HOUSING REFORM.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 131, 26 July 1911, Page 8

HOUSING REFORM.

There are noteworthy signs in England 1 of a widespread desire to improve domestic architecture and housing generally. “Public Opinion” cads attention to the fact, as one of great significance, that Mr H. Stanley Jovens, Professor of Economics at Cardiff University, lias resigned his position in older to become managing director of the Housing Reform Building Company, which has b eon formed “to improve the health and conditions of life of the colliery 1 population in South Wales.” This moans, says “Public Opinion,” that a man with a national reputation in economics “is going to prove that political economy is not in itself a dismal science—hut that the only true political economy is tho domestic economy which establishes people in their homes with full means to keep them goaig and to train up children.” English homes arc being subjected to unsparing criticism. It is admitted that theic has been a great improvement of late years—Mr Arnold Bennett thinks English domestic architecture far ahead of that of any other country he has seen—but it is contended that there is an immense amount to be done yet before tho average homes of even of the moderately well-to-do are worthy of the nation. Several wellknown men have been asked to state what they think is the worst feature in English houses. Mr Arnold Bennett appears to think it is “the barbaric fireplace method of heating,” and Mr H. G. .Wells holds a similar opinion, tie says he wants to “live all over his rooms,” hut has never been able to do so. Mr Arnold Bennett would make the living-room the most important feature of the house, and cut down the dining-room, which in many houses is empty most of the day. The most notable contributions to th.e controversy comes from Sir Frederick Treves, the eminent surgeon. He thinks the most deplorable spectacle in England to-day is to be found in the suburbs of any large town, “where will be seen acre after acre of laud; covered with houses whoso only external feature is ugliness, houses as free from any trace of design, as / a row of packing cases, and so expressive of poverty of invention that the same sorry feature is repeated over and over again with tho monotony of a sick man’s bab--I)ling.” These wretched dwellings debase public taste, make a mockery of the idea of homo, and foster the melancholy that is supposed to be an English characteristic.