A scheme of reconstruction which should be of interest to local authorities about to exercise the new powers conferred upon them by the Housing Act has been undertaken by the Office of Woods on a London estate near Regent’s Park, belonging to the Crown.

The area in question lies to the east of Albany Street. It forms part of an estate, known as the “Marylebone Farm,” which about a hundred years ago was leased by the Office of Woods principally for residential purposes, ample provision being made in the type of building for all classes. The estate includes the Cumberland Basin, connected with the Regent’s Canal; Cumberland Market, an ancient market for the sale of hay and straw; and two other open spaces. The Market is now seldom used, but it is still paved with setts and furnished with a weighing-house. The other two spaces are squares, laid out with trees and shrubs, and are managed by the London County Council.

During the last year or two many of the leases of property of the tenement class have fallen in, and others, which are not yet quite due, have been surrendered by the owners in preference to putting the houses into repair.

With the gradual falling in of the leases the Office of Woods were faced with the question whether the site was again to be let on lease or whether it was to be held and managed on behalf of the Crown. The latter course was happily decided upon, and it was resolved to place the property immediately under the care of Miss Jeffery, an experienced house-property manager, trained under Miss Octavia Hill’s system, who has under her a staff of trained women.

The plan of reconstruction, which includes rebuilding most of the houses and altering the course of some of the streets, is being prepared by the Office of Woods. It is intended to convert Cumberland Market into a public garden and to form one or more children’s playgrounds in addition.

Rebuilding is hardly to be thought of for the moment. The immediate need is to make the existing houses reasonably fit for habitation. Most of them are dilapidated and some of them are filthy. Backyards have been built over, and in some instances another cottage has been put up, the only entrance to which is through the house which faces the street. The property has been for the most part badly neglected during the later years of the leases, while in the earlier years little care was exercised to see that the conditions of the lease were not departed from.

Miss Jeffery has opened a small office on the estate, as a centre from which the rents of the houses are collected week by week. On their visits the women managers find out what repairs are needed to make the houses habitable and clean, and supervise the repairs already in hand. Miss Jeffery and her assistants are thus in constant touch with the tenants, helping them in many ways and inducing them to do their part in improving their surroundings. While insisting that necessary alterations and cleansing must be carried out forthwith, the managers do their best to study the comfort and convenience of the tenants as far as possible. If the tenants must be removed for a time, temporary accommodation is found for them.

It is intended that the number of licensed houses on the estate shall be reduced as the leases fall in, and the managers are taking steps to ensure improved management, on Public House Trust lines, of those that will remain.

About 170 families (representing a population of nearly 1,000) are already paying their rent to the women managers, and fresh houses come in every few weeks. The managers, with the Office of Woods behind them, believe that the work of reconstructing the estate can be successfully accomplished only if they can ensure the good will and co-operation of the present tenants. With this end in view, they called a meeting of the tenants already on their rent-roll in March last, and suggested the formation of a Tenants’ Association. The intentions of the Office of Woods with regard to the estate were explained to the meeting, as well as the reasons for desiring the tenants themselves to combine and co-operate in carrying out the scheme. The Association has been formed, a Chairman elected, and several other meetings have since been held. The scope of the scheme has been further explained, and points arising in the management—such as whether rates should be paid direct to the local authority or with the rent—have been discussed. That the powers and responsibilities of a Tenants’ Association are beginning to be realized is shown by the fact that within the last few days a petition has been put forward by the Association, asking that one of the first buildings to be put up on the estate may be a building containing rooms in which working men’s clubs may be held; at present these clubs, several of which have a large number of members, are held in the public-houses because there is no other place for them.

The scheme bids fair to be a success. The necessary changes will be carried through with the least possible disturbance and friction among the tenants, because the women managers have already won the confidence of a large number of them. Many tenants do not want to part with their old cottages, dirty and dilapidated as they are, and others are afraid that, when the new houses are built, they will not be the persons to get them. The women managers, being on the spot, will get to know the individual needs of each household, and they will use every effort to meet the needs of these households when the houses are rebuilt. In the meantime, they are in a position to persuade the tenants gradually to adopt higher standards of cleanliness and comfort, and so enable them to take care of the new houses when they get them.

Local authorities who are about to take over slum areas and reconstruct them may find it of advantage to follow the example of the Office of Woods and place an area, as soon as it comes into their hands, under the management of women educated and trained for this work.