Artisan's dwellings / by Francis Hooper.

  • Hooper, Francis.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Artisan's dwellings / by Francis Hooper. 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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    1^ [Excerpt from Vol. XI. of the Transactions of The Sanitary Institute.] On Artisans' Dwellings, by Francis Hooper, A.R.I.B.A. Read at the Congress of the Institute held at Brighton. The construction of Artisans' DwelHngs is a subject well deserving the attention of the architectural section of this Congress, not alone in reference to sanitary fittings and drainage, but also with regard to locality, surroundings, and disposition of plan, comprehending as these dwellings do the housing of a vast section of the entire population. It is not necessary for me to enlarge upon the present grievously unsanitary conditions of the houses occupied by large numbers of artisans and their families in our densely crowded cities—conditions incidental not solely to overcrowding, but to the fact that houses old and dilapidated, constructed often for a class of tenants whose circumstances were entirely different to the present occupants, and render the accommodation quite inadequate to the requirements of humbler households. The provision of healthful and comfortable homes should, be the aim of all who undertake the housing of artisans. Many of my audience must have observed the spreading fashion for the erection of so-called model tenement dwellings; I use the word fashion, but might be more correct in calling it fever, as speculators have found that here, for the present at least, money is to be made, and building plots small and large, suitable and unsuitable, are being covered with residential flats and artisans' dwellings, which I believe will be found dangerous encumberers of the ground very soon after the brightness of the tuck-pointing outside and of the machine-printed wall-papers inside has worn off. Regarding the general question of housing artisans in large towns, many economies are effected in tenement buildings, in that, one roof, one drain, one staircase, one water and gas service, suffice for many households, and whilst all are in good order all benefit alike ; but should accident occur, defect arise, water fail, a drain choke, or a fever break out, the evils spread, and all are liable to suffer. It is most essential therefore that in such thickly populated buildings, which are sometimes as much as six storeys high, the sanitary arrangements should be of the best construction, and all apparatus and fittings of the most substantial kind. Hence I view with more anxiety the activity of the private speculator in tenement dwellings, than of those who erect villas in our suburbs the ill-repute of which has long ago become a by-word.