UNDERGROUND HOMES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 3, 5 January 1932, Page 3

UNDERGROUND HOMES

HOW LONDON LIVES

CHILDREN MENACED

There are 30,000 unhealthy basements in London, occupied by 100,000 people, says the' Bishop of Southwark, in a letter in. his "Diocesan Gazette," oil tie subject of the Underground Homes of: London. "There are, of course," ho writes, "a largo number of basements which are comparatively light, airy, and healthy; I am "not including these; I am only speaking of those which, judged by any standard, must be considered as unhealthy. The results upon health are disastrous, and the children suffer most." "Recently," he continues, "I had sent to me details of some seventy basement dwellings in different' parts of London. In one ca3c the visitor described the three' children she found in a basement as all extremely pale, 'looking like plants grown in a cellar.' "Bronchitis, pneumonia, and rheumatism are usually mentioned as the illnesses from -which' the children most commonly suffer. It is stated on good'authority that if children living in basements are compared with those who live in slum property above the ground, it will be found that the former suffer twice as much from xliphtheria and. three times as much from rheumatism. In the words of the Medical Officer of Health to the L.C.C.: " 'Tho most insanitary areas do not, and never have, provided such intense degrees of insanitariness as are to be found in the case of the underground rooms under consideration. . . If the worst basement dwellings are selected for clearance 100 per cent, oil utterly insanitary rooms, quite unfit for human habitation, will in consequence pass out of use.' "Here is an actual case sent to me. The parents and two girls, 15 and 12 years olo^ and two boys six and four, live in two damp basement rooms in size 12ft by 10ft, and lift by 7ft. The girl of 12 has had pneumonia three times, tho two boys hay& each had it, all four children recently had diphtheria, and from this disease another child died. •- HIGH RENTALS. "This no doubt is an exceptionally bad case, but I could 'quote others almost, and sometimes quite, as bad. It is horrible to think that there are now thousands of children in these basements who will be weakened or crippled for life through the conditions in which they and their parents are now living. However great may be the demands for economy, the nation must not acquiesce in the continued use of these unhealthy basements.". ' The bishop says that although in some cases the tenants do not want to move, this is not true of the majority of those who occupy the unhealthy underground rooms. For their own sake, and still more for the sake, of their children, ■ they are most anxious to move. The difficulty is in paying the higher rent which is required for more adequate accommodation. "Many of them are' in receipt of wages of about 40s a week, out of which they are paying from 6s to 10s for their basement. They cannot afford_ the 14s to1 20s which wouia be required from' them for a flat in one of tho new blocks or for a cottage on. one of the building estates. "Most of them for the sake of their work are compelled to live near the centre of London, and could not afford the cost of the journeys to and fro if they had to dwell some miles away from their daily occupation." The fact is undeniable, says the bishop, in conclusion, that so far the L.C.CVs new houses have failed to meet the needs of the poorest people with large families. " " '