowledge of the conditions required for healthy life and
a desire to live such a life. It is of the greatest importance,
too, that due attention should be given to the physical develop-
ment of the pupils attending school, to prevent, as far as
possible, the bias to moral failing which is involved in physical
weakness. We are glad to know that in our local schools this
subject gets much attention. It is one of the most
encouraging signs of the times that physical training in schools

102 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

is often given in the open air, and we wisli this could be carried
further. It is of the greatest importance that people should
get to feel at home in the open air and should resent being
cooped up in unventilated rooms as are too many of the
dwellers in all, but especially in the poorer, parts of our towns
to-day. Interest in nature-study, with the corresponding
developments of country rambles and window gardening, is to
be looked on as another factor in helping towards a right
appreciation of the conditions of healthy life. We wish, too,
to urge the importance of giving the girls in the higher classes
at school some instruction in the elements of house-keeping
and in the conditions that are essential to the proper upbring-
ing of children, the need for which has been strongly pressed
by the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association and by
Dr. Niven. It is to be regretted that the opportunity for
giving this instruction is so much limited by the early age
at which children leave school. Much attention should be given
to these subjects in continuation classes.

The need of cleanliness both of person and surroundings
ought to be emphasised at school, as also the need for temper-
ance. We are aware that attention is given to all these things
in some schools in Manchester and Salford. We feel, however,
that in every school in the district such training should be
given, and now that a new start is being made in educational
.administration, the citizens should insist that health matters
receive adequate attention. In passing we might suggest that
ihe new Education Committees should at once see that all the
rooms in all the schools are well ventilated, well lighted, and, in
nvinter, well warmed.

An adequate staff of competent medical men should also be
employed to attend to the physical and mental well-being of
the children. It may be useful to mention that the town of
Trankfurt-am-Main — a town of 289,000 inhabitants — has for
some years employed 12 medical men to attend to the health of
its scholars.

Much of the benefit derived from school training is lost
during the period which intervenes between leaving school
and the establishment of a separate home at marriage. This

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 103

period of adolescence is most critical in the life of boy or girl.
It is then that he or she begins to act on his or her own
responsibility, since in most cases the adolescent is a contribu-
tor to the family income, if not entirely self-supporting. It
is, therefore, of the utmost importance that there should be
an ample supply of agencies continuing for young people the
work of the school and strengthening and developing character
along the right lines. Evening continuation schools, clubs,
church and chapel organisations, and other institutions do most
valuable work in this direction. We regret that there are
apparently so few institutions of the kind for girls, and would
urge that there is much need for an extension of work of the
kinds done by many Sunday schools, boys' brigades, clubs, the
organisations carried on by the Sisters of Charity, and other
institutions.

We are informed by competent observers in different parts
of Manchester and Salford that there is a regrettable growth
in the prevalence of drinking and betting, and a decline in
home life. Good surroundings may do much to counteract
these tendencies, and we believe they would, but good
surroundings will exist almost in vain unless there be some
sturdiness of character to resist temptation and some feeling
for the beauty and desirability of home life. The period of
adolescence is the time when it is most necessary to stimulate
these qualities.

We have so far been dealing with formative influences.
As school and club become more conscious of their powers and
duties, we may expect to trace their influence in the improved
health and strenuousness of character of the community. But
we have to consider also the adult of to-day. With the adult
rests the responsibility of maintaining good conditions in the
household and its immediate neighbourhood. We have in
various places dwelt on the responsibility of the community
as a whole for existing bad conditions, but the individual has
duties towards the community and himself which are often not
fulfilled. Many houses which we have examined would have
been wholesome dwellings but for the carelessness and dirti-
ness of the tenants. An instance of carelessness is given in

104 HOUSING CONDITIONS IN

the illustration on this page from a photograph of the backs
of some houses which have been put into good repair by the
owner. The tenants, simply because they do not take the
trouble to shut the ashpit doors, allow the back passage to
become unwholesome. It is a common case to find a street
strewn with refuse and garbage thrown there by the residents.
No one is so ignorant as to be unaware that the street is not
a suitable receptacle for refuse ; such action can only be attri-
buted to weakness of character and lack of public spirit.

The Ladies' Public Health Society does good work, through
its visitors and the regular mothers' meetings, in stimulating
individual effort towards the maintenance of good conditions
in the home and street, and many churches and chapels serve
the community in like manner. The Sanitary Association, the
Ancoats Healthy Homes Society, and kindred bodies appealing
to a wider public, also do much to help in getting and main-
taining better conditions. More work of the kind is, however,
urgently needed.

