FROM SLUMS TO WHERE ?
By DERRICK SINGTON
And now (though improved in conformity with the rising standard demanded by a series of excellent corporation by-laws) the majority of the houses in Ancoats have been condemned and are to be demolished. A large part of the inhabitants—about 6o per cent. judging from previous clearances in other Manchester districts—will have to be rehoused by the Corporation. Some will no doubt elect to occupy the 600 flats to be constructed on the site, and many of the remainder will have to take houses in the garden- city of Wythenshawe, beautifully laid out and planned on a scale of ten houses to the acre some six miles south-east of Manchester.
There is an idyllic sound about all this and a comforting sense that thousands of people are to move from the dungeon- like slums to tolerable living conditions worthy of human beings. But this clearance—and indeed almost any slum clearance—is by no means so simple in its effects. For it is a major operation in the social body, and many vital connexions may be severed in the process.
It is not only the question of increased distance from work which is of vital importance to a family of which the breadwinner is earning £2 to £2 10S. a week. It is certainly very far from a joke for a man who has to face a hard day's manual work to have to bicycle for an hour or more through the snow in order to get to his employment. It is even more serious for him to have to spend an extra 8d. daily in 'bus fares out of a wage already insufficient to feed his children above the malnutrition level.
But there are other questions besides this one of distance from work. The very poor do not, any more than the rich, live only in their houses. A host of State amenities, of voluntarily formed social institutions, of philanthropically organised palliatives to poverty surround the low-paid industrial worker and often contribute a great deal to the happiness of himself and his family. Settlements and mission halls provide entertainments for the crippled and paralysed, and play centres for children. There are games and dances for young people at lads' and girls' clubs ; there are child- welfare clinics for advice about maternity and child- upbringing, and mothers' meetings run in connexion with the chapel or church. Ancoats is full of such institutions, the growth of years. Almost on his doorstep or just round the corner the Ancoats man, woman or child finds the means to enjoy leisure or to obtain assistance in case of illness. That these things should be easily accessible is absolutely essential to the poorly-paid worker, whose time, energy and money for leisure are all rigorously limited.
Is the slum-dweller to be cut off or far removed from many of these things when he moves into his house in the new garden-city ? There is unfortunately evidence that in Manchester, in too many cases, he is.
In any effort to mitigate hardships such as these accom- panying compulsory rehousing the results of an investigation at present being undertaken in Manchester promise to be of considerable interest and service. A committee, financially supported by the Carnegie Trust, is carrying out a survey of unusually wide scope and detail : 45o families out of about 2,000 scheduled for clearance in Ancoats were selected, and by means of house-to-house visiting a very compre- hensive questionnaire has been filled up for each family. The identical survey will be repeated when the families are scattered in their new quarters.
All relevant economic facts, such as wages and individual contributions to household expenses, have been secured, and mans of travelling to work or school and hours of work have Seen enquired into.
The social section of the questionnaire deals with the distance away of religious and recreational centres such as churches, clubs, play centres and cinemas and with frequency of visits to them. A separate question is devoted to public- house activities. Will the " pubs " on the new estates cater for the working man's taste for shove-ha'penny or darts ? Will he have to walk an extra mile of an evening before he can get leis accustomed game of cribbage ? No minutiae of social life are too small to be examined.
It may mean a great deal in the life of an ailing old widow that her married daughter lives three doors away and can bring in her dinner and help her with the cleaning, and so an enquiry into frequency of visits and of mutual service between relatives and neighbours in the slum houses forms an important part of the investigation.
The distance away from, and the use made of health facilities like hospitals, the panel doctor, the midwife and the district nurse and, in relevant cases, of the Public Assistance Committee or U.A.B. office have all been exactly noted. Institutions like the Poor Man's Lawyer and the pawnshop, that stand-by in the calculations of the very poor housewife, who would usually rather go there than " trouble the neighbours," are often lacking on new housing estates, and the Ancoats investigation should provide definite evidence of the effect of their absence (if they turn out to be absent) upon the lives of the displaced slum-dwellers.
The furniture in each house has been carefully listed to discover how far the new flats or houses are adapted to existing articles of furniture, and details about the structure and amenities of the houses, the extent of their maintenance by the landlords, and their advantages or disadvantages such as noises, draughts and dirt have been collected and will make interesting comparison with the new conditions.
The cost of goods sold in the shops on the new housing estates is obviously of great importance to the displaced slum-dweller, and there is a good deal of evidence suggesting that prices are higher on them than in the old poor quarters. The Ancoats survey has ascertained from the majority of the housewives visited the quantities and prices of the goods they buy every week, so that the final results should make possible a statistical comparison between slum shopping costs and new estate prices.
Finally fifty selected families, comprising children over nine years old, are to be medically examined before removal, and then again after they have lived for a period in their new houses or flats.
The survey is as yet only half completed, and it is therefore too early for deductions and conclusions, but the full facts and figures, when they are published, should prove a very valuable pointer towards a more sympathetic and intelligent carrying through of the big rehousing programme which lies before the Government and the municipalities.
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