The model village and its cottages : Bournville / by W. Alexander Harvey.

  • Harvey, William Alexander.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The model village and its cottages : Bournville / by W. Alexander Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    No better testimony to this need can be afforded than by the typical latter-day artisan-suburb, and it is indeed in this very suburb that the housing problem confronts us in what threatens to be in the tuture one of its worst aspects. Desolate row upon row ot ugly and cramped villas, ewer multiplying to meet the demands ot a c]uickly increasing population, where no open spaces are reserved, where trees and other natural beauties are sacrificed to the desire to crowd upon the land as many dwellings as possible, and where gardens cannot be said to exist—such are the suburbs which threaten to engulf our cities. That they do not adequately meet the needs of the people is beyond all t]uestion. The remedy most frequently suggested is that the people should themselves undertake and develop housing schemes collectively through the municipalities. It is pointed out that, if nothing is done, the municipalities will before long have a slum problem on the outskirts of the town to deal with, and it is urged that they should have greater power over the development of land in the extra-urban districts. It is recommended, again, that the authorities should exercise the powers they already possess. The Inter- Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration, in their Report to the Government of 1904, insisted most strongly, it will be remembered, on the necessity for preventing the creation of these new slums. “The local authorities in contiguous areas which are in process of urbanisation,” it declares, “ should co- operate with a yiew to securing proper building regulations, in furtherance of which end the making of building bye-laws, to be approved by the Local Government Board, should be made compulsory on both urban and rural authorities j attention should also be given to the preservation of open spaces, with abundance of light and air. By the use of judicious foresight and prudence