One of the most pressing needs of the time is a more vigorous
and more widely spread spirit of citizenship. The most dis-
couraging thing in relation to social reform is the apathy of the
average citizen, and this holds true of the man who is well-to-do
as much as of the man who is poor. Evidence of this apathy,
if needed, is to be found in the existence of the conditions
described in Chapters III. and IV.; in the high infantile death-
rate, largely due to preventible causes, yearly reported by our
Medical Officers of Health; in the slight interest shown in
municipal elections and respecting the fitness for office of
members of our Town Councils. There are good men on our
Town Councils, but many members are merely the nominees
of political parties and depend for their election not on their
fitness for municipal work but on the strength of a political
party in the ward. So long as such a system exists, so long
will it be impossible to get the best men on our councils. We
need, above all, men who are independent of party, whose
primary aim is to put their experience and energy at the
disposal of the community in efforts to improve conditions o£
life for the whole people.

c3 Ml

"&, c

■"O "O

To face p. 104.

MANCHESTER AND SALFORD. 105

Public opinion should make tliese delegates of the people
use the power given them, and ensure that they do not fail
in their duty to the community from regard for the interest
of individuals or of a class. In this connection we feel it our
duty to make an earnest appeal to all members of religious
bodies to recognise the importance of good citizenship. We
would especially appeal to the clergy of all denominations ^
to point out that it is the duty of every man to take his part
in the work of the city, if not by serving it on the Council,
at least by making careful and deliberate use of his vote for the
return of the man best fitted to deal with the matters that are
entrusted to the councils. Religion seems a mockery while
men professing religious convictions make no effort to alter
conditions of the kind described in this report. ^ Men need
awakening to their duties toward their fellow-men, and need
reminding that they have duties and responsibilities to the
community. The common life of the town has given and keeps
giving much to each individual citizen; he, on his part, should
strive to give what service he may to the community. " If a
man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar, for he
that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he
love God whom he hath not seen? " — 1 St. John IV., 20.

' Citizen Sunday, which was recognised by about a hundred Churches in
the Manchester district on the second Sunday of October, 1903, offers a special
opportunity for emphasising the need for good citizenship.

^ " How much of our terrible death-roll is due to the nature of the people's
employment; how much to the state of their dwellings; how much to their
home life — the personal habits of the occupants of our slums? These are
some of the problems which confront us at the very threshold of our enquiry.
Their solution will certainly tax our best energies— perhaps, indeed, it may at
present be impossible — but we dare not shirk the attempt. The task which lies
before us and our successors is nothing less than that of restoring to every
infant in the Manchester Township the twelve years of life-expectation of
which it has been defrauded by the evil surroundings of its birth." Dr. John
Tatham in Manchester Life Tables (1893) p. 37.

106

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX A.

Investigator's Schedule.

Citizens' Association for the Improvement of the Unwholesome
Dwellings and Surroundings of the People.

No Street, Road, Place.

1. — Description of House —

Fronting Street or Court Back Buildings

Old or New No. of Storeys

Has House a good health record 1

2. — Owner Address

3 . — Agent Address

4. — Name of Tenant

Occupation

Place of Emiiloyment •

Hours of Labour

Places of Em23loyment and Hours of Labour of other Wage-
earninof Members of the Household :

Give Wages of Tenant and Members of Household, if obtainable :

5. — Number of Persons in House- —

Males (Adult) Females (Adult) .

Children (under 14)

Lodgers — Male Female....

6. — Amount of Rent per Week

7. — Rooms. (Number, size, position, etc.)

(1) Size

(2)

(3)
Position

(4) Lighting
How many
windows ?

(5) How is room
occupied
and used ?

L'gth

B'dth

H-ght

CeUar

APPENDIX. 107

Give dimensions of rooms in feet and inches, thus, 12ft. Gin. In
describing position state on which floor room is situated, and
whether it faces N. S. E. or W. Under 5 give particulars as
to number of sleepers in room, and say whether (and what
kind of) w^ork is done there.

Is there any provision for keeping food fresh ? ,

8. — Condition of the House —

Is it kept by Landlord in good repair 1

Does the Teant keep the House clean 1

Are any rooms damp ?

Are any rooms dark 1 If so, why 1

Does sufficient provision for ventilation exist in every room 1

Do all windows open ?

Which rooms have fire-places 1

Is there an oven ?

9. — Sanitary Conveniences — •

What is the nature of convenience (W.C, Pail Closet, or Earth

Closet)? ■

Where is it placed ? ■

What is its state of repair and cleanliness ? •

Is it used by others than Members of Household ?

10.— Water-
Has the House its own Water Tap ?

Is there a Sink, and if so, where 1

Is there a Copper or other provision for Washing Clothes?

