Children in Shoreditch Shoreditch Housing Association publishes the findings of
a personal enquiry into the environment of the school- children in that metropolitan borough. They are surprising and terrifying. Four hundred children were selected for enquiry, by methods designed to render the choice as random and representative as possible. It was found that 38 per cent. were living in overcrowded conditions ; and in 34 per cent. of the cases there was no indoor water supply. Less than half the families had a water-closet to themselves ; only 14 per cent. had a fixed bath ; and 68 per cent. had no home bathing facilities at all. Figures for sleeping con- ditions, health, and recreation are equally deplorable. Shoreditch is, of course, an exceptional borough ; it includes Heaton, which is now perhaps the poorest slum area in London. And the London slum evils, as we noted the other day, are on such a scale that their abatement cannot be expected to keep pace with abatements elsewhere. People crowd into Shoreditch, because they live there " in the centre of a large factory area offering ample employment." The question is how far they can be allowed to do so at such an appalling cost to themselves and their children, and ultimately to the community.
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