The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-07-25 00:00:00

THE SHAFTESBURY PARK ESTATE.

The following Interesting particulars connected with this
somewhat novel, but very successful effort to provide com-
fortable homes for the working classes, we take from The
Times, in their entirety, as the subject is of such general
interest :

...... .
From time to time we have recorded the progress of
what haa been called "A Workman's City," at
Lavender-hill, in Southern London, and on Saturday
an interesting ceremony showed that it's progress has
been considerable. The experiment which is being
tried here in providing homes for the working classes
differs from many others of the kind, for it owes
nothing to charity, and on that account is all the
more interesting and instructive. Seven years ago the
wholesale destruction of houses for railway purposes
in London and other large towns led to the establish-
ment of a company called "The Arti,ans' La-
bourers', and General Dwellings' Company (Limited),"
for the purpose of supplying the want thus
created. It was felt that if railways destroyed,
they might also be used to create, and that if they
thinned the population in the heart of our large towns,
good would come of it if at the same time working
men were enabled by their means to nligrate to the
suburbs and travel easily and cheaply to and from
their work. Such was the theory of those who pro-
jected the company, but for a time its progress was
discouragingly slow. At the end of 1867 the share
capital in hand was only £500; at the end of 1868 it
was £1,800; then in the following year it zose to
L 3,000; in 1870 it was £6,0, 0, in 1871 £18,500, in 1872
4:52,000, and at the end of 1873 it was £112,196. The
list of shareholders includes four Dukes—Devonshire,
Manchester, Norfolk, and Rutland—with many other
member(' of the Peerage, six Bishops, Archbishop
Manning, and a considerable number of members
of the House of Commons. It is hardly necessary
to say that the company is entirely unseetarian
and non-political, and among the shareholders are
a good many working men. They figure, how-
ever, in larger proportions among the depositors.
A deposit branch gives such of them as may not
wish to become shareholders an opportunity of invest-
ing their money, in sums of not less than 5.. at a time,
at the rate of LI per cent., upon security of the land
and houses belonging to the company, and with power
to withdraw the deposits at from three to twenty-one
days' notice, according to the amount. Thus the
advantages of a savings-bank are afforded to thrifty
persons, and that these advantages are appreciated is
clear from the f ,ct that the deposits have gradually
grown from V.BOO at the end of 1867 to £23,600 at
which amount they stood in December, 1873. The
assets of the company from these two sources at the
beginning of the current year were thus £116,800,
! their share capital being nominally a quarter of a
I million.

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Working upon these resources and by means of
mortgage loans, the company have acquired estates
near Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham, and
houses are being built there. An estate of 74 acres
has also been lately b ught near the Harrow-road,
some seven or eight minutes' walk from the West-
bonnie-park station. For the present, however, it
will be convenient not to go beyond the Shaftesbury
Park Estate of 40 acres, which stands about midway
between Clapham Junction and the Wandsworth-road
station of the Chatham and Dover line. In August,
1872, the Earl of Shaftesbury laid the foundation.
stone, In November, 1873, Lord Shaftesbury
" opened' the new town which, even by that time,
had arisen; and on Saturday he presided at another
formal opening of another part of the estate. Last
November about 350 houses had been finished. There
are now 479 completed houses, and before winter sets
in it is expected that 270 more will be fit for habita-
tion—altogether 749 houses. When the whole plan
of building has been carried out the park will contain
1,200 houses, of four distinct classes. Class 1 con-
tains eight rooms—a front parlour with bay windows,
a back room for meals, a kitchen with dresser and
kitchener, a small larder, a scullery, fitted with copper
and sink; a closet, ash-pit, and cod cellar, while on
the first floor there are three bed-rooms and a little
bath room. Class 2 are seven-roomed houses, without
the bath-room. Class 3 have 6 and Class 4 five
rooms, of which two are bed-rooms. Gas and water
are laid to every house. Ventilators are supplied to
each room; and the drainage (except surface water)
is carried back from the closet and sink in the rear,
80 that no drain passes under any house. The foun-
dations are of concrete; the roofs are of slate. By
means of porches and bay windows in houses of the
better class, by occasional bits of atonework, and facings
of—coloured brick, the architect (Mr. IL Austin) has
done his best to avoid a dull uniformity, and here
and there a projecting turret and little spire breaks
the line. The paths are laid with asphalte, space
being reserved for rows of young trees, which have
already taken kindly to the soiL Well-made roads
run for the most part at right angles, and vary in
width from 30 to 40 feet. Thus Shaftesbury Park
already contains bright and cheerful dwellings, ar-
ranged with the utmost attention to health and com-
fort, and no little regard to the picturesque. Window.
gardening is general. and will certainly become more so,
for the directors give prizes for the best show of plants
and flowers in the windows and forecourts. The back
garden is just large enough to swear by, and already
has in some instances been prettily cultivated. Then
there is a temporary lecture-hall, which will hold 700 or
800 people, and at present is used for a temp irary
school. Board schools will soon be built. A site is left
for a co-operative store. Two acres and a half are re-
served for a park and recreation ground ; an
Clapham-common and Battemea Park are not faT
off. Baths and wash-houses are also projected. Not
one public-house or beer-shop will be allowed on the
estate, though the people are not teetotallers, and the
brewer's cart regularly delivers a modest cask at many
of the houses. By-and-bye this community will
number B,ooo—a larger population than many Parlia-
mentary boroughs possess ; and, having regard to
their position in life and their respective callings, they
could hardly base gone to live out of town under more
favourable conditions.

