The Express.
London, England, 1864-11-22 00:00:00

[Stamped, ld. Additional.]

THE PEABODY TRUST.

About a third of the 150,0001. munificently
given by Mr. George Peabody to the poor of
London has already been invested iu build-
ings and land. The trustees of this fund
are Mr. Adams, the American Minister,
Lord Stanley, Sir Emerson Tennent, Mr. C. M.
Lampson, and Mr. J. 8. Morgan, and in addition
to eligible sites purchased at Shadwell and Ber-
mondsey, they now poetises a plot of ground near
the upper steamboat pier at Chelsea—which will
probably be re-sold as not sufficiently spacious for
their purposes—four blocks of buildings, rapidly
approaching completion, in Green Man's-lane,
Islington, and a stately edifice, containing fifty-
seven tenements, all occupied, and nine shops in
Commercial-street, Spitalfields. The last-named
building is thus subdivided:

Seven teammate, of three moms, at Tie. Od. a week.
Forty.two „ of two rooms, at 4a. Od. a week.
Bra 09 of two rooms, at .14. 61 a week.
Two of one room, at 7e. 6d. a week.

In addition to which the shops on the basement
floor are thus valued :

One comer shop, with eight rooms, melba's', sod
kitehes 1101. per &Deem
Seven ahoy*, with six rooms 5Ol. per 11[100M.
One shop oaly 2Ol. per annum.
This portion of the building is of course altogether a
thing apart from the main objects of the Peabody
donation, except that the money accruing from it is
invested and added to the original fund. The cor-
ner shop is let, but three or four of the others are
still unoccupied, and as the Islington building is
to be composed of dwelling tenements exclusively,
it would seem that the trustees regard the shops as
the least successful portion of their investment.
On inspection of the Peabody buildings in Spital-
fields the visitor would do well to remember that
he sees before him an experiment which has been
eminently satisfactory, but which is au experiment
still, and that its daily working will not impro-
bably suggest emendations and improvements, each
of which will be carried out in the other build-
ings of the trustees. Leaving Shoreditch by the
street skirting the southern wall of the Great
Eastern Railway station, and passing bare patches
of enclosed ground, alternately with new buildings,
churches, and factories, and other symbols of a
neighbourhood in a transition state, a walk of a few
minutes brings the visitor to a handsome block of
red brick buildings, with a frontage of wore
than two hundred feet. Although the street
itself is broad and airy, its tributaries
run into some of the moat over-populated
districts in London, and the situation of this knot
of dwellings is admirably suited to the require-
ments of an immense number of working men. In
the centre of the ground-floor, and dividing the
shops pretty equally on either hand, are the offices
and dwelling-rooms of the superintendent, an old
soldier, whose duty it is to keep the books, receive
the weekly rent, and see that the few and simple
rules laid down by the trustees are properly ob-
served. A copy of these is supplied to each tenant
at the commencement of his term, and runs thus :