11.— Yard-
Is there a Yard ?

What is its size ?

Is it Paved ?

Well Drained ?

Tidy?

12. — Nuisances —

Are there offensive smells or disturbing noises, e.g., from
Middens, neighbouring Factories or Shops, Public-houses,
etc., or from work carried on in the House?

13. — Would occupation of present Tenant and his general circum-
stances make it impossible for him to live in some other part
of the town or suburbs?

14. — Notes.

Si (/nature

108

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX B.

Citizens' Association for the Improvement of the Unwholesome
Dwellings and Surroundings of the People.

Mr. T. C. HORSFALL, M.A., J.P., Prcgichnt.
Bankers: WILLIAMS DEACON'S BANK LIMITED, St. Ann Street.

Vice-Presidents :
The Rt. Rev. the BISHOP OF MANCHESTER.
The Rt. Rev. the BISHOP OF SALFORD.
The Venerable Archdeacon WILSON, D.D.
Mr. W. J. CROSSLEY, J. P.
Mr. A. HOPKINSON, K.C, Vice-Chancellor of the Victoria

University of Maneliester.
The Rev. Dr. A. GOODRICH.
The Rev. Dr. A. McLAREN

Executive Committee :
Mr. T. C. HORSFALL, Chairman and Treasurer, Swanscoe Park, Macclesfield.

Councillor T. C. ABBOTT, Netherly, Bowdon
Mr. J. H. BROWN, Hale
Councillor D. BOYLE. 41, Carruthers Street
Rev. W. S. CAIGER, St. Mark's, Hulme
Prof. S. J. CHAPMAN, The Owens College
Mrs. CLAY, Carlton Lodge, Manley Road,

Whallev Range
Rev. S. F. COLLIER, The Central Hall
Miss ALICE CROMPTON, The University

Settlement, Ancoats
Rev. A. DALE, St. James-the-Less, Ancoats
Rev. D, DORRITY, St. Ann's, Manchester
Prof. C. H. HERFORD, The Owens College-
Rev. T. T. JAMES, Lancashire College Settle-
ment, Hulme
Councillor J. JOHNSTON, 14, Fennell Street
Rev. Dean O'KELLY, St. Anne's, Ancoats

Rev. S. NUGENT PERRY, St. Mark's, Holland

Street
Rev. PRIESTLEY PRIME, 18, Hooley Range,

Heaton ]\Ioor
Mrs.REDF( )RI).WilhoIni, Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Rev. W. G. EDWAUD REES, St. Thomas,

Pendleton
Verv Rev. Canon RICHARDSON, Ciranby Row
Mr. 'RICHARD ROBINSON, Swinton Cottage,

Swinton
Mr. J. SACKETT, The Central Hall
Rev. Dr. B. SALOMON, Norwood House, Hey-

wood Street, Cheetham
Mr. FRED SCOTT. 33, Brazennose Street
Miss MARGARET SIMPSON, 20, Cannon

Street

Secretary : Mr. T. R. MARR.

Constitution (AdoiDted IStli May, 1902).

Title. The name of the Association shall be " The Citizens'
Association for the Improvement of the Unwholesome Dwellings and
Surroundings of the People."

Objects. The Association exists for the promotion of Municipal
and Housing Reform, and for the furtherance of an active spirit of
Citizenship. It proposes to cany out these aims by any or all of
the following means:— (a) By co-operation with the Town Council,
and wnth other organizations concerned with the improvement of
civic life ; (6) by promoting the candidatures of suitable persons at
municipal elections, and by taking such measures as will tend to
secure a highly efficient and sympathetic Town Council; (c) by
organizing public meetings and lectures for the discussion of civic
problems ; and {d) by such other means as the Association may
sanction.

Membership. New Members must be proposed and seconded, and
elected by the Executive Committee. Members pay a minimum
subscription of two shillings and sixpence annually.

APPENDIX. 109

Officers. The Officers of the Association shall consist of a
President, Vice-Presidents (not to exceed 10), an Hon. Treasurer and
an Executive Committee, -which (including the Vice-Presidents and
other Officers) shall consist of not more than forty (40) members of
the Association.

Secretary. The Executive Committee may, if it sees fit, appoint a
paid Secretary.

Meetings. Meetings of the Executive Committee shall be held on
the second Thursday in each month, at 3-30 p.m.

Ordinary Meetings of the Members of the Association shall be
called at any time on the written request, addressed to the Secretary,
of ten (10) Members of the Executive Committee, or thirty (30)
ordinary Members of the Association.

An Annual Meeting, at which a Report and Balance Sheet shall be
presented, and at which Officers shall be elected, shall be held during
the month of February or thereabouts.

