The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-16 00:00:00

DWELLINGS OF TILE LABOURING

CLASSES.

(From the Hertford Mercury.)

A public Meeting wa's field at the Town Hall, on
Thursday evening for the purpose of submitting to
the inhabitants of Hertford the prospectus of the
local company for improving and erecting dwellings
for the working classes. There was a good attend-
ance of the leading inhabitants of the town and of
the working classes.
The chair was taken by the Right Hon. W. F.
Cowper, M.P., who was supported by Mr. Robert
Dimsdale and Mr. J, W. Uhesshyre (who have
kindly consented to act as Honorary Secretaries of
the Company), and by other gentlemen. Mr. Mar-
tin, the architect, attended to exhibit and explain
plans and models of cottages published by the Cot-
tage Improvement Society. Mr. Stevens, the
architect of Christ Church, Ware, was also present
with plans of his own ; and Mr. T. Smith, of Hert-
ford, attended with drawings he had made of the
Albert cottages, similar to those erected in Hyde
Park in 1851!

The Cottage Improvement Society have sent out
840 sets of their plans to different counties, and
they have been extensively adopted. These cot-
tages are erected in detached pairs, with side
doors and porch entrance, at a cost of 105
guineas the pair. In some cases where building
materials are cheap they have been put up for £lO
less, but the cost has not hitherto exceeded this
sum. The cottages have gable roofs, and have a
pleasant rustic look ; as models they are not appli-
cable to the streets of towns, but should be placed
where land can be procured at a moderate price,
so as to allow of their being surrounded by
garden ground. They are suited for erection in
villages, or on plots in the suburbs of towns. The
society has two plans. In No. 1 Plan, there are
two rooms on the ground floor, viz., a living room
9ft. 4in. by 18ft. 4in., fitted up with dresser, and a
boy's bed-room ift. 10in. by 10ft., with a trap store
under. The model showed a press-bedstead in the
boy's room, which would enable the occupier to use
it in the day-time as a parlour. The upper floor
has a parents' bedroom lift. 4in. by 9ft. 4in., and a
girls' bedroom lift. 4in. by 7ft. 10in., with a closet
4ft. Bin. by 2ft. bin. There is also an approach
over the staircase to an ample space in the roof,
which may be used as a store room ; and a fuel
place and pantry under the stairs. Outside each
cottage there is a watercloset approached by a
covered way. In the model exhibited, a scullery
was attached, but this addition would increase the
cost of erecting the cottages. No. 2 Plan is like
No. 1, except that sleeping is not contemplated in
tha lower rooms, one of which is fitted up as a
kitchen, with dresser, sink, and oven, and the other
as a living-room; while one of the upper apart-
ments is divided into two sleeping-rooms, one for
girls, and one for boys. These cottages are so per-
fectly ventilated that the quantity of fresh air in-
troduced is greater than in much larger rooms im-
perfectly ventilated. The rooms are Bft. high.
Mr. Stevens' plans, which have the sanction of
the Society for Improving the Condition of the
Labouring Classes, are-extremely attractive. The
cottages are flat-roofed, and the ceilings are conse-
quently of uniform height, which is an advantage.
Theymay be built semi-detached or in blocks.
Each cottage consists of four rooms. The ground
plan gives a living room lift. by 10ft., a boy's bed-
room 9ft. bin. by 7ft. 10-3-in., with a good pantry, a
water-closet, and a fuel place. On the upper floor
there is a parents' bedroom, llft. by 10ft., and a
girls' room, 9ft. 6in. by 7ft. 10in., and a large
lauding. Mr. Stevens states that the cost of erecting
these cottages at £l7O the pair, in places where
buildings are, however, more cheaply constructed
than in Hertford.
The Albert Cottages are familiar to our readers.
They are built in fours, in flats, one cottage being
on the ground floor, and another" approached by a
common outer entrance on the upper floor. We be-
lieve they cost about £9O per cottage, but they
contain ample conveniences for the cottage resident;
the principal objection to this plan in rural dis-
tricts is, that the garden attached must necessarily
be divided between two occupiers. It is more suited
for densely-peopled towns.
Other plans were upon the table, including one
for semi-detached cottages for artizans, at a cost of
£lOO per cottage. Comfortable dwellings on this
plan have been erected at Stratford.
The models and plans having been inspected by
the company.
The Right Hon. W. F. COWPER directed atten-
tion to the object of the meeting. He said this was
the second meeting which had been held for the
purpose of forming a company to improve and erect
dwellings for the labouring classes in the town and
neighbourhood of Hertford ; and he was happy to
find that 300 shares, representing a capital of
£1,500, had been subscribed for, and that donations
to the extent of £lOO, which would be applicable
to the general expenses of the society, had been re-
ceived. At the last meeting they had some discus-
sion on the prospects of the company in a pecuniary
point of view, and he ventured to say that he did
not think it would be a very profitable mode of in-
restment. He happened to have some experience
in this matter, for he was connected with two so-
cieties, the objects of which were similar, and he
was the owner of a model lodging-house in London.
Having some money to invest, he desired to invest
it in a way which would do good to a number of
persons who had very bad lodgings and wanted
better, and so he became the owner of the lodging-
house in question. His experience, then, was
that, as a matter of business speculation, one must
not expect this to be the most profitable that
could be engaged in. (Hear, hear.) But they
had not come here to consider how they should
put out their money so as to get the largest amount
of interest, but because they wanted to employ the
money they had to dispose of for the benefit of
their fellow-creatures. (Cheers.) He hoped, never-
theless, they would be able to get a sufficient return
to justify any prudent person in investing his money,
while, at the same time, they would certainly do a
greater amount of good than by investing it in more
promising commercial undertakings. There was no
way in which they could do more good than by im-
proving the dwellings of the labouring classes, and
especially in the towns. Working men must live
near their work, and they had no opportunity of
choosing freely the houses in which they would
dwell as the higher classes had, and they must
therefore look to persons of capital to help them to
better homes. The house which a man lived in had
an immense influence upon him. The working man
probably spent 10 hours of every day in his dwell-
ing, and his wife nearly the whole 24 hours. Now
if their dwellings were unfit to live in ; if, instead
• of being calculated to preserve health, they tended
to destroy it ; and, instead of by their decent and
comfort encouraging a feeling" of self-respect in the
dweller, they made him feel uncomfortable and
wretched—they mint have a most injurious influ-
ence on his character. The working man so housed
could not hold up his head so high, nor feel the
same self-respect, as he would if he lived in a com-
fortable home. What, then, could they do better
than to give the poor healthy and happy homes.
(Cheers.) Many houses were unhealthy and uncom-
fortable because they were damp. The foundations
of some were damp, others were built of porous
bricks, and others were damp because they were not
properly roofed. And the dampness was the constant
cause of rheumatism and other diseases, of heavy
. doctors' bills, and of much preventable poverty. The
difference between living in a well-built, well-
drained, and well-ventilated house, and a house
which was the opposite of all this, was strikingly
shown by returns which had been made of the

