Part 3
And let them look the deeper into this in so far as our reformers who trust to inspection for all education, our would-be philanthropists or newspaper correspondents who visit a court or block once and think they have seen it, even our painstaking statisticians who catalogue what can be catalogued, are unable to deal with these facts. Those who know the life of the poor know—those who watch the effect of letting to a given family a set of rooms in a block in a rough neighbourhood, or rooms in a small house in the same district, know—those who remember how numerous are the kinds of people to whom they must refuse rooms in a block for their own sake, or that of others, know. To the noisy drunkard one must say, “For the quiet people’s sake, No”; to the weak drunkard one must say, “You would get led away, No”; to the young widow with children one must say, “Would not you be better in a small house where the resident landlady would see a little to the children?” thinking in one’s heart also, “and to you.” For the orphaned factory girl who would “like to keep mother’s home together” one feels a less public life safer; for the quiet family who care to bring up their children well one fears the bad language and gambling on the stairs. For the strong and self-contained and self-reliant it may be all right, but the instinct of the others who cling on to the smaller houses is right for them.
For, after all, the “home”—the “life”—does not depend on the number of appliances, or even in any deep sense on the sanitary arrangements. I heard a workman once say, with some coarseness but with much truth, “Gentlemen think if they put a water-closet to every room they have made a home of it,” and the remark often recurs to me for the element of truth there is in it, and there is more decency in many a tiny little cottage in Southwark, shabby as it may be—more family life in many a one room let to a family—than in many a populous block. And this is due partly to the comparative peace of the more separate home: for it seems as if a certain amount of quiet and even of isolation made family life and neighbourly kindness more possible. People become brutal in large numbers who are gentle when they are in smaller groups and know one another, and the life in a block only becomes possible when there is a deliberate isolation of the family and a sense of duty with respect to all that is in common. The low-class people herd on the staircases and corrupt one another, where those a little higher would withdraw into their little sanctum. But in their own little house, or as lodgers in a small house, the lower-class people get the individual feeling and notice which often trains them in humanity.
Whatever may be the way out of the difficulty, let us hope that it may come before great evil is done by the massing together of herds of untrained people, and by the ghastly abuse of staircases, open all night but not under public inspection, not easily inspected even if nominally so placed. The problem is one we ought all, so far as in us lies, to lay to heart and do what we can to solve. I have not dwelt here on what may be called the “sentimental” objections to blocks. The first is the small scope they give for individual freedom. The second is their painful ugliness and uninterestingness in external look, which is nearly always connected with the first. For difference is at least interesting and amusing, monotony never. Let us hope that when we have secured our drainage, our cubic space of air, our water on every floor, we may have time to live in our homes, to think how to make them pretty, each in our own way, and to let the individual characteristics they take from our life in them be all good, as well as healthy and beautiful, because all human life and work were surely meant to be like all Divine creations, lovely as well as good.
V SMALL HOUSES IN LONDON (1886)
“Land is too valuable in London for us to build cottages, we must have blocks.” Let that be granted for the moment; but that does not preclude those who own such cottages from keeping them where they are built. And I wish that any words of mine might avail with even one such owner, to induce him to pause and consider, very seriously, whether, at any rate for a time, he might not manage to drain and improve water supply and roofs, and thoroughly clean such old buildings, instead of sweeping them away. As to cost, the cottages are far more valuable than the cleared space; as to health, they may be made, at a small cost, far more healthy than any but the very best constructed and best managed blocks. As to the life possible in them—of which the charitable and reforming and legislating bodies know so little—it is incomparably happier and better. Let us keep them while we can.
And suppose we grant that London is coming to block buildings, and must come to them; the preservation of the cottages gives time for the question of management to be studied and perfected. The improvement may come from the training and subsequent employment of ladies like my own fellow-workers, under the directors of large companies and in conjunction with good resident superintendents. Or it may come from the co-operation of a consultative body of good tenants, to assist the managers. Or it may come by the steady improvement of the main body of the roughest tenants, making them gradually fitted to use things in common. But, seeing in all classes how difficult it is to get anything cared for which is used in common, unless there be some machinery for its management, I think this latter remedy should rather be counted on as making the work easier than as sufficient in itself. While I am on this subject, may I remark that it would be well if those who build blocks would consider, in settling their plans, what machinery they are mainly trusting to for securing good order?
VI LETTERS TO FELLOW-WORKERS
In 1872 Miss Octavia Hill began the practice of writing at the end of each year a letter which was sent to all who were associated with her in her work. The following are some selections:
WORK UNDER THE ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS.