Financial Tear. The financial year of the Association is reckoned
from 1st January to 31st December, and Subscriptions are due and
payable on 1st January of each year.

Prospectus (issued in 1901).

" The Citizens' Committee* for the Improvement of the Unwhole-
some Dwellings and Surroundings of the People " is a^n association of
persons desirous of effecting reforms, moral and material, in the
condition of the poorer classes of dwellers in crowded and insanitary
localities. Being founded in the City of Manchester, its efforts will
be mainly directed to the local requirements of Manchester and
Salford, but it does not seek to limit its field of influence when that
influence can be usefully exerted over a wider area.

The aims of the Association are to arouse public attention to,
and urge on the execution of, measures of utility, either by aiding
and supplementing the efforts of existing organisations, or, when this
cannot be done, by taking the initiative in respect of such measures.
It is intended thus to supplement, not to displace, the work now
carried on by various agencies, and so to utilise many means for the
common end.

It is also intended to draw the attention of the City Council to
cases where, in the opinion of the Committee, their present powers
may be wisely used; and, as occasion arises, to appeal to Parliament
for extension or modification of such powers when desirable. Other
means of extending the usefulness of the Committee may be used,
none being excluded if they have the approval of the Executive
Committee.

It is the object of the Committee to induce the Community to
adopt all the measures needed to ensure that no buildings shall be

* The name was changed from " Committee " to "Association " when the
constitution was adopted 15th May, 1902.

110 APPENDIX.

inhabited, in which, by reason of the condition of tlie buildings or of
their surroundings, healthy life is impossible. These measures may
be divided into two classes — (1) those needed to render the occupation
of buildings, which are at present insanitary, compatible with health,
or to ensure their removal; and (2) the measures which are needed
to ensure that new buildings shall be rightly constructed and have
wholesome surroundings.

As exjDerience has shown that it is often impossible, without
increasing the evils due to overcrowding, to close insanitary houses
until new and wholesome dwellings have been provided for the
inmates, the discovery and the adoption of the measures needed to
provide an adequate supply of new wholesome dwellings and of the
measures needed for the closing or improvement of insanitary houses
are matters of equal urgency.

Hence the work of the Committee will include careful enquiry as
to the causes which at present prevent the erection of a sufficient
number of wholesome houses which must exist before any attempt can
safely be made to deplete overcrowded areas. Right answers must
be sought to such questions as the following: —

(a) Would not the erection of wholesome houses by public-spirited
citizens be facilitated by the laying out by the Town Councils
of Manchester and Salford of a number of wide streets,
provided with a due supply of play-grounds and other open
spaces ; and the provision, by the same authorities, of tram
lines or other means of quick transit at cheap rates ?

(6) Do the Town Councils possess in sufficient measure the power
to provide wide streets, open spaces, and means of quick
transit?

(c) Do defects in our systems of land tenure, and of rating, or
other hindrances, make it impossible or very difficult for the
Town Councils to undertake such work?

id) Does the administration of the licensing laws create obstacles
to the erection of woi'kmen's dwellings by persons of means
and goodwill 1

(e) If healthy dwellings at moderate rents, with good environment,
and the means of rapid transit, were provided, would the
proportion of the inhabitants of the central congested
districts, who would be able and willing to remove to the
new dwellings, be large enough to partly deplete the
congested areas, and to enable the authorities to close
insanitary dwellings without causing hardship to the
occupants ? An answer to this last question can be obtained
only by careful house-to-house enquiry in selected test
districts.

(/) What effect have slums on the physical, mental, and moral
condition of those who live in them, and especially on the
children who are born and bred there?

APPENDIX. 1 11

The Committee's enquiry respecting unwholesome dwellings will
deal with the following points :- —

What constitutes a slum ? Is it the condition of the houses
themselves, or the undue closeness to other buildings ? To what
extent is it the habits of the occupants which make a slum? What
unhealthy dwellings are there in Manchester and Salford 1 To whom
do they belong? Can they be put into such a condition as shall
make healthy life possible in them ? Are not large changes in and
near unwholesome districts, such as the widening of streets, the
provision of playgrounds or other open spaces containing vegetation,
the provision of baths, and purification of the air, necessary to make
healthy life possible? In what ways can the education in schools and
the other training of the occupants be improved, so that they may
co-operate with the rest of the community in putting an end to
slums ?

What rents are j^aid for such dw^ellings?

What return on the capital value do the owners of such property
obtain ? Has any considerable advance taken place in the rents of
slum dwellings recently, and if so what are the chief causes of it?
What unhealthy dwellings have recently been built, or are now being
built, in and near Manchester and Salford ?

