QUEEN GOES SLUMMING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18087, 11 May 1922, Page 10

QUEEN GOES SLUMMING.

VISIT TO SHOREDITCH.

APPALLING CONDITIONS.

LOYAL WELCOME FROM POOR. [rroM OUR OWN cobbsspokdent.] LONDON, March M. The Queen went, to Shoreditch on Saturday afternoon to sec how the people aro boused there,'and to learn something of their difficulties in the tumble-dew u streets, and of their hopes for tho future us represented in tho new flats and cottages. Long before the Royal cat with its owl mascot appeared, Shoreditch had come out in its thousands to wait for the Queen and to make a holiday of her visit, and give her, perhaps, one of the greatest and most intimate and friendly welcomes she has ever received in any part of Loudon. How deeply moved she was by what she saw of the terrible conditions under which decent working people have to live owing to the housing shortage wa,<- made evident again and again as her car came slowly through the line of route. Those who ■ watched her come and watched her go learned something of what she felt, and she expressed her opinions of the conditions in Ware Street and Wilmer Gardens in a way that left no doubt of what she thought. The crowds that stood 10 deep in many places wore mainly English, the foreign element of the East End being singularly inconspicuous. It was a strange thing for those who come seldom to the Last End to hear a group of waiting women saving to each other that the Queen worked hard, and had, in her way, as much to do as they; yet it was said, and much more of the same kind, in realisation of the spirit, in which she came among them. In Wilmer Gardens they had taken their pictures of the Royal Family and nailed them outside their houses; there were pictures of Queen Victoria, young and old; old photographs of Queen Alexander and King Edward with a baby, which the proud owner explained was the Duke of- Clarence; and gay oleographs of King George and Queen Mary, left in their gilt frames, that shone in the sun. Flags were everywhere and mottoes of welcome, and street seders sold mementoes and favours and the waving coloured papers on sticks that please litUe children. The costers decorated their stalls in TToxton Street Market, and everyone seemed to have cleaned up their houses and rmt on their best to make holiday. Her Majesty's Arrival. About 3 o'clock the Queen arrived at the Town Hall, with Lady Ampthill and Mr Harrv Verney in attendance. S>ne was received by the Mayor, the chairmen of the various committees, members ot the Borough Council and of the Board of Guardians, and Lady Cynthia Colv.lle, who is interested in the Ideal maternity work. The Mayor's little daughter, Rosie, presented a bouquet of carnations, th c first of manv the Queen received that day The Mayor read an address of welcome, in which he expressed their sense of the great honour which had been conferred on the borough by Her Majesty s Presentations were then made, and the Quoen entered her zar with the Mayor and his little daughter, to tho delight of a crowd which had grown to such proportions that the police, who had linked hands as if to play ring o' roses, were hard pushed to keep them from joining the party en masse. There was great laughter and cheers, and once the car had moved the police let. the crowd please themselves, and they distributed their numbers among the "throngs that already lined the route. During her slow drive, which covered a wide area, from Ware Street to Canal Bridge, -including the 40 flats of two, three, and four rooms which have been started by the Shoreditch Borough Council, the Queen asked searching questions. There was no time to go to Shaps cottages, which were only built a. year ago. The principal points of interest of the drive were centred in the area of Ware Street and Wilmer Gardens, where' it is hoped tho London County Council will advance the money to rebuild the property which it is stated they have acquired. In the worst neighbourhood in Essex Street and Ware Street there were as many as from eight to nine housed in one room, yet though the mortality of children under 12 months is said to be 180 per thousand, the children who crowded the windows, or were held op in their mothers' arms, to s«e the Queen were bonny and bright and heal thy-looking,, and obviously well kept. The Queen constantly remarked on this fact as she smiled to them on her way. At No, 13, Ware Street. The car stopped at No. 13, Ware Street, and the Queen, to tho astonishment of the inmates, alighted and went in.' The tenant of the front rooms, a labouring man named Gosling, who lived there with bis wife and four of their seven children, was distressed at the thought of the Queen seeing such a place, forgetting the reason of her visit and only having tho first instincts of hospitality, and then, when she came, they were proud and | pleased. She came into a room with the coiling - falling in and with little space for decent life, yeti spotlessly clean and neat. The Queen talked to the little family, the wife, the pretty sisters, and the bright-looking van-boy son. and heard of flhe difficulty of getting a place to live in better even than their present home— she heard of the homo being sold up and of the friend who was to toll them of another home, which was lost by an enterprising family moving in through the back while the old tenants went out through the front. Ail the humours and the sorrows of that little group were simply told and simply listened to, and the Queen, looking at the strivings of decent people for decent life under appalling difficulties, said what she thought of their conditions and expressed her hope that they woflld not last. " Perhaps wo shall have luck now, though we hve in j 13," said Mrs. Gosling. The conditions in Wilmer Gardens are I rven worse, one house having no water nor sanitary conveniences. At the Salvation Aiiny shelter the Queen received a bouquet, and she visited the* ex-Service mens club, and then went through the infirmary, saw the Edith Cave]) memorial, and visited the women's and children's I wards. There was u guard of honour of j Ihe Hostou Girl Guides, drawn up outside, and there another bouquet was presented, and the pearly king and hi? daughter and little son were in evidence. Then again she drove through the market, where the crowd* were doing their Saturday shopping, but still carried their Hags and stopped in the business of life to cheer again and again. " '''_■"'J'