P. T.—Corm:EclatArnim —Noma& —l. The rents
will be °abided oa Mondays, from 9 a.m. till 1 p.m. 2.
No arrows of rent will be allowed. 3. The passages,
oaths, closets, do., must be washed every Saturday, sad
swept every morning before 10 o'clock. This most be dam
by the tenants in tors. 4. The windows of the rooms moat
be MO is perfect repair, se regards the glass. No clothes,
do., shall be hung out. 6. Cluldreu will sot be allowed to
play ca the stairs, or in the 6. No carpets, mate.
Ira. ma be permitted to Mates or sbakaa after 10
o'clitek in the morning. 7. Drnakea or disorderly tenants
will receive immediate sotice to quit. 8. The gsa will be
turned off at 11 p.m. 9. Tempts will pay for all damage
not cased by fair wear. 10. Tassels an forbidden to keep
dogs in the building.
Considerable care has been exercised in the se-
lection of tenants, and in only one instance has
there been a case of arrears (45.), or such a viola-
tion of rules as has called for summary treatment.
This exemption from the ordinary vicissitudes of
letting can be readily explained, for when the build-
ings were finished there were more than a hundred
applications for the fifty-seven tenements to let,
and this enabled the trustees to select from the
recommendations in writing from employers
and landlords, and by only accepting such
lodgers as were of orderly habits and repu-
table antecedents, to secure the benefits of
the fund to the deserving poor. And though it
may be considered a stretch of language to apply
this definition to the great bulk of the Peabody
tenants, who seem to be labourers, and artizaus
earning a fair wage, it will be useful to remember
that these are the very people who need better
accommodation than they can obtain at present,
that the trustees are bound in common prudence to
let the rooms to tenants who are likely to pay their
rent, and that in future buildings a larger number
of low-priced chambers will probably be set aside.
We have been at some pains to ascertain the in-
comes of the people actually housed iu Spitalfields,
and found them to range from 15s. to 305. a week.
The two half-crown rooms are occupied by a char-
woman and a female bootbinder respectively, whose
precise earnings vary according to circumstances.
The tenements at 3e. Gd. are let to a monthly
nurse, • charwoman, a policeman with 20s. a week,
and to • basket maker, a warehouseman, and a
mechanic, all with 255. a week. As will be seen from
the figures given above the number of tenements
at four shillings • week is nearly three times as
many as the rest combined, and the wages and po-
sition of the men occupying them with their wives
and families may be fairly estimated by the fol-
lowing examples. There is a tobacco preparer, with
30e. • week ; and there are bootclosers, glasacut-
' ter', carpenters, French polishers, shoemakers,
basket makers, and coopers with from 25a. to 28e. a
week ; labourers, police constables, warehouse and
railway porters, and tailors, with 20s. a week • two
or three porters with 18s., and one with 16s. a
week. So much for the four-shilling tenements.
The seven sets of rooms at five shillings are occu-
pied respectively by a widow with nine children,
some of whom earn a little, and whose eldest sou
has 18e. a week sea derv, by a warehouseman with
30s. a week, a tailor's cutter-out with 30e. a week, •
cooper with 30s. a week, a fireman with 255. a week,
and a dock labourer with six children and lbs. a
week. The wife of the man last named has a sew-
ing machine, and by her earnings enables her fa-
mily to live in such rooms as are occupied by men
of double her husband's means. It is, however,
an open question whether the noise caused by this
apparatus will not interfere with the comfort of the
other tenants, and so necessitate removal. Ascend-
ing a well lit stone staircase, we see, opening
out of each side of a long corridor, the entrances
to the different tenements. The three single rooms
at half a crown are larger than any one of those
comprising the four or five shilling sets, as is neces-
sat7 where eating, sleeping, and perhaps bread-
winning take place in the same area. The sets at
3s. 6d. differ from those at 4s. only in size. On
visiting one at the latter rent, we found ourselves
in a comfortable, well furnished little apartment,
wherein every article, from the highly polished
mahogany drawers and neat sofa, to the small
shelf of books and the framed certificate of odd
fellowship or forestry on the walls, spoke of well-
to-do prudence and prosperous thrift. The modern
improvements in the cooking-range, oven, boiler,
and hot plate, the ventilators in the wall, the
large cupboard, and the good proportions of
the room, were cheerfully pointed out by
the tenant's wife, who with her two children
was busily preparing for her husband's return.
The bed-room opened out of the sitting-room by a
door on the left, the sole entraine to the main
corridor being through the door whereby we entered,
and which opened into the dwelling-room without
intermediate passage or standing place. The Snit
and most prominent advantage which the visitor
sees in the five-shilling tenements is a sort of
miniature hall between the front, or corridor, en-
trance and the valour door. But once inside,

[TWOPENCE

their superiority in other matters is very per-
ceptible. The sitting-room divides the bed-rooms,
so as to place an intermediate space between the
sleepers in the two chambers ; and the effect here is
that you seem to be in small and snug chambers iu
a modernized Inn of Court. There were photo-
graphs and books and engravings in the sitting-
room we inspected, and besides the usual comple-
ment of good furniture, a piano egainst its walL
This, we found on inquiry, was not due to
the musical tastes of the tenant or his family,
but to his son's being "in the cabinet way,
by which euphemism we understood that it was ware-
housed and for sale. It was as impossible to leave
this bright and cheerfullittle suite of rooms without
reflecting on the number of poor gentlemen to
whom such a home would be au infinite boon, as it
was to avoid comparing their spotless cleanliness,
solid comfort, and perfect independence with the
frowsy chambers or squalid sordid lodging-houses
to which so many of our middle class youth are
doomed. The living rooms throughout tLe Pea-
body building average 13 feet by 10 feet, and the
bedrooms 13 feet by 8 feet, while their uniform
height is 8 feet. The staircases and corridors are
well lit with gas, and the fourth or top floor is oc-
cupied by laundries, areas fur drying clothes, and
as a playground for the children in wet weather,
and by bath rooms. There are lavatories
on every floor for ordinary toilet purposes, and
a bath can always be obtained by the short and
simple process of asking the superintendent for the
key of the room. In fine weather the enclosed yard
is an admirable playground for the tenants'
children, and a rule excluding all playmates from
the outside being rigidly enforced, they are pre-
served from evil associates and consequent con-
tamination. The rules governing the laundry will
be gathered from the annexed copy of a placard
affixed to its walls ;

