Second report of Her Majesty's Commissioners for inquiring into the housing of the working classses : Scotland.
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on Housing of the Working Classes
- Date:
- 1885
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Second report of Her Majesty's Commissioners for inquiring into the housing of the working classses : Scotland. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![At Edinburgli the chief sanitary work lias been in tlie hands of the City Improve- ment Trust. The trustees and the town council are one and the same individuals. The trust is a kind of improvement committee of the town council, but it is an entirely independent and separate body. It was formed in 1867 for the better ventilation and sanitary improvement of densely peopled localities, and for the better laying out of- the ground occupied by such houses and buildings. The trust has parliamentary powers under their special Act, and a preference is expressed for the private Act over Sir Eichard Cross's. The improvements have cost the city 300,OOOL, nearly 3,000 houses occupied by the poor having been cleared away. At Glasgow the Improvement Trust came into working in 1870, and since that year operations on a very large scale have been carried on under it. 1,600,000L has been spent, and 80 acres have been purchased for clearance. At present about 30,000 people have been displaced out of 50,000 whom it was intended to displace. At Aberdeen proceedings have been taken under Sir Eichard Cross's Acts, about 800 people having at present been displaced. The compensations have been assessed as if the property, if not pulled down, might have continued to be let, whereas some of the houses removed were in such a condition that no expenditure would make them habitable, and Mr. Torrens's Act might, with advantage, have been used. G-reenock was the first burgh in Scotland to adopt Sir Richard Cross's Acts. About 2,000 people, very densely crowded, were displaced, and houses have been provided for about 600, but not for all of the class turned out. The compensation seems to have been excessive, 14 to 25 years' purchase having been given for houses which ought not to have been inhabited at all. At Leith the proceedings of the town council, under Cross's Act, have attracted some attention. They obtained a provisional order and borrowed 100,000Z. for the purpose of clearing certain imhealthy areas which were said to be dangerous to the health of their inhabitants and to the town generally, but they have spent the whole of it without having begun to clear any portion of the unhealthy area, except some 12 structures. The whole of the evidence given by the conjunct town clerk on the proceedings and policy of the town council of Leith is worthy of atten- tion, and Your Majesty's Commissioners cannot recommend that the Corporation of Leith should be relieved of the obligations imposed upon them by law. At Dundee operations have been carried out under a private Act. Some of the worst quarters of the town have been demolished but a good deal remains to be done in the town. The general result of these operations in the large towns in Scotland is shown by the death rates. At Edinburgh the improvement has been very remarkable. The average from 1865 to 1875 was 26*26 per 1,000, and from 1875 to 1885 was 19-94 per 1,000. This is greater than the improvement in almost any city of the United Kingdom, but on the other hand the mortality in the worst parts of the town is even now sometimes almost double that of the west end. At Glasgow the mean death rate of the 10 years previous to 1870 was 30' 5 per 1,000; for the 10 years immediately afterwards it fell to 28'5, and from 1881 to 1884 it was 26'5. These figures are not very striking compared with the decrease in other parts of the country, but they show that the working of the Improvement Trust has had a beneficial efifect on the health of the population. At Dundee also the beneficial efi'ects of the improvements may be seen in the reduction of the mortality ; the average rate from 1864 to 1875 was 28*86 per 1,000, and from 1874 to 1884 only 21*09 per 1,000—1874 being the date of the great demohtion. It must be mentioned, however, that typhus, which is rarely found in English towns, has never been stamped out at Dundee. In connexion with town improvements some notice should be taken of the policy which is adopted in Scotland with reference to the rehousing of people displaced in consequence of demolitions. It is a remarkable thing that though the part of the Act of 1882, which amends Sir Richard Cross's Act by introducing a relaxation of the obligation to provide for persons displaced, applies to the English Act and not to the Scotch Act, yet in all the Scotch towns there seems to be a general feeling that there D. Crawford, is no obligation to re-house people turned out. The legal secretary to the Lord Advo- 1H,498. cate said that he had never heard complaint of inconvenience from that cause. The K. Crawford, clerk to the Edinburgh City Improvement Trust went further and said that Sir 18,727. u jj,ic]2ard Cross's Act is very heavily handicapped by the provision that artizans'^ Telfer, « dwellings must be provided upon the areas operated upon: I think it is most amply 19,188. y ^^^^ private enterprise. The President of the Edinburgh Trades Council, K. Crawford, 18,762, &c. K. Crawford, 18,705. K. Crawford, 18,727. 18,736. 18,781. Collins, 19,325. Collins, 19,382. Simpson, 19,923. Simpson, 19,967. TurnbuU, 20,031. 20,115. Laing, 20,306. 20,431. Laing, 20,270- It, 20,587. Gentle, 20,594. Gentle, 20,647. Littlejohn, 18,943. Littlejobn, 18,950. JVIorrison, 19,326. (jcntle, 20,644. Ee-Housing AFTER De- molition. D. Crawford, 18,473.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24398329_0010.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
