The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-10 00:00:00

THE DEPLORABLE CONDITION OF THE POOR IN THE

CITY LOCALITIES.
The Inquest of the Ward of Farringdon Within al)•
peered at the bar with a preirntment, to which they
implored the most attentive consideration of the Court.
It was cis foilows :
The Inquest of Farringdon Within in dispensing
the annual bounty of the inhabitants of the Ward were
led, to prevent any imposition on the funds committed to
their care, personally to visit the poor at their own habi-
tations. In the performance of this task they became ac-
quaicted with a mass of heart-sickening misery and suf-
fering, of which they had never previously formed any-
thing like an idea, and at the existence of which they
feel the most painful regret. All the relief that the
Inquest could give was far from being adequate to sa-
tisfy the claims on their syrnp:.thy ; and so it must
prove on all future occasions, unless a more systematic
and permanent mode of giving raid' can be established
than that which depends on the casual generosity of
the prosperous inhabitants of tile Ward ; and with a
view of bringing something of the kind into operation
they deem it their duty to make the following pre-

sentment :
" The district to which the Inquest are most de-
sirous of drawing attention is situated in the parish of
St. Martin, Ludgate-hill, and St. Ann, Blackfriars. It
includes Holiday-yard, Ireland-yard, Glasshouse-yard,
and a great many yards and courts adjoining ; and
all those yards consist of buildings or houses which,
with few exceptions, are in a state of decay, in a greater
or lesser degree. It can scarcely be said that they
possess any other accommodation than a roof—none
that Christian feeling would assign for a fellow-creature

—vet thew wretched places are let in tenements
consisting of a single apartment, each for sums varying

from 2s. 6(1. to 4s. weekly, a most enormous rent in
proportion to the value of the property, especially when
it is considered that the tenants are of the poorest of
the poor. And the occupiers, who are mostly persons
whose subsistence mainly depends on casual employ-
ment in the City, are compelled to pay this amount of
rent; for, when through any misfortune any of these
suffer their rent to go behind-hand for a few weeks,

what little household furniture they may posseis is
liable to be instantly wrested from them by a summary
legal process, and too often they are treated by their
landlords with a ruthless severity that people in better
circumstances cannot conceive. Many of these houses
are densely crowded, some of the rooms containing fa-
milies of six, seven, or eight persons, old and young ;
and even this manner of living is rendered doubly un-
healthy by the buildings being dest:tute of drainage
and sewers, and by th% consequent accumulation of
filth in the vicinity, which, however cleanly disposed
any one family may be, cannot easily be removed ; and
also by a very scanty supply of water, as that very ne-
cessary article is only to be obtained for two hours on three
days in the week, and then it must be fetched a consi-
derable distance from some of the houses, under &rcurn.
stances of difficulty and annoyance.
" From much conversation which the Inquest have had
with many of the poor people, they are fully persuaded
that most of their acute distress arises from their having
such high rent demanded of them ; thus at times when
they may be out of employment, or labouring under

some other misfortunes, forcing them into a -state of

despair and deplorable recklessness. By this species of
property being let in the manner described, the rental
of each house amounts to as much as 30/. or 601. per
annum, according to the size, at which rate two or
three y ears' rent amounts to the actual value of the
property ; and after a strict investigation of all the cir-
cumstances bearing on the subject, the Inquest are of

opinion that the loss to the landlords from bad tenants,
or having the tenements occasionally vacant, does not
average more than 51. per cent. on the gross rental, for
the number of dwelling places used by the most indigent
of the labouring classes being very inadequate to the
demand for them, tenants of that description have little
inducement to remove from any place into which they
may have once entered.
" It is not fit that such a state of things should continue
in the opulent and renowned city of London. There is
abundant reason why its remedy should be made the
business of various classes of the community. The

pl~il,nthropist will be moved to promote a remedy, by
his kindly nature ; the faculty will acknowledge, that in
such places contagious diseases often arise ; and the po-
litical economist will equally acknowledge that a worse
infection, in the shape of vice, may have acquired a
baneful influence that is utterly incompatible with the
interests of society at large.
" The Inquest have no intention to reproach the Cor-
porat;on with having evinced a culpable neglect of
the domestic comforts of the poor ; but the fact cannot
be denied, that the numerous improvements in the
main thoroughfares of the Cit), and the embellishments
of the same (within a few years past) have so diminished
the number of the humbler class of dwellings, as to con-
stitute one cause of the evil of which the Inquest com-
plain ; and therefore they trust it cannot be thought
unreasonable to solicit from the Corporation some effi-

