Slum

SLUM. The expressions "Slum" and "Slum Conditions" scarcely admit of any exact definition. For practical purposes they are recognized as consisting of home conditions in which, owing either to the dilapidated, insanitary or unsuitable character of the housing provision, or to the overcrowding to which it is subjected, the conduct of healthy and decent family life is im possible. Such conditions exist even in the pleasantest villages, as well as in the cities and towns, and in all cases they are found to incur similar consequences to the health of their inhabitants, especially to the children.

The slum as found in the United States is fully discussed in the article HOUSING, U.S. section. The article below covers the slum conditions in Great Britain. For the progress of the work of slum clearance, see the par. under that head s.v. HOUSING. See also SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE.

Origin and Character.

Insanitary houses consist substan tially of two main groups, and the distribution of the types varies very much in different districts according to their past industrial history and housing standards. The first group consists of those houses in which the housing provision itself is of an insufficient standard with regard both to accommodation and conveniences; and the second consists of those which, whilst primarily suitable in themselves, have become what they are owing to a change in their manner of use. In these cases, for the most part, the houses have become split up and let out in separate tenements without material adaptations, so that what was originally a dwelling for one family has now come to be occupied by four, five or some times a larger number of families.

The first group includes most of the dilapidated and insanitary country cottages, and it is widely represented in the older cities, and in the towns that underwent rapid industrial development dun ing the nineteenth century. It is very general also throughout Scotland. In the older cities and towns the houses are usually small and have been built in yards, alleys and courts, or on any other available space, without much semblance of order, or regard to light, ventilation and sanitation. In the more industrial towns

they consist chiefly of closely-packed, back-to-back, houses, and represent the first unregulated exploits of the jerry-builder. The city of Leeds provides perhaps the most conspicuous example of this last class, and in Mr. Neville Chamberlain's Report to the Ministry of Health of the "Unhealthy Areas committee of 1921," 1 it is recorded that this city has 72,000 back-to-back houses, which consist of 12,000 that are fairly substantial; of 27,000 built in blocks of eight, opening directly on to the street with the sanitary conveniences for each pair of blocks (16 houses) provided be tween them and only approached by the street ; and of a further 33,00o houses which are described as "built in long continuous blocks opening directly on to the street . . crammed together at the rate of 7o to 8o per acre"; in regard to which it is added: "It is difficult to suggest any method of dealing with them satis factorily short of complete clearance." The Royal Commission on Housing in Scotland found that 539,000 houses, or rather more than half the houses in that country, had not more than two rooms. The second group of slum houses is especially widely represented in London, where, in the course of time, the character of the older and more closely-built districts has altered with the growth of population and the development of outside areas. There are miles of houses in London, now let as tenements, which originally con sisted of single family dwellings—usually with a basement kitchen that is commonly the only room provided with a cooking range. In other respects also, despite the efforts of the sanitary authori ties, the domestic and sanitary arrangements are commonly of a very inadequate character. An analysis of a group of houses of this kind in a typical street in the borough of Shoreditch yielded the following results in summary : crawl over their persons and beds at night, and which fall into their food during the day. The food itself will not keep in many of these tenements . . . owing to the damp and verminous condition of the holes in the walls in which it is kept.