In large German towns new streets are all very wide, many
exceeding 28 yards in width, and many of them are planted with
trees, and new building regulations provide that every j^art of every
new building shall be adequately sujjplied with air and light. In
Manchester and Salford new streets are only 12 yards wide, and large
areas of the new parts of the town are left without vegetation. Is it
not necessary for the physical and mental health of the inhabitants
of all parts of the towns that fresh regulations respecting the width
of new streets, and respecting the supply of air and light to buildings
and the supply of vegetation shall be adopted here ?

For the purpose of showing that towns can be so laid out and
constructed as to allow healthy life to be lived in them, the Committee
will obtain and disseminate exact information as to the system
adopted in the building of such exemplary town districts as Port
Sunlight and the districts created by the Messrs. Cadbury and by
others, and also respecting the system adopted in certain Continental
towns.

The Committee will also endeavour to acquire information
towards the answering of these very important questions : Having
regard to the immense importance and the great difficulty of having
a wise and comprehensive policy systematically applied to the
government of large towns, is it desirable to adopt here the system,
which has been adopted in Germany and elsewhere, of appointing
paid mayors, chosen for their efficiency, bound to give the whole of
their time to the service of the town, and appointed for a long series
of years? Ought not the incorporation of suburban districts needed
to supply sites for dwellings and for public open spaces to be effected

112 APPENDIX.

by a simple process by some local authority cognisant of the needs
both of the towns and of the inhabitants of the adjoining districts?
Are not much closer supervision of houses, and the iDrovision of
means to enable tenants to draw the attention of the authorities to
defects in their houses or surroundings, necessary?

Should not the Medical Officers of Health, the officials who initiate
prosecution for the production of smoke and noxious vapours, and
the judicial authorities who try persons charged with such offences be
appointed by the Government, so as to ensure that their action shall
not be influenced by persons guilty of breaches of the law ?

Would not an extension of the limit of composition for the rating
of weekly-house property stimulate the building of dwellings of a
satisfactory character? Is it not practicable to facilitate the
maintenance of cleanliness, health, and comfort in workmen's
dwellings by providing numerous wash-houses and baths in their
midst, and by providing elementary schools, as is done in Germany
and Switzerland, with shower-baths, and encouraging the scholars to
use them regularly? Should not the Corporation be urged to
establish, at rates such as those found practicable at Glasgow and
Huddersfield, lodgings in houses from which tramps and persons
known to be of immoral character and occupation shall be excluded?
Cannot the evils of the public-house be largely diminished by the
establishment of superior counter attractions in places where enter-
tainments may be carried on and non-excisable refreshments and
cheap suppers jDrovided, such places not to close earlier than the
public-houses ?

For the collection of information the active exertion of our
members will be indispensable ; each must do his share, according to
his abilities and opportunities in the amassing of facts from which
we may proceed with confidence. Recourse must also be had to the
Press, and to paid agents, for this end ; but it is most desirable that
our members should not, on that account, relax their efforts in our
common endeavour.

All interested in this programme are cordially invited to become
members of the Citizens' Association. The subscription is optional,
subject to a minimum of half-a-crown yearly. Application for
membership should be made to the Secretary, at 104, King Street,
Manchester.

APPENDIX. 113

APPENDIX C.

A Brief List of Books on the Housing Question.
General.

" The Housing of the Working Classes," by E. Bowniaker.
(London: Methuen, 1895. 2s. 6d.)

A simple introduction to the study of the Housing Problem.
"The Housing of the Working People," being the Eighth Special
Report of the United States Government Commissioner of
Labour. (Washington, 189.";.)

This report can be seen in Public Libraries. It contains
much information relating to housing laws and conditions
on the Continent of Europe and in America.
" Public Health and Housing," by Dr. J. F. Sykes. (London :

P. S. King, 1901. 5s.)
" Houses for the People" (No. 76) ; " The House Famine and How
to Relieve It" (No. 101) ; "Cottage Plans and Connnon Sense"
(No. 109) are useful tracts published by the Fabian Society,
276, Strand, London, W.C, price Id. each. No. 101 contains
a classified bibliography of the Housing Question, by Mr.
Sidney Webb.
" The Housing Handbook," by W. Thompson. (National Housing
Reform Council, 432, West Strand, London, 190.3. 2s. 6d.)
The best and most recent study of housing. It contains
accounts of the measures adopted by local authorities in
dealing with the problem, and is written from the stand-
point of a practical municipal administrator.

Housing and Poverty.

" Life and Labour of the People in London," by Charles Booth.