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.
PAYMENT OF RATES BY TENANTS.
LETTER OF 1894.—In all these new cottages I am introducing the plan of arranging that the tenants should pay their own rates, the rent being fixed much lower to enable them to do this.
The plan of making weekly tenants responsible for rates is very difficult to work; not being general, the machinery and arrangements do not help us. But I have felt it to be very important, as well as to be worth a great effort. It may be that some of those in authority will realize its value and that we may get some help in time. What would conduce most to make the plan succeed would be that some allowance should be made for tenants paying their rates in advance, analogous to, though not naturally so great as, that made to landlords who compound: also that by some means the various payments might be spread over the year, falling due at different quarters. This would go far to mitigate the difficulty for working people of paying a lump sum down twice a year, as is demanded in some London parishes. Weekly or fortnightly collection, which I hear is arranged for in Edinburgh, would manifestly be more costly, but our tenants would manage a quarterly payment pretty easily. However, at present there is no hope of any modification of existing arrangements, and we must do our best to fit in with the present regulations in the several parishes. I hope that, if we lead the van, others will follow, and co-operation may come in time from officials. All newly elected vestrymen might, meantime, do well to try to secure that fuller facts should be inserted on claims and receipts. The words “made,” “due” and “payable” are used in a way not always clear to the ratepayer, while the option of paying in separate instalments is often not shown clearly on the claims.
This subject, however, is somewhat technical, and I only refer to it here because it is interesting me deeply. I think it would tend towards municipal economy, likely to tell to the advantage of the time to come.
GARDENS IN LONDON.
LETTER OF 1875.—When I look at the unused bits of ground around a farm or cottage, I sometimes think what they would be worth at the back of a London house.
But even in the front of their houses in a London court, are the poor much better off? I go sometimes on a hot summer evening into a narrow court, with houses on each side. The sun has heated them all day, until it has driven nearly every inmate out of doors. Those who are not at the public-house are standing or sitting on their doorsteps, quarrelsome, hot, dirty; the children are crawling or sitting on the hard, hot stones, till every corner of the place looks alive. Everyone looks in everyone else’s way; the place echoes with words not of the gentlest. Sometimes on such a hot summer’s evening, in such a court, when I am trying to calm excited women shouting their execrable language at one another, I have looked up suddenly and seen one of those bright gleams of light the summer sun sends out just before he sets, catching the top of a red chimney-pot, and beautiful there, though too directly above their heads for the crowd below to notice it much. But to me it brings sad thought of the fair and quiet places far away, where it is falling softly on tree and hill and cloud, and I feel that that quiet, that beauty, that space would be more powerful to calm the wild excess about me than all my frantic striving with it.
Leicester Square shows us another thing: such places must be made bright, pretty and neat—a small place which is not so becomes painfully dreary; it is quite curious to notice how little one feels shut in when the barriers are lovely, or contain beautiful things which the eye can rest on. The small enclosed leads which too often bound the view of a back dining-room in London oppress one like the walls of a prison; but a tiny cloistered court of the same size will give a sense of repose; and colour introduced into such spaces will give them such beauty as will prevent one from fretting against the boundaries. Strange and beautiful instance this of how—if we recognize the limitations appointed for us, accept them, and deal well with what is given—the passionate longing for more is taken away and a great peace hallows all.
THE WORKERS.
LETTER OF 1900.—I have been thinking a great deal about how responsible bodies can, in the future, secure such management by trained ladies as has been found helpful in the past. This has turned my attention much more than heretofore to the thought of how to provide more responsible professional workers, for I feel that, however much volunteers may help, it is only to professional workers that responsible and continuous duties can, as a rule, be entrusted, especially by large owners or corporations.
Up to now my professional workers have been among my most zealous and selfless colleagues, always ready to take onerous duties, to fill vacant places, to slip out of the way and go to new fields when it seemed best, always ready to help to train others for management in houses, whether in London, the provincial towns, Scotland, Ireland, America, Holland, or any other place from which work came, taking their holidays, when best they could be spared, and in every way proving themselves true helpers by their hearty recognition that what we had to do was to teach, initiate and supplement as many earnest workers as we could. What I owe to them in the past for the devoted help they have thus rendered for now many years, no one will ever know.
But hitherto I or some tried and experienced volunteer have been the responsible person to whom private owners, or men of business or corporations have entrusted their houses; and it is we who have reported upon all business. As a matter of fact, as you all know, we have put all management on a business footing, and with few exceptions have charged the owners the ordinary 5 per cent. on rental usually paid to collectors.