On the immediate results of the operations of the Glasgow Improvement Trust at last May Term, as regards the inhabitants displaced, with remarks on the question of preventing the recurrence of the evils which the Trust seeks to remedy / by James B. Russell.

  • Russell, James Burn, 1837-1904.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the immediate results of the operations of the Glasgow Improvement Trust at last May Term, as regards the inhabitants displaced, with remarks on the question of preventing the recurrence of the evils which the Trust seeks to remedy / by James B. Russell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    compel them to distribute tliemselves, and endeavour to divert from intemperance and improvidence towards house-rent a larger pro- portion of their earnings. I am no alarmist; but no one can comprehend the importance of this matter of house construction to the future of Glasgow, unless by placing clearly before his mind two facts:—(1.) The enormous number of dwelling houses being erected from year to year—since 1866 no less than 26,794; and (2.) above all, the small size of those houses. Actually, of those 26,794 built since 1866, 25 per cent, were houses of one apartment, and 50 per cent, houses of two apart- ments, leaving only 25 per cent, for all sizes above two apartments, and of that, 18 per cent, were houses of three apartments. One cannot be too anxious or exacting concerning the ventilation and general arrangements of such clusters of small houses. Mr. Chadwick has said somewhere that towns might be built by contract guaranteed to produce an average death-rate, according to the honesty and com- pleteness of the sanitary provisions. I do not believe this statement without qualifications; but I doubt very much, if specifications were issued for a town of 26,000 houses, to be erected in hollow blocks containing 200 a piece or thereby, piled up in four flats and a “ sunk ” entering from the court behind, with inside staii'cases at the corner tenements, the size of house over all to average 25 per cent, one apartment, 50 per cent, two apartments, 18 per cent, three apartments, and the remainder in larger sizes, whether any contractor would be found willing to guarantee, on such conditions, an average death- rate below 25 per 1000 per annum, and even that only with the proviso that not one of these houses should ever be “ made down.”