(London : Macmillan.)
"Poverty: A Study of Town Life," by B. Seebohm Rowntree.
(London: Macmillan, 1902.)

In these works careful studies are made of the conditions
of town life, which are invaluable to serious students of
the housing problem.

Legal.

" The Housing of the Working Classes Acts," by C. E. Allen.
(London: Butterworth. 7s. 6d.)

Fully annotated texts of the Housing Acts.

" A Guide to the Housing Acts," by Arthur P. Poley. (London :
Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1903. 3s. 6d.)

A handy up-to-date book of reference on Housing
Legislation.

114 APPENDIX.

" Bye-Laws with respect to New Streets and Buildings."
Manchester. 6d. — to be obtained at City Treasurer's Office.)

" Bye-Laws with respect to New Streets and Buildings."
(Salford — to be obtained from Salford Town Hall.)

Statistics.

" Annual Report on the Health of the City of Manchester,"

by the Medical Officer of Health.
" Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the County
Borough of Salford."

These annual reports contain much valuable information
as to the conditions existing in Manchester and Salford,
and ought to be better known. Special sections in each
report are devoted to the housing question.
" Manchester Life Tables," by Dr. John Tatham. New Edition.
(Manchester, 1893.)

The Citizens^ Association will gladly furnish information as to
other works dealing ivith housing and allied questions to those
interested.

INDEX.

Acre, persons to an (see overcrowding), 17, 18,
■28

Acts, Housing of the Working Classes, 5, 72,
83, 84, SO

Public Health, 70

Adaptation of old ])roperty, 8, 75, 77, 82

Agricultural Rating Act, 98

Air-space about houses, insufficient, 4, 47, 50

requiied in a room, 32, 43

Allotments at Blackley, 87

at Port Sunlight, 78

Ancoats, block dwellings in. 33

description of a district in, 54

fatal accident in. 40

Healthy Homes Society, 104

Anthropometric records of Salford School-
boys. 21

Areas, investigated (Chap. IV.), 53 — 69

overcrowded, 4 17, 18

Ashbins, portable. 47

Aslies, disposal of, 46

Asphalt paving for streets, 50, 51

Atmosphere, pollution of, 48

' Back-to-back " houses, 4, 35—37

converted, 67

Back streets, 49

" Barrack " dwellings (see block dwellings), 33

Baths, cottage, 44

for cottage i)roperty, 78, 87, 94

public, 44

Baumeister quoted. Prof., 91
Bibliography (see Appendix C), 113, 114
Blackley Housing Scheme, 87
Block dwellings, disadvantages of, 33, 34, 84

local examples of, 33

Booliyer, Dr., on pail closets, 45
Booth, on poverty statistics. Mr. Charles, 23
Bourneville described, 79
Browne, Sir James Crichton, on infant mor-
tality, 43
Builders and supply of houses. 6, 82, 87, 95
Building bye-laws, 5, 93, 94, 100

Societies, 6, SO

German, 88

Bye-laws, building, 5, 93, 94, 100
model, 93

Cadbury and Bourneville, Mr. Ceorge, 79
Capital for housing schemes lent by German

towns. 88
Carelessness of tenants, 73, 103
Census returns quoted, 15, 23, 30, 31
Cheap land wanted, 84, 96
Chorlton-on-Medlock, description of district

in, 67
Circulation of air about houses prevented,

4, 47, 50
Citizen Sunday, 105
Citizens, apathy of. 104
Citizenship, importance of good, 105
Citizens' Association, constitution of, 108

officers of, 108

prospectus of, 109

subscription to, 112

Closets, deficiency of (statistics), 40

kinds of, 45

and disease, 45

Clubs for boys and girls, influence of, 103
Coldness of houses, 39

( 'oiiiniissions recommended. Municipal, 8, 89
•Commission's Report, quoted. New York

Housing, .50
■Compulsory purcliase of land, 96
Concerts needed, 27

Consumptives' sputum, virulence in Ancoats

and Bowdon of, 41
Conveniences, Sanitary (see closets), 44
Conversion of " back-to-back " houses, 67
Corjjorations (see Town Councils)
Cost of food in York and Manchester, 25

land in Manchester, 84

Cottages preferred to block dwellings, 84

Dampness of houses, 38

Darkness of rooms, 40

Day lighting of rooms, Dr. Sykes on, 41

Death-rate, of children under five, 19

as index of health, 3, 15

for infants in Mancliester and Salford, 42

s of Manchester districts, 17, 18

of Salford districts, 18

Deaths in Manchester districts, 1901 and
1902, 17, IS

in Salford districts, 1901 and 1902, 18

Defects in houses, general, 28

structural, 33

Density of population, 28

in Bourneville, 79

in Manchester, 17, 18

in Salford, 18

Dishoused, provision made for the, 72, 74. 81,
85

Districts described in detail (Chap. IV.), 53
Ancoats, .54 ; Ardwick, 04
Chorlton-on-Medlock, 07 ; Hulme, 65
St. John's AVard, 58 ; St. Michael's
Ward, 00 ; Salford, 68

