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.
