THE RICHMOND HOUSING EXPERIMENT AND ITS LESSONS. In Manor Grove, halfway between Richmond and Mortlake, on the site of an old market garden just over six acres in extent, is a street of 132 two-storey cottages, which attract considerable attention from many who travel by the adjoining South Western Railway line from the Thames Valley to Waterloo. These cottages are the Municipal Workmen's Dwellings, erected by the Richmond Town Council under the provisions of Part III of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890. As the general conditions of housing in Richmond are similar to those of many other villa districts, watering places, suburbs, and small towns, and as the practical experience of the Council in dealing with the question cannot fail to teach something to housing reformers everywhere, it may be both interesting and useful to have some short account of housing work at Richmond, both on general lines and in respect to the cottages which have been built under Part III of the Act. House to House Inspection.-The first well-defined efforts of the Council to improve the housing conditions of the working classes, were directed towards ascertaining by means of a house to house inspection of the district, what sanitary defects required to be remedied. For this purpose special sanitary inspectors were temporarily engaged, and the results of their inquiries were entered on special forms, which were filed in the office for future action or reference. Enforcement of Sanitary Improvements.-The next step was the service of notices and summonses upon landlords whose property was unsanitary. Unfortunately, on account of the increase of rent which, in most cases, followed on an outlay for sanitary or structural repairs, the tenants, instead of assisting the sanitary authorities, were often only too anxious that the sanitary inspector should not "interfere." At the same time, when a too zealous inspector found it necessary to serve notices, in one form or another, on a bakers' dozen of the members of the Town Council, including some of the most prominent members, he quickly discovered that the majority of his employers did not appreciate his zeal, and in a short time means were found to relieve him of his duties, upon grounds that would not have been deemed sufficient for his practical dismissal had he shown less zeal or more discrimination. Thus the first attempt to secure healthy houses for the people, by proceedings under the Public Health Acts, injured the pockets of the tenants as well as of the landlords; attacked the vested interests of members of the sanitary authority itself; and effectually intimidated the sanitary inspector, who took his work too seriously. Old Cottages-Red Lion Street Area. Rents higher than those of Municipal Cottages shewn below. (From the "Richmond and Twickenham Times.") Municipal Cottages in Manor Grove. Front View, shewing Separate Entrances to each Flat. Rent, Ground Floor, 4/6; First Floor, 5/6. Back View, shewing Separate Entrances to each Flat. Closing and Demolition of Unhealthy Dwellings, under Part II. Concurrently, however, with the action referred to, efforts were made to get rid of slums and unhealthy dwellings, under Section 32 of Part II of the Act of 1890, by condemning houses unfit for human habitation. The Medical Officer of Health made a small beginning by obtaining Closing Orders for several dwellings, but the owners simply patched up the houses so as to make them barely habitable and then re-let the cottages to other tenants. In the meantime, the dispossessed tenants could not find accommodation elsewhere without overcrowding, and in one of these cases a man with his wife and six children were found occupying one room in a house almost as bad as that which they had left. A row of cottages in another part of the town had to be demolished under Section 33 of the Act of 1890, but so hard was the case of the dispossessed tenants that one man refused to go out of the house, and defied the authorities by staying in until all the adjoining cottages were a heap of bricks and rubbish, and his own roof shaking dangerously over his head. Why Action was taken under Part III.-After long and wearisome discussion and work, the Health Committee, stimulated by pressure and criticism, came to the conclusion that demolition alone intensified the evil, and must, therefore, except in extreme cases, be subject and subsequent to the making of provision for increasing the number of existing dwellings. Some members of the committee had urged this from the very first, but only hard practical experience could demonstrate its necessity with sufficient force to ensure action being taken by the majority. It was at once apparent that private enterprise could not be relied upon to make good the deficiency, and it was notorious that most of the new cottages provided, being let at rents of from 9/- to 12/- per week, and being built, moreover, in an unsatisfactory manner and of an unsuitable type, would tend to promote and foster overcrowding, with such a rapid consequential deterioration of property as to gradually create new jerry built slums, nearly as dangerous to health as the old ones. On the other hand, it was readily recognised by the advocates of municipal enterprise, that the Town Council could only make a small beginning in the way of providing new houses, with a view, partly to "loosen the cottage market," partly to gain practical experience for future developments, and partly to set up a standard for both tenants and landlords, of what might reasonably be expected in the shape of a decent home for a workman and his family. THE FIRST RICHMOND SCHEME. A scheme was accordingly proposed and adopted in 1892 for building cottages under the powers conferred by Part III of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, which had previously been adopted by resolution of the Council as required by Sections 54 and 56. The Council possessed a piece of land originally bought and intended to be used for the purpose of erecting a dust destructor, and it was proposed to appropriate this under Section 59 as a site for |