amount of disease and death in the model lodgings in
London, and amongst the population living in the
neighbourhood of those model lodging-houses. In
five years the mortality in 14 model lodging-houses
had been 8 per annum for every 1,000 living, whilst
the mortality amongst the people living in the dis-
tricts immediately roundithem was 27 in the 1,000.
Dr. S. Smith calculated that if the same good
health prevailed generally in London as in the
model lodeing-bOuses, there would be 23,000 people
living in the metropolis at the end of the year who
were now killed by the bad dwellings in which they
IWivasedai.
wlnaye uthaelodging-houses, typhus fever, which
whiciiiiiieation of something wrong in
the house in tt occurred, was almost unknown.
Dr. S. Smith took
aps of London : on one he
marked in colours tire° districts
the
where the drainage
was best and worst; on
otethoether he marked, with
the aid of the records of
moat and
Hospital, the
districts where fever
and least prevalent.
He afterwards compared the
maps and abland found the
districts where the drainage was
wmaprrecisely
where fever prevailed,
conntry,
the districts
hear.)
. aby his own
Almost every medical man in the ‘
would
duty to
agree that this was a fact corroborate
daily experience. Clearly, then it was a
endeavour to get good houses for working
men to
live in."—(Cheers.) When they looked Into
the
matter they found that a well-constructed cottage
did not cost more than a badly-constructed one. It
only wanted a little architectural skill to erect a
good house for the same money as a bad one of the
same size would cost. They had to-night been look-
ing at plans and models of cottages, some of which
could be built at a very low rate. The cottages of
which models were in the room could be built at
155 guineas the pair, so that if the rent of each were
put at is. 9d. per week, it would produce 5 per cent. on
the outlay, which he thought would be satisfactory.
The arrangements of the model were excellent,
though he did not say they were better than others.
It would be the business of the directors carefully to
examine the plans laidbefore them, and to select that
which gave the best accommodation at the,cheapest
rate, affording a sufficient number of sleeping apart-
ments, the convenience of a scullery, and ?ther ar-
.