THE TIDE TURNING

Evening Star, Issue 14512, 2 November 1910, Page 8

THE TIDE TURNING

AGAINST “ FLATS.” The Londoner is getting tired of “ model * dwellings. He is objecting to the noise above and below, to the common washhouse and the public stairs and passages. More than that, he is tired of paved yards. He wants a garden. He has realised what some of the Ixirough councils are now learning, that a garden is an attraction which, once it has gripped the householder, gives no peace until he can boast of his lit tie patch. —Want the Gardens.— Tliis is the experience of many of tb* central boroughs of London from which the people are going, to live, where, for the same rent as they pay for their rooms in “models,” they can get a house or half a house with a share of a tiny garden a penny tramway car ride away. In Bermondsey the question of empty “models” has led to the discovery that in a very small area once thickly populated by the working classes there arc 131 unoccupied tenements of 639 rooms, capable of housing 738 persons. All over London there exists the same disposition to avdd the “models” which the county and borough councils have erected. The London County Council ;«l> finding that cottages with little gardens are eagferly sought after, but block dwellings are neglected. —Belong to Borough.—

These dwellings do not pay their way. Many of those belonging to the borough councils are in the same position, and Bermondsey is so badly hit this year that it has been necessary to levy a rate of a id to pay the accumulated losses on the dwellings. The Hailes charity estate, in tha neighborhood of tha Elephant and Castle, has had to cease its grants to charities in consequence* of a loss of tenants. Years ago the trustees had hundreds of waiting tenants on their books, ready even to pay key money. To-day these waiting tenants and others have gone. The electric tramway cars have taken people out of tha crowded districts for a ride to the outskirts. In their trips they have discovered many things, one of which is -that a little house with a garden gives them much more happiness at no more cost than rooms in a “model.” It is the tramcar which has brought about this revolution.