ment assistance for an amelioration of the grievance.
There is still much labour which the poor are required
to perform in the City, and it is of importance to those
who may be employed, that they should dwell as near
as possible to the place where their services are in re-
quisition, for if any one of them be not at hand when
wanted, he will soon be supplanted by another : and it
is this fear of any such consequences that causes them
to submit to the inconveniences to which they are sub-
jected ; otherwise, for the sum which they pay for one
dark unhealthy room, they could get a decent little house
with a patch of garden ground attached, on the outskirts
of the meteopolie. Under these circumstances the In-
quest earnestly hope that the Corporation will heartily
sanction the plan they are about to suggest.
" Having shown, as they trust they have, that a prin-
cipal cause of the distress arising from the poor having
to pay nearly as much every Week for rent as in unfa-
vourable seasons they earn during the same space of
time, the Inquest now propose their remedy. 14 is
that the Corporation, in the course of the numerous
improvements which they still contemplate carrying into
effect, should, in available situations (say Farringdon
Market), cause to be erected as an experiment several
capacious houses contiguous to or adjoining to each
other, to be called " the Working Man's Home,"
or by any other name that miOlt be deemed
more appropriate, in which should be constructed
rooms of a comfortable size, which might be let
to the industrious poor in weekly sums, varying
from Is. to Is. 3d. each, or, if the Corporation should
consider it preferable, that twenty-four small houses
should be erected, each to contain four rooms, the two
lower to be let at Is. each per week, and the two upper
ones at ls. 3d. per week, which, altogether, would
amount to 4s. 6d. per week for each house. The In-
quest have ascertained from various inquiries they have
made, that the cost of erecting one such small house in
a neat substantial manner, with accommodations of a
superior kind to any thing poor persons can procure, at
the rent which they are at present compelled to pay,
would be about 130/., or about 3,000/. for the twenty-
four. The gross amount of rent which these tene-
ments would return in one year, would be 280!., and
allowing a diminution of one-seventh, or 40/. per annum
for repairs and casualties in the occupancy, (and the
probability is that the diminution on that account would
be much less), 20/. for taxes, 28/. being a per cent ige
of 10/. per cent., for remunerating the person employed
in collecting the rents and lotting the premises, there
would then remain as interest for the capital refunded
the sum at least of 200/. per annum, which would be
quite sufficient to repay the Corporation, who must, in
this instance, be actuated by the purest principles of
Christian benevolence. But in the event of the Cor-
poration, from prudential motives, declining to enter so
extensively into the speculation, the Inquest propose
that they should place a piece of Lind (say the vacant
piece at the end of Farringdon-street} free from the
charge of ground rent, for a certain term of years, at
the disposal of suitable trustees, in order to enable a
few philanthropists to make the experiment on tie same
plan ; the parties in whose favour the land may be
granted to give ample security t'aat no person who
should join the speculation should receive more interest
for the money so invested than 5 per ceat., and that if
the proceeds of the speculation should amount to
m, re than this, it should he handed over to the Cor-
poration to recompense them for the use of the land ;
and the Corporation to give security that when the pe-
riod for which the land might be granted should have
expired, the buildings should continue to be directed to
the same purposes for which they were respectively
erected. On such terms as these the Inquest are al-
ready prepared to give the sum (one gentleman will
advance the sum of 1,0000 towards effecting the
object they have at heart—the amelioration of the
domestic condition of the poor in general. They have
not the slightest doubt that this plan would be emi-
nently successful ; on its beneficial effects being wit-
nessed, it would be adopted by many other Corpora-
tions and private philanthropists ; and in the course of
a few years there would be manifest a richly gratifying
neatness and cheerfulness in numerous localities where
poverty in its most squalid and loathsome aspect has
borne permanent sway.
" BENJAMIN STEIL, Foreman."
Sir MATTHEW WOOD said that the presentment
was one of a most important nature, and required the
utmost deliberation. He should therefore move, that
it be referred to a Committee of the whole Court, for
the examination of evidence on the subject.—( Hear.)
Alderman COPELAND asked whether the Inquest had
made representations upon the subject to the Board of
Guardians ?
Mr. STEIL replied that they had not. It was, how-
ever, their intention to apply to that Board, as well as
to the Court of CommonlCouncil, for their co-operation.
Alderman COPELAND asked whether the Inquest
had conferred with the landlords of the tenements in
the districts alluded to, with respect to the condition
of the industrious poor occupying them ?
Mr. STEIL said chat in one instance a landlord of
several of the miserable tenements banded over to them
ten shillings towards ameliorating the distress of the