The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-06
HOUSE RENTS In LONDON
The TribulatiOnS of Tenant in the Worlds
Greatest City.

they must be made before the house
can be occupied. These improvements
will cost f400, and you can have them
made at your own expense and deduct
so many pounds a year from the rent
till your advance is repaid"
Suppose 1 do not care to advance
so much for altering another mans
| house? Then 1 need not take the
house; that Is my only alternative.
The agent does not care whether
take 1t or not, for If do not, some one
else will. The landlord will not under
any circumstances spend any money on
his rentable property-trust the Lon
don landlord for that. Why, even the
squares. which, nearly all belong to
some of our dukes, have to be kept in
order by the occupants of the sur
rounding houses. Take Russell square,
for instance, that belongs to the Duke
of Bedford. If you rent one of his
houses on Russell square, you have to
pay eight guineas a year for a key
and for your share of keeping the
square in order. The law guards all
those squares very carefully for the
benefit of course, of the landlords.
II think have made it plain enough
that it is not $40 yearly rent l pay, but
almC st enough more to bring my rental
up to New York prices. Rent, perhaps
an advance for repairs, insurance,
taxes, water rate, painting once in
three years, and general overhauling
at the end of my lease.
Then he continued, there is an
ether great objection to our system.
| Suppose that 1 am a young man just
married, and 1 lease a house for twen-
ty-one years. My children grow up
there, and we all become attached to
the place. But at the end of my term
very likely l must go, for the occupant
| of house does not always have the
| first chance when a lease expires. And
as to buying, / might as we'll try to
buy the British museum. Our wealthy
dukes will not sell an inch of London
land when they can help it.
But why do you say that your
house would not rent in New York;"
the American asked. ut is a fairly
| looking house"
Yes, it looks we'll enough on the out
/ side" the Londoner answered. But it
is a sort of whited sepulchre, like all
the old town houses. A New York
house hunter would call it mere shell.
| There is to be sure, pipe to bring
| water in from the street main, and an
| other pipe to carry drainage to the
] sewer, but that is the extent of what
| you call the modern improvements.
| If 1 want hot water I must ring the
| bell and have 1t carried up from the
| kitchen in a jug. Bath? There is no
bathroom unless l chose to put one in
| at my own expense, which I don't.
| You see these houses have no big cop
| per boiler in the kitchen like your New
York houses. There is only a little
| square tank attached to the range for
heating water. So putting in a bath
| involves an entire change of plumbing
| and considerable expense.
Then there is no system of heating
whatever beyond the open crate in
| each room. Most Londoners are used
| to that, but Americans complain about
| it when they are here in winter, and
1 think myself that it is not enough for
| the climate. Our weather is not as
severe as yours, but we have a great
| many cold, wet days, when a whole
house should be we'll heated. But how
are we to heat an entire house with
open CRATES? The halls are always cold
| in winter and, of course, we do not
keep fires burning in. the unoccupied
| rooms. We can go to bed in a warm
| room If we wish, but with our soft coal
the fire burns out in an hour or two
| and that is the end of the warmth
| was often asked in New York how
we manage in case of sickness when a
warm sleeping room is necessary. Well
the fact is we don't manage at all, in
| most cases. The London theory is
that person who is i'll enough to re-
quire a warm room needs the attend
| ance of nurse also, and the nurse
can keep the fire going. But that is
only a theory. There are times when
one is sick enough to need warmth
without q nurse