It is easy, of course, to build such houses, but the
two practical questions are- -"Do they let ?" and "Do
they pay to build?" Both these questions may be
answered affirmatively. The houses are caught up
long before they are finished. In some cases they are
taken on the strength of the plan before they are
begun, and there are now on the books over 1,200 ap-
plicants for houses which are still to be erected.
The other question is answered by the fact that the
last annual dividend of the company was 6 per cent.,
and that previously they had divided 7)., per cent., but,
as Lord Shaftesbury explained on Saturday, the share-
holders themselves thought this amount too high, and
took the novel course of requesting that Lit might be
reduced. We will now explain shortly the terms of
tenancy, and the sources of profit. The company buy
the freehold, and, we believe, gave about £740 an
acre both for the Lavender-hill and the Harrow-
road estates. They also build the houses, having
their own workshops and steam sawmills, and
buying building materials, with the necessary
house fixtures, in the hest and cheapest markets. Then
the houses have been built to a great extent upon the
co-operative system. There has been no contractor or
master builder, whose profits have therefore been
saved. The work has been let out, under foremen in
each branch, to the bricklayers, carpenters, painters,
plasterers, slaters, and plumbers employed, and it is I
satisfactory to learn that under the piecework system,
which has throughout been adopted, Union and non-
-I.lni in workmen have worked harmoniously together, '
and there has been no cause for the intervention of the
"arbitrators," Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Lichfield, and
Lord Elcho. Another still more suggestive fact may
be stated. Many of the workmen are shareholders in
the company ; many of them, again, live in the houses
they have helped to build. The result has been a
special pride in th • work of their own hands, and
special pains to finish in workmanlike fashion.
They were upon their mettle to do th ir best when
they knew it would be acrutinised by fellow.
workmen hereafter, and identified 101 their handi- •
work. 'The houses built by the company," the
directors say, " are better than those usually erected,
and yet can be sold at equally low prices in consequence
of the materials saved by the workmen, who are share-
holders, and have earned 40 per cent, more than their
ordinary wages." nil again, in their last Report, the
Directors say :—The principle of co-operation, or, as it
is sometimes called, industrial partnership, has been
wall terted in this company, as both modes of building
have been tried—viz., that of letting out the work to
contractors, and that of using associated labour only.
The latter has been found to be better than the former
as regards quality oi work, saving of materials,
and cost." So much for the building. The occupiers
are of three classes—tenants paying a weekly
rental ; occupiers who have bought their houses
and are paying off the capital sum, with interest,
by monthly or other periodical payments ; and
leaseholders who have paid Own the whole purchase
money in a lump sum. Fir a five roomed house
the weekly rental is ss. 9d. ; for a six-roomed
house, Gs. 9d. ; for a seven-roomed house, Is. ; for
an eight-roomed house, £26 yearly, these rentals in-
cluding rates and taxes, except in houses of the best
class. If the tenant is buying the house, he pays
tato, two, and gTound rent in addition to the par.