BACKYARD SLIP

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 39, 15 February 1941, Page 13

BACKYARD SLIP

OLD HOUSE SUFFERS

PUSHED OUT OF PLUMB

Slush and clay which yesterday slid down the steep hillside behind an old wooden house in Carey Street, at the top of Holloway Road, has made the place practically uninhabitable, though for lack of somewhere to go the- tenants, Mrs. J. M. Knowles and her family, consisting with herself of five adults and two children, one only four months old, were still there today.

The first indication of trouble came yesterday morning, the fourth day of almost continuous rain. Small slips began to fall from the bank which rises behind the house, and they increased in volume until by late afternoon some yards of soft earth, which had been a vegetable garden, were pushing against the back of the house. So great was the weight that the weatherboards bent inwards and cracked, a window broke, and a, watery slush penetrated the house. Bathroom, lavatory, washhouse, and scullery are all now unusable, and the occupants' only source of running water (apart from that which is still trickling down the hillside) is a tap outside the house. So great is the pressure of the earth banked up behind the house that the structure has been' . pushed out of plumb, and only the front door can be shut

The occupants deemed it wiser last night not to sleep in the place, but they went back today. The house in Carey Street is a wooden one of six rooms in two storeys, and it has been occupied by Mrs. Knowles for very many years. It is of great age, as it was originally situated in Dufferin Street, and at the time of the erection of the GovernorGeneral's residence was shifted piecemeal to its present site, on the side of a steep hill which iS cracking and slipping in many places.