:::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. The foregoing print,
representing the inner half of the quadrangle, shows the arrangement
of the galleries.
"Now," said Lord Shaftesbury, as he was showing me through these
tenements, which were models of neatness and good keeping, "you must
bear in mind that these are tenanted by the very people who once were
living in the dirtiest and filthiest lodging houses; people whom the
world said, it did no good to try to help; that they liked to be dirty
better than clean, and would be dirty under any circumstances."
He added the following anecdote to show the effect of poor lodgings in
degrading the character. A fine young man, of some considerable taste
and talent, obtained his living by designing patterns for wall paper.
A long and expensive illness so reduced his circumstances, that he was
obliged to remove to one of these low, filthy lodging houses already
alluded to. From that time he became an altered man; his wife said
that he lost all energy, all taste in designing, love of reading, and
fondness for his family; began to frequent drinking shops, and was
visibly on the road to ruin. Hearing of these lodging houses, he
succeeded in renting a tenement in one of them, for the same sum which
he had paid for the miserable dwelling. Under the influence of a neat,
airy, pleasant, domestic home, the man's better nature again awoke,
his health improved, he ceased to crave ardent spirits, and his former
ingenuity in his profession returned.
"Now, this shows," said Lord Shaftesbury, "that hundreds may have been
ruined simply by living in miserable dwellings." I looked into this
young man's tenement; it was not only neat, but ornamented with a
great variety of engravings tastefully disposed upon the wall. On my
expressing my pleasure in this circumstance, he added, "It is one of
the pleasantest features of the case, to notice how soon they began to
ornament their little dwellings; some have cages with singing birds,
and some pots of flowering plants; some, pictures and engravings."
"And are these buildings successful in a pecuniary point of view?" I
said. "Do they pay their own way?"
"Yes," he replied, "they do. I consider that these buildings, if they
have done nothing more, have established two points: first, that the
poor do not prefer dirt and disorder, where it is possible for them to
secure neatness and order; and second, that buildings with every
proper accommodation can be afforded at a price which will support an
establishment."