Coiraicia,erazer.—Nonci. —l. Each tenant will be
allowed oRe washiag tray and copper, and one day in oath
week to wash, and no room except in cam of emergency.
2. Each washer Mclean her portion of the waaLhouse and
to remove the clothes linos from the drying room afto; her
cloth.. are dry. 3. No maim to occupy more that her
portion ol the drying room. 4. Each wmber to pay one
many per hour for every hour she occupies the wash
lisyood the day allotted to her.*—N. B. No washing allowed
oa fiaturdays.

From first to last this Peabody building is
replete with comfort, and the only objection pos-
sible, even to the most hypercritical, would be a
sort of paraphrase on the French general's " C'est
magnifique, mail co n'eet pas la guerre !"
It may be readily conceded that many
of the present tenants cannot be classed
with the very poor, and that the urgent needs of
these last claim the attention of the trustees. But
the Spitalfields site was unusually expensive, just
as its parochial rates are abnormally high, and as
the obtaining a certain rate of interest—say three
or four per cent.—for the sows invested is one of
the principles on which the money is laid out, this
may have had its influence on the rents fixed. At
Islington each of the four blocks, forming a com-
plete square, will contain forty-eight tenements,
and though their rental is not yet settled, it is not
improbable that thirty-five of these will contain
two rooms at 4a. a week, and that the remaining
twelve will be single rooms at half-a-crown a week.
The original sum of 150,000/. sill, it has been
estimated, build ten large houses, the income from
which will amount to 6,000/. per annum ; and it is
not the least interesting fact connected with Mr.
Peabody's noble gift, that from this source alone
the trustees will probably be able to build a new
house every two years, and by investing its rental
in a like way, make the charity a constantly in-
creasing one.

• It bu sot Wen foetid Deeemeery to eatore3 Oa role.

