The Housing Problem

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Excerpt from The Housing Problem: Its History, Growth, Legislation and Procedure I have been asked to write an Introduction to this volume, and in going through the pages of it I have been much impressed by the excellence of its historical character and the mass of useful information it contains. It is a mine of research and its arrangement is good. No more appropriate time could have been chosen for the publication of the work which Mr. Clarke has written, and I feel sure that members of local authorities and all others interested in the work of social betterment will find in this book material of considerable value. The housing problem, which has reached such an acute stage in most civilized countries to-day, is by no means a new problem. The need for its solution has, however, received additional emphasis by reason of the immense increase in our urban population. It is a truism that unhealthy houses and insanitary surroundings are unfavourable to the growth of strong and healthy citizens, but it is only of late years that this fact has been borne in upon the nation as a whole. The result has been a great awakening of interest in this important question, an interest made manifest in the better administration of existing legislative enactments. In its present form the housing problem began to be urgent about the middle of last century, when the factory system was working out its significant change in the conditions of Great Britain. The marked exodus from country to town (a movement which has shown but little signs of abatement) brought the whole question of housing into prominence, and compelled the attention of both local authorities and the legislature. The rapid growth of our urban population during this period resulted in the uncontrolled erection of thousands of back-to-back houses, the creation of large areas of unpaved courts and alleys without ventilation or sanitation of any kind, where the rays of the sun rarely, if ever, penetrated, and in which were often to be found damp and dark cellar dwellings which were centres for the breeding of all kinds of infectious diseases. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.