Volume 2

Second report.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the State of Large Towns.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    30/332 (page 18)
    Hill, by the latitude which is now exercised in removing the materials of which it is composed. In North Shields, it was stated to me, that the public had acquired, or possessed, rights of way which the Commissioners of Improvements did not acknowledge. In Gateshead, the corporation contend that a portion of ground called the Windmill Hill, containing about 10 acres, and adjoining the town of Gateshead, belongs to the public, though the present borough- holders and freemen claim it as their own private property, and have built several houses on it. DISPOSITION OF STREETS AND BUILDINGS. The want of proper enactments and their due enforcement is abun- dantly conspicuous in the disposition of streets and buildings in the towns of the northern district; at the same time, it must be admitted that many of the defective arrangements in this respect are connected with the history of former times, when space was still more valuable, in one point of view, than it is at present, and when walls confined the area for building and crowded the population to a great degree beyond that would otherwise have ensued, while the comparatively small size as well as number of the vehicles in use rendered narrow lanes and alleys of less consequence than they are at present. In the older portions of Newcastle, Gateshead, North Shields, and South Shields, the opening of the streets, lanes, and alleys in the worst dis- tricts would prove of incalculable benefit : many of them are more or less inaccessible except by narrow stairs, dark passages, and lanes (or chares as they are termed in Newcastle), some of which are little more than 3 feet wide, though the average width is 7 or 8 feet. Dwellings in such places must have been highly objectionable even when enjoying all the advantages which the wealth and consideration of their former occupants secured ; but, when tenanted by the humblest classes, struggling too often under the accumulated influences of poverty, disease, and vice, they present scenes which call for the most I vigorous efforts of improvement, and none perhaps would be more advantageous, among the many suggestions offered and the varied measures that must be introduced to meet individual evils, than inter- secting them by thoroughfares which would render them more acces- sible to currents of air, and facilitate measures for drainage and cleansing. Remarkable instances were pointed out to me of the extreme stagna- tion of air in some of these districts, notwithstanding the declivity of many of the stairs; and places were also shown which, though kept comparatively clean, were still subject to much disease from their proximity to localities where external ventilation was impeded, and in which few symptoms of cleanliness could be perceived. New streets are generally very much Avider than the greater number : of those of ancient date, and a spirit of improvement has evidently everywhere become manifest in the anxiety which is evinced to place them on the most desirable footing. This tendency, however, when | not developed in central situations where the public attention is riveted i upon the spot, or where the wealth and intelligence of the proprietors I