REPREHLNTATION or lIIALDON. —At a meeting of
the Conservative Club, held at Maldon last week, Mr. H.
J. Selwyn • semis-law of the late Lord Lyndhurst, an.
sounoid h s intentios of offering himself as a candidate for
the borough at the next immoral election, in 000 junction
with Mr. rescocke, M.P., on the conservative interest. At
mom% Masker returns on. conservative end one liberal.
TER INCORPORATED SOCIETY TOR PRONOTINO THE
Eirtaxamerstr, BUILDING, AND REPAIRING or CHURCHES
AND Crum:La.—The meetings of this society for the present
session were resumed, at the society's house, No. 7, White-
hall, S.W., yesterday, when Sir Thomas Phillips took the
chair. There were also preset Messrs. John Boodle, George
Coeburn, .7. F. Foram, F. B. Powell, M.P., Edward Thorn.
toe, sad Rev. C. B. Raid, M.A.,sesistent secretary. Grants
of mosey wen made is aid of the following objects :—Ea.
laming and re. • g the mate in the churches at Carne
(near Newtown), Montgomery, Cray ford (Kent), Christ
Chetah (Derby), Godmmeham (near Canterbury), High
Easter (sear Chelonford). Laziest (near Bodmin), °Heim
Neer Ludlow), Ricoall (mar York), Upper Banaor, and
Weobley (Herefordshire). Grants were also made towards
building a missies church is the district of St.
South Kesningten ; litrutley.street, near BirtninghltraTt
towards enlarging a mimics church at Milton next Grans-
sad. The misty likewise secepted the following hosts is
repair fond. for the churches of Si, Mark's, Dewsbury ;
Rayseethorps, in tbe parish of Muteld, Yorkshire, Holy
Trinity, Giumborough ; Sway and Pennington, in the parish
of 801 d,., Hants. In oessequesee of the low stator of the
society's funds, the board have been compelled to reduce the
male of their grants by more than a third of the amounts
previously made. The attestiou of churchmen is pinion.
laxly requested to this fact, and the society earnestly hopes
that funds may be ferthomniss which will feeble them to
=Migrants more in ageordasee with those formerly made.
CONSECRATION or ALL SAINTS CHURCH AT
WINDSOR. —The cerenscoy of consecrating All Sainte Church
by the Lord Bishop of Oxford took plan yesterday,
when the Wilke wee inixevesurstly crowded, and many
were unable to obtain adoilios. Their Royal Highnesses
the Primer of Wales, Prisons Helena, and Primes. Louisa,
attended by Lady Caroline Barrington, Lord Charles Fitzroy,
sad Lord 'Asthma, were present, also the members and
mayor aid corporations of the borough, about 100 of the
clergy of Windsor, Eton, and the surrounding parishes, to.
further with may of the principal subscribers and residents
in the parishes of Wisdom. Eton, and armor. The (mode.
lion stone was laid this day 12 months, by the Prioress Royal,
Prisms* of Pram* on her birthday. Her Majesty
has takes mach interest is the erection of the church,
towards which she subscribed 301/1. ; the Commieiosurs of
Woods and Form* 3501. and the site ; and the Diocesan
Church Building Society, 2001. The cost of the building
with extra meaner mounted to 4,6411. 01. 2d. ; and the
total amount of subscriptions received and promised is
4,4571. 7.. 7d., leaving • Warms only of 1841. L. 7d..
which ham been tamed by this morning's collection to 831.
There will be as additional sum of 4001. incurred for iron
(mein. After the coessenition, there was an elegant
brochure prepared by Layton Brothers io the Acre School.
room, to which the church building committee invited the
mayor and corporation, the clergy, the subscribers with
their ladies, numhariag 300, most of whom were present.
Lord Kilkaldy, in the absence of the vicar, who was unwell.
presided, having onhis right head Lady Emily; Seymour, sad
on his lett the Han, Mrs. Wellesley, wife of the Hon. and
Very Rev. the Dees of Windsor. There were also moist the
Bishop of Columbia, the Rev. Mr. Wilder, Eton College
and Mr. Vansittart, M.P. The loyal tome were given with
special reform to the fact of the Princess Royal having
laid the foundation stove. The Bishop of Oxford's broil&
was drunk, to which his kedebip made an extremely
ply ; the Dian and Canoes of Windsor, acknowledged
the very rev. deem who paid a well-merite
happyre
bete to the activity and sea of the rime in cesseetion
with the building. ; and "the health of the vicar " wee
Mem, with expreseons of regret at his abuse°, through ill
health, responded to by the Rev. Thomas Hooke, curate ;
"
Th.
borough menabsea," railroaded to by Mr. Venetian,
who mepoied Meat to the mayor amd corporation, re.
spon to by the mayor. The church is at present oats.
streaked to testate 600 persons ; all the sittings are to be
free. The following spaded gine have been made to the
church The Malted glass window at the west end. 600
hammocks, the alter cloth, the Holy Bible, books for the alter,
monk work over eheasel, with a set of plate for the Holy
Communion, Re.

.
THE ROBBERY DT LADY PHIPPS' SERVANT.-•
Yesterday Men Weet, lady's maid to Lady Phipps, and
who has beim in cnatody foe some time on charges of rob-
bing her mistress, and of obtaisiog goods under false pm.
teams, was committed for trial by the beach of magistrate•
at Windsor. Sisos her apprehension nearly 200 letters
have been (mod is her room at Lady Phipps' residuum in
Windsor Oastle. and all el them relate to property which
she had made away with. The greater part of this pro.
paw perty has been recovered through the ezertioes ad the
COLLISION OH THE GREAT EASTERN RAILWAY.—
By reason of the deem feg prevailing yesterday monies
the train due in Loads. at INshoWtate station at 9.5 was
run into at Stratford by a powwow train due at the same
time at Foochnech.4treet. The guard's van was eon*
sideratily shattered, and the purmingen in both the trains
very much shakes.

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10 LYME EsPONDF—NTS.

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