The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-09 00:00:00

PRELIMINARY INSPECTION OF TBE
SITE OF A MODEL LODGING-ROUSE
IN DRURY-LANE.

The labours of the Society for Improving the Condi-
tion of the Working Classes, under the auspices of its
benevolent and indefatigable president, the Earl of
Shaftesbury, are already favourably known to the
public. In some of the lowest and hitherto filthiest
parts of this huge metropolis, lofty edifices have by its
agency been constructed, containing large and roomy
apartments, and fitted with every convenience required
for the attainment of domestic civilisation. Thorough
ventilation, constant and abundant supply of water,
and all the machinery requisite for complete sewage
and drainage, have been provided in these club-houses of
of
t
the working man, and the result has been the complete
success of the undertaking even as a commercial
are
specu-
lation. In these large " model-houses,"
called, although the rents are lower than as
which
were before paid for wretched accommodation, the re-
turn is above six per cent. on the outlay. The rooms
are always full, and there is generally alonrg list in
arrear, of applications for apartmen So fa
mense goad. was effected, in the establishment ofi mso-
many standards of decency and cleanliness, in districts
where previously both had been for the most part occult
sciences ; but the state of the poorer classes required a
much wider and more immediate application of the prin-
ciple than could be effected by the tedious and expen-
sive processes connected with the purchase of ground,
clearing it away, and the rearing of these immense piles
at a great preliminary outlay of capital. Besides, al-
though six per cent. is considered to be a tolerably fair
return for money in other departments of trade, the
cupidity of the builders was not satisfied, and thus the
necessity was thrust upon Lord Shaftesbury and his co-
adjutors of devising some means by which the poor could
more speedily acquire human domiciles, and the bene-
volence of " the trade" be stimulated by what they con-
eldered an adequate percentage on their outlay—that is
to say, from twelve to fourteen per cent. With this
view it was determined to plunge boldly into some of the
dens of filth and misery at present existing, cleanse them
of their abominations, supply them with water and drain-
age, and then re-let hem to their previous miserable oc-
cupants. A beginning is about to be made in one of the
most wretched purlieus of Drury-lane, and yesterday a
preliminary inspection was made in order that the revo-
lution about to be effected may, some twelve months
hence, be more fully appreciated. Wyld-court, the locality
against which our philanthropic commander-in-chief is
about to open his first parallel, is a wretched passage lead-
ng out of Great Wyld-street, having six or seven wretch-
el-looking, tumble-down old houses of a side, and an
open gutter running down the centre, that reeks and
immers with the fermentation of every conceivable filth.
The windows are all broken, dimmed with the dirt and
dust of years, and further obscured by the labours of
many generations of spiders. The street doors lie open
day and night, for the fastenings hare all been stolen
long ago, and the wretched inmates need allow no fear
of burglars to disturb their slumbers. The stairs feel
like soft soil to the tread, so thickly are they encrusted
with successive layers of dirt, and the balustrades are
iscid and clammy to the touch, whenever a visitor is so
reckless as to lay his hand upon them to assist his
ascent. The rooms, although the work of cleansing has
already made some progress in them, are sickening to
ook upon them, and the whole atmosphere is laden with
a faint sickly odour, which tells of cholera, and typhus,
and all the other plagues which may be said to be the
almost daily visitants of the London poor. The means
supplied with sewage and drainage are quite in keeping
with the other noisome peculiarities of the place, and,
but for ocular proof, would hardly be believed to exist
in any civilised or Christian country. For each house of
eight er ten rooms, there is but one opea privy, with
merely a rail across the top, and this is situated on one
side of a yard about six feet square, the opposite side
of which is occupied by the tank that supplies all the in-
habitants with water. So near are the two to each
other, that a man could stand in the middle of the yard
and touch both with his hands ; and yet these two con-
veniences of the first importance are intended to answer
the natural wants of perhaps fifty human beings 1 As
a consequence of such a state of things, the yard is
daily covered with five or six inches of filth, which, per-
colating through the bottom of the water tank, must
make its contents little better than so much liquid
poison. For the inhabitants of the garrets a still more
horrible contrivance has been adopted. A sort of
wooden trough, quite open, is placed at the front room
door, which communicates with an open gutter running
literally along the cornice, and this pours its contents
into the gutter on the roof. Into this trough the
dwellers in the upper parts of the house throw all their
filth, which runs in a constant stream past the beds of
the people in the front room, and goes to s well the
contents of the gutter in front, all the vapour from
which enters through the broken windows. These
are sickening details, but they must be made public, in
order that the dwellers in clean and comfortable houses,
who are just recovering from their cholera panic, may
know where their great enemy gathers strength, and
how and where he is to be grappled with. In the thir-
teen or fourteen houses so appointed, of which Wyld-
court consists, nearly one thousand human beings have
hitherto foxind shelter ; the very staircases being nightly
covered with poor wretches, to whom even the peatilea-
tial accommodation of the rooms was an unattainable
lexury. During Lord Shaftesbury's visit yesterday the
inhabitants clustered round him in groups, and their
appearance spoke plainly as to the effects of their
dwelling places on their vitality. They were all pale
and haggard, with that peculiar look of physical de-
pression which is known to be the result of breathing
a vitiated atmosphere. Like Coleridge's ancient ma-
riner, their universal cry was " Water, water," and
they seemed most grateful for the deep interest taken by
his lordship in their rendition, and his noble exertions
for its improvement. We were informed that ex-
treme poverty had nothing to do with the wretchedness
of their appearance. They are all earning what, with pro-
per management, might be called a decent living, but
exorbitant rents cause them to crowd into these dread-
ful dens, and the depressing influences that act upon
them at home drive them to spend all their earnings in
the gin shop. It is Lord Shaftesbury's opinion, and few
have had better means of judging, that three-fourths of
the intemperance of the London poor may be attributed
to the dreadful state of their dwellings which drives them
to the lofty and brilliantly lighted gin palace, with its
bright cheerful look and other tempting appliances. It
may be urged that much of the dirt of the houses is attri-
butable to the habits of the inmates, but how can people
be clean without water, or decent without the commonest
means of decency ? The society deeply feel the difficulty,
and having taken a lease of these houses have deter-
mined on giving them a thorough cleansing and repair,
the latter being rendered more easy by the fact that,
although the houses are so dilapidated in appearance,
the walls are strong and sound, and the woodwork under
all the dirt in tolerable preservation. Water with con-
stant supply will be carried to every room, and proper
water-closets placed on every landing. The walls will be
newly plastered and coloured, the windows glazed and
cleaned, and a fresh coat of paint will give a wholesome
and cheerful aspect to this now dreary-looking court.
When all is ready, they will be re-let at considerably less
than their present rents to the poor people who have
now been temporarily removed, and for whom immediate
accommodation has been provided in one portion of the
houses while the others are under repair. They are all
not only contented but delighted with the arrangement,
give to their new landlords every facility for their chari-
table work, and look anxiously forward for the day when
they may be able to enter upon and enjoy the clean-
liness and oomfort which are being prepared for them.