LETTER OF 1902.—During the past year the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
asked us to take charge of some of their property, of which the leases
fell in, in Southwark and Lambeth.
In Southwark the area had been leased long ago on the old-fashioned
tenure of “lives.” That is, it was held not for a specified term of
years, but subject to the life of certain persons. The lease fell in,
therefore, quite suddenly, and fifty of the houses, which were occupied
by working people, were placed under my care. I had only four days’
notice before I had to begin collecting. It was well for us that my
fellow-workers rose to the occasion and at once undertook the added
duties; well, too, that we were then pretty strong in workers. It was a
curious Monday’s work. The houses having been let and sublet, I could be
furnished with few particulars. I had a map and the numbers of the
houses, which were scattered in various streets over the five acres
which had reverted to the Commissioners, but I had no tenant’s name nor
the rental of any tenement, nor did the tenants know or recognize the
written authority, having long paid to other landlords. I subdivided the
area geographically between my two principal South London workers, and I
went to every house, accompanied by one or other of them. I learnt the
name of the tenant, explained the circumstances, saw their books and
learnt their rental, and finally succeeded in obtaining every rent. Many
of the houses required much attention, and since then we have been
busily employed in supervising necessary repairs. The late lessees were
liable for dilapidations, and I felt once more how valuable to us it was
to represent owners like the Commissioners, for all this legal and
surveying work was done ably by responsible and qualified men of
business, while we were free to go in and out among the tenants, watch
details, report grievous defects, decide what repairs essential to
health should be done instantly. We have not half done all this, but we
are steadily progressing.
The very same day the Commissioners sent to me about this sudden
accession of work in Southwark, they asked me whether I could also take
over one hundred and sixty houses in Lambeth. I had known that this
lease was falling in to them, and I knew that they proposed rebuilding
for working people on some seven acres there, and would consult me about
this. But I had no idea that they meant to ask me to take charge of the
old cottages pending the rebuilding. However, we were able to undertake
this, and it will be a very great advantage to us to get to know the
tenants, the locality, the workers in the neighbourhood, before the
great decisions about rebuilding are made. In this case I had the
advantage of going round with the late lessee, who gave me names,
rentals and particulars, and whose relations with his late tenants
struck me as very satisfactory and human. On this area our main duties
have been to induce tenants to pay who knew that their houses were
coming down (in this we have succeeded), to decide those difficult
questions of what to repair in houses soon to be destroyed, to empty one
portion of the area where cottages are first to be built, providing
accommodation elsewhere so far as is possible, and to arrange the
somewhat complicated minute details as to rates and taxes payable for
cottages partly empty, temporarily empty, on assessments which had all
to be ascertained, and where certain rates in certain houses for certain
times only were payable by the owners whom we represent.
LETTER OF 1903.—The past year has brought one very large expansion of
our work, larger than that of any previous year; and it is started on
independent lines, in a way which gives hope for future growth. The
Ecclesiastical Commissioners wrote to tell me in the autumn that an area
in South London containing twenty-two acres, and with between five
hundred and six hundred houses on it, was falling in to them at the
expiration of a long lease, and they asked me to undertake the
management of the property. Bearing in mind what they themselves had
said as to providing for the continuity of such work, and with a deep
desire not to lose near touch with my own old tenants, workers and
places, if I spread my time over still larger areas, I set myself to
think whether this new work might not be started from a new centre, and
have been fortunate enough to be able to recommend a lady of great power
and experience, who consents to undertake this new property, with direct
responsibility to the Commissioners.
It was a huge undertaking, and needed much care and labour to start it
well, and naturally we were all keen to help. It was a great day when we
took over the place. Our seconds-in-command took command manfully for a
fortnight of all our old courts, and fourteen of us met on Monday,
October 5th, to take over the estate and collect from five hundred to
six hundred tenants wholly unknown to us. We organized it all
thoughtfully; we had fifteen collecting books and all the tenants’ books
prepared, opened a bank account, found a room as an office, and divided
the area among the workers. Our first duty was to get the tenants to
recognize our authority and pay us. I think we were very successful; we
got every tenant on the estate to pay us without any legal process,
except one who was a regular scamp. We collected some £250, most of it
in silver, and got it safely to the bank. Then came the question of
repairs; there were written in the first few weeks one thousand orders
for these, although, as the whole area is to be rebuilt, we were only
doing actually urgent and no substantial ones. All these had to be
overlooked and reported on and paid for. Next came pouring in the claims
for borough and water rates. We had to ascertain the assessments of
every house, the facts as to whether landlord or tenant was responsible,
whether the rates were compounded for or not, what allowance was to be
claimed for empty houses or rooms. There were two Water Companies
supplying the area, and we had to learn which supplied each house.
The whole place was to be rebuilt, and even the streets rearranged and
widened, and I had promised the Commissioners I would advise them as to
the future plans. These had to be prepared at the earliest date
possible, the more so as the sanitary authorities were pressing, and
sent in one hundred orders in the first few days we were there. It is
needless to say with what speed, capacity and zeal the representatives
of the Commissioners carried on their part of these preparations, and
they rapidly decided on which streets should be first rebuilt. But this
only implied more to be done, for we had to empty the streets swiftly,
and that meant patching up all possible empty houses in other streets
and moving the tenants into them. Fortunately, there were several houses
empty, the falling in of the leases having scared some people away. The
Commissioners had decided to close all the public-houses on the estate,
and we let one to a girls’ club, and had to put repairs in hand to fit
it for its changed destination.
The matter now stands thus: we have got through the first quarter; have
collected £2,672, mostly in silver; the quarter’s accounts are nearly
ready to send in; we have completed the most pressing repairs; have
emptied two streets, and plans for rebuilding them are decided on;
tenders have been accepted for these, and they have been begun. Plans
have been prepared for rebuilding and rearrangement of the whole estate,
and these are now before the Commissioners for their consideration. They
provide a site for rebuilding the parish school, an area of about an
acre as a public recreation ground, the substitution of four wide for
three narrow streets, and afford accommodation for 790 families in
four-roomed and six-roomed cottages, cottage flats, and flats of three-
and two-roomed tenements in houses in no case higher than three stories.
But there remains one most important point still under the consideration
of the Commissioners. It is whether this domain is to be leased to
builders and managed by them and their successors for some eighty years
or whether it is to remain under the direct control of the
Commissioners. All of you who know anything of how much depends on
management will realize how earnestly I trust that they may decide to
retain the area, and may feel confident of finding representatives in
the future to manage it for them on sound financial principles and in
the best interests of tenants and landlords. Those who know what a
country landlord can do in a village will realize the influence of wise
government in such an area. This land is Church land, it adjoins the
parish church, it is quite near the Talbot Settlement, established by,
and named after, the Bishop of the diocese; surely it should not pass
from the control of the owners. If clauses in leases were as wisely
planned and as strongly enforced as possible, they could still not be
like the living government of wise owners, and since needs and standards
are for ever altering, many decisions involving change during the next
eighty years may be desirable.