Drunkenness (see intemperance), 26

Dust and dirt in streets, 51

Dwellings, block or '' barrack," 33, 34, 84

in Ancoats, 33

Earnings of unskilled labourers, 13

stated in houses visited (see folded pages)

Edinburgh Social Union, 70

Employers and housing 77

Employments in houses visited, 54, 58, 61,64,

66, 67, 69
Evils of town life summarised, 9
Expectation of life in Manchester, England

and rural districts, 20
Expenditure, weekly minimum nece.ssary, 24
Experts on Town Councils, paid, 8

Flats, Cottage, 77

(see block dwelling.s), 33

Fresh air required. .32
Furnished lodgings, 60

Garden City Association. 79
(hardens at Bourneville, 79
Gas for heating and cooking, use of, 48
German building bye-laws, 94

plans, 5, 90

streets, 50, 51, 91

Town Councils, 88, 91, 98

towns rate unoccupied land, 98

Gla.sgow streets and courts, cleaning of, .52

Working Men's Dwellings Company

Ltd., 76

Hill. Miss Octavia. 75
Horsfall, quoted, Mr. T. C, 98
Houses, "back-to-back,' 35

cold, 39

damp, 38

dark, 4(t

in bad repair, 40

statistics of inhabited, 30, 31

INDEX.

Houses, statistics of overcrowderl, 30. 31

tenement, 34

through, 37

Housing Commission, 8, 89

Housing of the Worlting Classes Act, 5. 72

83, 84, 86
Housing Policy, a, 5, 89

scliemes, municipal, SO

private, 75

Hulme, description of a district in, 65

Industries of Manchester and Salford, 12
Infant mortality, Manchester statistics, 42

Salford statistics, 42

causes of excessive. 43

Infectious disease, distribution of, 22

and sanitary conveniences, 45

Inspection, need of house-to-house, 5, 71

Inspectors, sanitary, 5, 71, 72

Insurance companies and building loans, 7

in Germany, 88

Intemperance, 26

Investigation of typical districts, 53

Krupp dwellings at Essen, 79
Kyrle Society of Glasgow, 76

Ladies' Public Health Society, 44, 104
Land, rating of unoccupied, 7, 97

in Germany, 98

surplus, 96

Town Councils to purchase, 7, 90

to retain, 7, 96

Leasing of municipal land, 7

Leeds Co-operative Hocietv's housing scheme.

80
Legislation required, 96
Lever Bros. Ltd. and Port Sunlight, 78
Licensed Houses, statistics of, 27, 55, 64, 66,

68
Life Tables, Manchester, 20, 105, 114
Liverpool, Municipal housing at, 86

trees in streets of, 48

Living rooms, size of, 94

Local Government Board Model Bye-Laws,

93
Loans for building, Municipal, SS

repayment of, 99

Lodging-houses, Model, 83
Lodgings, furnished, 00

cost of liouses let as furnished, 63

London housing schemes, 85
poverty in, 23

Manchester, area of, 17

death rates, 17, 18

density of population in, 17, IS

description of districts in, 53

expectation of life in, 20

growth of, 10

health of, 15

history of, 10

industries, 12

life tables quoted, 20, 105

Medical OfHcer of Health, 71

municiiial housing schemes, S3, 87

population statistics, 14

and Salford, poverty in, 24

Town Council, 70

Mann's Proposals, Mr. John, 74

Mannheim, Prof. Baumeister's building plan

for, 91
Mayors to be paid ? Ought, 9
Medical Officer of Health, functions of, 71

reports quoted, 3, 17, 18, 42, 55

Model Bye-laws, 93

lodging houses, S3

Mothers' Meetings, 104
Municipal housing scliemes, 80

land, 7, 90

loans for building, 88

Narrow streets, evils of, 47, 49

Nearness to work, need for, 84

New buildings, supervision of, 70

New York Housing Commission Report

quoted, 50
Niven, quoted. Dr., 5, 30, 42, 102
Note on Streets, a, 49

Occupations stated by tenants in houses

visited, 54, .58, 01, 64, 06, 67, 69
Officer of Health, Medical, 71
Old property, reconstruction of, 8, 75, 77, 82
Open spaces needed, more, 4, 6, 47

