32 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



passage and a common staircase, both of which are open to 

 the public, and the passage and staircase act as the ventilating 

 shaft for the foul atmosphere derived from the dwelling- 

 rooms opening on the stair. The history of such a house is a 

 dismal record of degeneration. Year by year the state slowly 

 but surely becomes worse. The house was structurally designed 

 for one family and is now occupied by four or more families. 

 The sanitary conveniences were also designed for one family and 

 now provide for four families. The same must be said of the 

 water supply and washhouse accommodation. There can be no 

 doubt that the ill-ventilation and the difficulty of access to 

 the sanitary conveniences, scullery, washhouse, or dust-bin may 

 indirectly act as causes of ill-health and undesirable habits. 

 Hence it comes about that both house and tenants degenerate. 



" Another of the general characteristics of house pro- 

 perty in Central London is that the yards in the rear of the 

 houses have, in many cases, been built over. . The condition 

 of things constantly to be observed is this: Between two 

 streets running parallel, there existed, when the houses were 

 first built, an open space, subdivided into yards. Thus fresh 

 air was obtainable in the rear as well as in the front of the 

 houses. In the yards were constructed various conveniences 

 for sanitary purposes, washing, refuse collection, etc. Thus 

 the house, as a private house, was equipped. But in addition 

 to the invasion of tenants, to which reference has already 

 been made, there has been an industrial invasion. The yards 

 became covered in or otherwise built over for workshop pre- 

 mises. Even when such buildings are small, they effectually 

 prevent thorough ventilation on the ground floor. But so 

 extensive have such buildings become in certain cases, that a 

 large portion of the open space originally existing between 

 the street backs has been filled in. The houses thus become, 

 practically speaking, back-to-back houses. Moreover, the 

 immediate proximity of some kinds of workshops to dwelling- 

 houses readily gives rise to nuisances of various kinds."* 



It is quite true that the poor we shall have always with us; but 

 that is no excuse that they should be relegated to live in squalor, 

 dirt, darkness, dampness and disease, which not only deteriorate 

 them physically, but corrupt and degrade them morally. There is 

 no reason why their habitations should act as the recruiting grounds 

 for our asylums for the idiots and the insane, and for our gaols and 

 prisons those monuments we erect to our Errors of Civilization. 



* Report on the Public Health of Finsbury, 1905. 



