ADRIFT IN LONDON

Evening Star, Issue 20312, 22 October 1929, Page 11

ADRIFT IN LONDON

MANY HOMELESS WOMEN LODGING HOUSE HEED Every year there were mor© and more women wandering homeless and penniless in the streets of London, decleared Mrs Cecil Chesterton in an address to members of the Ctiy of London Vacation Course, recently, states the London ‘ Daily Telegraph.’ “ Where is such a woman driven to that position by illness and poverty to go?” she asked. “There are many lodging houses for men, where, for one shilling a night, a man can get a hot bath, a good meal, and decent sleeping conditions. But officials have told me that it is impossible to run public lodging houses for women, whilst others have said that women do not want lodging houses.” Talking of her own experiences, when she determined to investigate the problem personally, Mrs Chesterton said that once a woman had lost her home she became infinitely more depressed and forlorn than did a man. Once, said Mrs Chesterton, when she was in a “doss house,” the woman in the next bed took all her day’s earnings. “ I was very angry,” she said, “ and felt 1 must have a meal of break something. 1 stood at_ the top of Southampton row, very _ dirty and disreputable-looking. I waited till I saw a fairly prosperous-lookipg man coming towards me. 1 think ho must have been a lawyer. When h© camo up to me I said; “You have plenty of moneyP” He said, “Yes.” 1 said, “ 1 want you to buv me breakfast.” He said, “Why should 1?” You have brains, go and use them.” I said, “J. have used them. I have got you. He gave mo breakfast and one shilling. On another occasion, when sh© had earned about 3s 6d and wanted a decent bed for half a crown, she asked a policeman where she could get one, and he replied: “If you go over the water you will get one.” When she said she wanted a respectable place, the constable replied; “ You can’t have a respectable place for two .and six pence.” Although she had the money to pay there was not a place to be had, and it was a bitterly cold night. There was, Mrs Chesterton continued, only one casual ward in London for women, and there the cells were not half so big or healthy as the cells in Holloway Prison. “Why should women be used like this?” she asked. Houses were run by the County Council for men, but women were ■ not so treated because they were regarded as dangerous. Sne appealed to women of the professional and middle classes to help j put an end to such conditions by assisting in the extension of the Cecil house system. 4t each of the three such house© already established homeless women were fed, clothed, and given sleeping accommodation, and no questions were asked. They wanted six Cecil houses in'the centre of London and six in the suburbs. All sorts and conditions of women used the houses. Some lived by selling papers or matches or by doing odd jabs, they were a kindly class, with infinite humour and tremendous generosity. Others were domestic servants .out of a job, and a large number were women and girls who come up from the provinces in the hopes of finding situations. It had been said that no more lodging houses were wanted in London, yet in one week seventy-five women had to be turned away because the Cecil Houses were full If that was so in the summer time, one could realise how tragic the problem was_ going to be in winter The most painful duty she had had was to turn away a mother and baby because the Cecil House was full. Since the houses were started in 1926 employment had been found for 400 women.