in Salford, 85

Ought Mayors to be iiaid ? 9, 99
Overcrowding, definitions of, 28, 29

examples of, 32

of houses, 4, 29

on area, 4, 28

in Manchester (statistics), 30

in Salford (statistics), 31

Owners of property, rights of, 73
suggestions to, 73, 74

Pail closets, 45, 46

Paving of streets, 50

Peabody Trust, 77

Physical efficiency, necessary expenditure to

maintain, 24
Plans for houses, 94

for unbuilt-on-land, 5, 6, 89

Playgrounds needed, 4, 0, 47

Policy, a housing, 5, S9

Pollution of atmosphere, 48

Population statistics of Manchester and

Salford, 14
Port Sunlight, 78
Poverty in Manchester and Salford, 24

definition of primary, 24

Price of land, 7, 98

Property, reconstruction of old, 8, 75, 77, 82

Property Owners' Association, 74

Prussian Government and loans for building.

88
Public Health Acts, 70

Society, Ladies', 44, 104

houses (statistics), 27, 55, 04, 06, 68

opinion and housing, 3, '/i, 103

Works Loan Commissioners, 87

Purchase of land, compulsory, 96

Rating of unoccupied land recommended, 6,
97

in Germany, 98

Herr Reimarus on, 99

Ransome quoted. Dr., 41

Ray on Salford Schoolboys, Dr. Howson, 21

Reimarus on rating, Herr, 99

Recommendations of Citizens' Association, 4

Reconstruction of old jjroiJerty, 8, 75, 77, 82

Religious influences, 105

Rents in Ancoats, 57

in Ardwick, 65

in Choi-lton-on-Medlock, 67

in Hulme, 66

in St. John's Ward, ,58

in St. Michael's Ward, 02

in Salford, 69

Repairs neglected, 40

Rliine Province. Building Societies in the. 88

Riclunond housing sclieme, S6

Rivers of Manchester, 10

Rooms, dark, 40

overcrowded, 29

size regulated by bye-laws, 94, 100

ventilation of. 32, 30, 39

Rowntree on poverty, Mr. Seebohm, 23

St. John's Ward, description of district in, 58
St. Michael's Ward, description of district in,
60

INDEX.

Salford, area of, 18

death rates, 18

density of population in, 18

description of district in, 08

growth of, 10

history of, Id

industries of, 12

Medical (ifticer of Health, 71

municipal housing schemes, SS

open spaces in, 85

population statistics, 14

poverty in, "24

schoolboys, measurements of, 21

Town Council, 70

Sanitary Association, Manchester and Salford,
102, 104

Conveniences (see Closets), 44

Inspectors in Manchester, .5, 71

in Salford, .'i, 71

Savings Banks and loans for building, 7, 88,
!)9

School influences, 101

Schoolboys, anthropometric records of Sal-
ford, 21

Smoke nuisance, 48

Standards of overcrowding, 28

Streets, a note on, 49

cleaning of, 61

dirtiness of, 51

paving of, 50

trees in, 48

washing of, 52

width of, 49

Structural defects in houses, 33

Sunlight, importance of, 41

Port. 78

Surroundings of houses, unwholesome, 3, 2S

wholesome, 5, 89

Sykes quoted. Dr., 34, 39, 41, 45

Tap, houses using one water-, 44
Tatham quoted. Dr. John, 20, 105, 114
Tenants, carlessness of, 73, 103
destructive habits of, 73

Tenants in districts described, earnings of

(see folded pages)
occupations, .54, 58, Gl, 64,

GO, 07, 09
" Tenement " houses, 34
" Through " houses, 37
Town Councils, German, 88, 91, 98

house-building by, 5, 80

powers of, 5, 70

] lowers required by, 7, 8, 89, 96

and Special Commissioners. 8, 89

Trains, 92

Tramways, 92

Transit provisions, 91

Trees in streets and open spaces, 48

Unbuilt-on land, building plans for, 5, 6, 89
" Unearned increment,"
Unoccui)ied land, rating of, 0, 97
Unskilled labourers, earnings of, 13
Unwholesome conditions (Chap. III.), 28

Vegetation in towns, ^8

Ventilation of rooms, importance of, 32, 38, 39

A\'ages of various workers (see districts de-
scribed)

Water closets, 44

supply, 43

tap, houses using one, 44

Well-to-do persons and housebuilding, 6

Wholesome dwellings, supply of, 75

Width of streets, 49

Wilson, Mr. Edmund, 75

Women workers, 13

Woolwich Co-operative Society's Housing
Scheme, SO

Work, nearness to, 84

Yards, effects of small, 47

York, cost of food in Manchester and, 25

povertv in, 23

Zones in (lerman towns, 90

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