CORRESPONDENCE 



To the Editor of " Science Progress " 

 THE ABOLITION OF SLUMS 



FROM LORD LEVERHULME 



Dear Sir Ronald, I am very pleased to note from your 

 letter that you are taking an interest in the pages of Science 

 Progress in the Abolition of Slums and the consequent 

 elimination of the slum menace to the health of the people. 



It has always appeared to me that our slum problem is 

 merely a case of bad " packing," if I may use such an expression. 

 There is not, as far as I know, a town of any size in the United 

 Kingdom that has not its slum area ; and it is equally true that 

 there is not a town with a slum area that has not within its 

 boundaries a sufficient area of land to accommodate, and that 

 comfortably and under ideal conditions, three times their present 

 population. I think we may take London as a fair example 

 of this ; and, as you know, London has the most appalling 

 slums of any town in the Kingdom. The total Metropolitan 

 area is some 450,000 acres. Ideal Garden Cities, with ample 

 space for gardens, parks, recreation grounds, good wide roads 

 planted with trees, can be obtained on the basis often houses per 

 acre, with ample space for certain portions of the area to be 

 devoted to docks, warehouses, manufactories, and so on. With 

 ten houses to the acre and an average of five individuals per 

 house, you can see that the London Metropolitan area could 

 accommodate 22,500,000 of people under ideal conditions 

 instead of the 7,500,000 of people under conditions which 

 make slums inevitable for a very considerable proportion. 



I am not sure myself whether our methods in the past of 

 dealing with slums, viz. to purchase the slum property and clear 

 the site and build thereon blocks of tenement houses where the 

 people live in flats, is the final word or the best method for 

 clearing slums out of our cities. Flats are certainly not suitable 

 for children, who ought to be able to run in and out of doors 



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