196 REPORT — 1860. 



Notes on various Efforts to improve the Domiciliary Condition of the 

 Labouring Classes. By Henry Roberts, F.S.A. 



It is only within the past fifteen or twenty years that much attention has heen di- 

 rected to this subject, and considering- its importance in regard to a very numerous 

 class of the community, I trust that a brief statement of facts, drawn from experience, 

 and tending to show by what means the object is most likely to be obtained, will not 

 be deemed foreign to the investigations of that branch of the British Association 

 which is devoted to Economic Science and Statistics. 



That an undertaking which in its commencement may appear very easy should 

 in its progress encounter some unexpected difficulties, is of such common occur- 

 rence, that it would be almost an exceptional case were it otherwise in this 

 instance. But to be daunted by difficulties is foreign to the character of Britons, and 

 it should be so especially when the object aimed at is the benefit of our fellow- 

 creatures. 



I assume that something of the actual domiciliary state of vast masses of our 

 fellow-subjects is known to most, though but few have soimded the depths of its 

 misery or of its degradation, and none can fully estimate its evil residts. Whilst 

 on the Continent for the recovery of health, I have seen and heard it so often 

 referred to, that, when recommending the subject to the attention of influential 

 persons in different coun tries, I coidd not but think of those words, " Physician, 

 heal thyself." 



The first associated efforts of a practical character were commenced in England, 

 shortly after the investigations made by Government authority into the state 

 of the poor, subsequent to the first outbreak of cholera in the metropolis. Two 

 societies were then formed by philanthropic individuals, with a view to work out 

 and to exhibit a practical remedy for the great social evils resulting from the con- 

 dition of the dwellings of the working classes, — a remedy which would commend 

 itself to extensive adoption, and be the means of stimulating the owners of existing 

 houses from self-interested motives, to improve and render them healthy abodes, 

 and afford the evidence of practical results in support of an appeal to the legisla- 

 ture for a somewhat unprecedented interference with private property. 



The first established of these Societies, though the second to commence building, 

 which it did in 1845, is the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings 

 of the Industrious Classes. Up to the present time it has expended on its ten 

 distinct ranges of dwellings £89,613 14s. 10tf., of which £71,328 2s. Qcl, has been 

 laid out on six separate blocks of dwellings in different parts of the metropolis, which 

 accommodate 395 families ; the net return received from them, for the year ending 

 31st March last, after deducting all current expenses and repairs, amounted to 

 £2687 4s. M., being about 3f per cent, on the outlay. On two lodging houses 

 for single men,— one of them new, which has accommodation for 234, and the other 

 old, which provides for 128, — the return, owing to the want of sufficient occupants, 

 has been very unsatisfactory ; such indeed as to involve a considerable loss, which 

 proves that the buildings are'eithei too large, or in some way unadapted to the class 

 of men frequenting their neighbourhood. 



It is worthy of observation that the same result has attended a similar lodging 

 house at Marseilles, built outside the town, for 150 men, too far from their daily 

 occupation, whilst many such houses elsewhere, on a smaller scale, accommodating 

 from 50 to 100 men, and near to their work, have fully succeeded; in some instances 

 they have been gradually increased, which is the case at Leeds and at Liverpool. 

 Of two adjoining houses, built on the Boulevard de Batignolles in Paris, to accom- 

 modate together 203 men, and having on the ground floor a restaurant and cafe, 

 one wa3 closed two years since. Li this instance, however, the failure is doubtless 

 in some degree attributable to defective management. 



The second established Society in London, that for Improving the Condition of 

 the Labouring Classes, commenced its first building in 1844. It has constructed 

 four distinct ranges of new buildings, which accommodate 97 families in separate 

 dwellings, provide 94 rooms for single women, and lodgings for 104 single men, as 

 well as a public wash-house with baths. It has also renovated and fitted up, in 

 three distinct localities, old houses which lodge 158 single men. These several 

 dwellings and lodging houses have all been in full occupation since 1851. Within 



