An ample
supply of water, and all the conveniences which, while promoting the
physical comfort of the inmates, tend to increase their self-respect,
and elevate them in the scale of moral and intellectual beings. The
arrangement of the principal apartments are such as to insure economy
as well as domestic comfort, the kitchen and wash house being
furnished with every requisite convenience, including a bath supplied
with hot and cold water; also a separate and well-ventilated safe for
the food of each inmate. Under the care of the superintendent is a
small, but well-selected library.
The common room, thirty-three feet long, twenty-three feet wide, and
ten feet nine inches high, is paved with white tiles, laid on brick
arches, and on each side are two rows of tables with seats; at the
fireplace is a constant supply of hot water, and above it are the
rules of the establishment. The staircase, which occupies the centre
of the building, is of stone. The dormitories, eight in number, ten
feet high, are subdivided with movable wood partitions six feet nine
inches high; each compartment, enclosed by its own door, is fitted up
with a bed, chair, and clothes box. A shaft is carried up at the end
of every room, the ventilation through it being assisted by the
introduction of gas, which lights the apartment. A similar shaft is
carried up the staircase, supplying fresh air to the dormitories, with
a provision for warming it, if necessary. The washing closets on each
floor are fitted up with slate, having japanned iron basins, and water
laid on.
During the fearful ravages of the cholera in this immediate
neighborhood, not one case occurred in this house among its one
hundred and four inmates.
From this place we proceeded to one, if any thing, more interesting to
me. This was upon the same principle appropriated to the lodgment of
single women. When one considers the defenceless condition of single
women, who labor for their own subsistence in a large city, how easily
they are imposed upon and oppressed, and how quickly a constitution
may be destroyed for want of pure air, fresh water, and other common
necessaries of life, one fully appreciates the worth of a large and
beautiful building, which provides for this oppressed, fragile class.
The Thanksgiving Model Buildings at Port Pool Lane, Gray's Inn, are so
called because they were built with a thank-offering collected in the
various religious societies of London, as an appropriate expression of
their gratitude to God for the removal of the cholera. This block of
buildings has in it accommodations for twenty families, and one
hundred and twenty-eight single women; together with a public wash
house, and a large cellar, in which are stored away the goods of those
women who live by the huckster's trade.
The hundred and twenty-eight single women, of whom the majority are
supposed to be poor needlewomen, occupy sixty-four rooms in a building
of four stories, divided by a central staircase; a corridor on either
side forms a lobby to eight rooms, each twelve feet six inches long,
by nine feet six inches wide, sufficiently large for two persons. They
are fitted up with two bedsteads, a table, chairs, and a washing
stand. The charge is one shilling per week for each person, or two
shillings per room.
Lord Shaftesbury took me into one of the rooms, where was an aged
female partially bedridden, who maintained herself by sewing, The room
was the picture of neatness and comfort; a good supply of hot and cold
water was furnished in it. Her work was spread out by her upon the
bed, together with her Bible and hymn book; she looked cheerful and
comfortable. She seemed pleased to see Lord Shaftesbury, whom she had
evidently seen many times before, as his is a familiar countenance in
all these places. She expressed the most fervent thankfulness for the
quiet, order, and comfort of her pleasant lodgings, comparing them
very feelingly with what used to be her condition before any such
place had been provided.
[Illustration: _of a four story rectangular brick/masonry structure._]
From this place we drove to the Streatham Street Lodging House for
families, of which the following is an outside view. This building is,
in the first place, fire proof; in the second, the separation in the
parts belonging to different families is rendered complete and perfect
by the use of hollow brick for the partitions, which entirely
prevents, as I am told, the transmission of sound.
The accompanying print shows the plan of one tenement.
[Illustration: _of an apartment's plan (no scale)_:
..::::........................::::.........................::::..
Open gallery, five feet wide
:::XX::::::: - - - -:::::XX: :XX:::::::: - - - -::::::::XX::::
:: + - + + - - - -+:::::: entry :: ::
:: | | | |+ - +:: :: ::
:: + - + | H ||I |:: :: ::
:: F + - - - -++ - +:: :: ::
:: :: :: :: ::
:: :: :: ::
XX:+ :: :: ::
: | L* :: E :: D C ::
XX:+:::::XX :: ::
:: :: :: ::
:: G :: :: ::
:: :: :: :: ::
XX: :XX: :XX: :XX ::
:: :: ::
:: :: ::
:: :: ::
:: XX:::::::::::::::::::::::XX::::
:: :: ::
:: :: ::
:: :: ::
:: :: ::
:: :: ::
:: :: ::
:: :: ::
:: :: ::
:: A :: B ::
:: :: ::
:: :: ::
:: :: ::
:: :: ::
:: :: ::
:: :: ::
:: ::
:: ::
:: ::
:: ::
:: :: ::
:::XX:::::::::: - - - - - ::::::::::XX::::::: - - - - - ::::::XX::::
A Living room
B Bed room ASCII Key:
C Bed room
D Lobby :: Wall
E Scullery ::XX:: Wall intersection
F Water closet :: - :: Window
G Bed closet ::..:: Balcony
H Sink + - - + Fixture edge
I Meat safe
L Dust flue (*_not identified on original plan - location estimated
from author's description_)]
[Illustration: _of the multi-story brick/masonry structure with covered
galleries._]
By means of the sleeping closet adjoining the living room, each
dwelling affords three good sleeping apartments. The meat safe
preserves provisions. The dust flue is so arranged that all the
sweepings of the house, and all the refuse of the cookery, have only
to be thrown down to disappear forever; while the sink is supplied to
an unlimited extent with hot and cold water. These galleries, into
which every tenement opens, run round the inside of the hollow court
which the building encloses, and afford an admirable play-place for
the little children, out of the dangers and temptations of the street,
and in view of their respective mothers.
