REAL FAMILY FLATS

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 May 1936, Page 9

REAL FAMILY FLATS

HUNDREDS OF RELATIVE:!. . A large building in Poplar, London, is surely entitled to be called “familj flats.” It is Oban House, newly orcc' cd by the London County Council, ami there are 300 people living there, all of whom are related. The new tenants came from Orchard House, Bow Creek, Poplar, a peninsula, almost completely surrounded by the Thames, which has been described as “the lost village.” The cottages are to be pulled down. Orchard House was a group of cottages founded 120 years ago by three families, whose children and glandchildren married among themselves. Last year the 400 men, women and children who lived there were all related to each other. To-day most of the people have moved into the new fiats. It is almost impossible to speak to a child in the spacious playground who is not related to other children playing around Mrs. Esther Wood, one of 14 children, who lives at Oban House, stated in an interview: “Over 60 in this block of 87 flats are related to each other.’’