Housing and Playgrounds in Central Areas.

4. HOUSING AND PLAYGROUNDS IN CENTRAL AREAS

This problem mainly centres round certain dilapidated districts, most of which at present house large numbers of families in insanitary and overcrowded conditions.

In envisaging the future of housing policy generally, we assume that a careful watch will be kept to ensure against any influx from the country which might stultify efforts at effecting permanent improvement.

It has rightly been the policy of the Corporation to include provision for play-space within each scheme of flats re-built in the city area. The importance of adequate play-space, not only within each scheme, but for the ultimate use of the citizens in the planned central area cannot be exaggerated. The following considerations should be borne in mind:- *

(a) *Play is essential to the health of the child, and the medical profession shares the view that the call upon the hospitals would be greatly reduced by the proper provision of playground facilities; *

(b) *The alarming number of casualties on the road is largely due to children who are now compelled to play in the streets; *

(c) *The crowds of children who perforce throng the streets in our overcrowded central areas make it so slow and dangerous for the motorist that many wide streets, such as Gloucester Street and Dominick Street, have virtually been lost as traffic arteries. No proper planning can solve the traffic problem if this is not remedied; *

(d) *The vast amount of wanton damage caused by irresponsible children, running the Corporation into continuous and useless expenditure, is due to the absence of organised play time occupation.

The above are only the most obvious arguments in favour of a playground programme which should go hand in hand with the housing programme.

Such a scheme would have the effect of thinning out the population in our central areas more, perhaps, than is at present contemplated, and the following arguments tend to reinforce the view that this thinning out policy is the wise one:

(i) *Air Raid Precautions: *Much money and energy go towards taking precautions against aerial attack, but it is obvious that centralising, or keeping centralised, our people in the city nucleus is to put them in the very district most liable to attack. The chance of attack in outlying districts would be so remote as to be negligible.

(ii) The high cost of providing central flats is such that, even from the financial standpoint alone, it is questionable whether a policy of building self-contained houses in the outskirts and concentrating upon providing cheap and easy access along proposed new roads, would not, financially, be the cheaper solution. The houses on the outskirts might have to be in terrace form at 16 to the net acre, *I.e., *after deducting roads and local playgrounds.

(iii) Admittedly, a certain number of central flats are necessary for those who have to live near their work but this is everywhere regarded as a necessary expedient rather than the most desirable way of providing shelter. We believe that the average Irish family would much prefer the privacy and individuality possible in a self-contained house with a small garden.

The thinning out of central areas at present used or mainly used for housing would thus seem to be desirable from every point of view and the housing programme should be embarked upon only with the new road programme in view. The proposed new roads would bring within easy access enormous areas within 31 -mile radius of the city centre, which at present are relatively inaccessible

The two principal new features which must be situated in central areas, are children’s playgrounds and car parks. In regard to the size and allocation of playgrounds in central areas: the allowance generally recognised is that there should be 50 square feet of play-space per child, which would give one acre of playground to every 230 dwellings. This is adequate only by arranging that the infants should play while the older children are at school. The above allowance can easily be provided in the outskirts and it is our view that a proper long-term plan should thin out the overcrowded central areas sufficiently allow the same provision there - the provision being based not on present density of population but on the proposed future density.

In ascertaining the location of the playgrounds, it is the established practice to place them so that in no case shall a child have to walk more than 3 -mile to e nearest playground. The best size for efficient administration is 11 -acres for a playground intended for general use. In the case of large schemes of flats, the space need not of necessity be in one block, but it can be arranged in relation to the dwellings to be served.

It may be impossible to provide all the play space required by this standard within the actual curtilage of the individual new housing schemes in central areas. Moreover, there are populations housed in old buildings which may not be demolished for some years; we, therefore, recommend a system of playgrounds which shall include external playgrounds as well as those provided within the curtilage of the housing schemes. These playgrounds can, we believe, be found at appropriate intervals throughout the central area.

The Corporation has already made an admirable beginning in providing playground facilities in new housing schemes. Work of the highest value to the future has already been done in this direction as regards supervision and control generally. Our proposals are thus in line with the policy which the Corporation has already initiated.

Playing fields are admittedly out of the question in central areas, but should be provided in the outskirts for central as well as for local use bearing the new road plan in mind in considering accessibility. This question is further dealt with in Section 6. *

Housing Generally.*

The Acting Town Planning Officer has submitted a memorandum to the Dublin Housing Enquiry which embodies a detailed consideration of the various sites proposed as future Corporation Housing Areas. The Housing Architect’s programme for the next three years, which we consider suitable, subject to certain reservations, comprises the following:

Cottage Schemes

Emmet Road 62

Crumlin, North 1,364

Cabra West 2,090

Donneycarney 876

4,392

Flat Schemes

Newfoundland Street, Section 1 288

Railway Street, Section 2 128

Donore Avenue 556

Rialto 389

Rathmines Avenue 68

Newmarket 60

Railway Street, Section 3 64

Constitution Hill 92

1,645

Total

Cottages 4,392

Flats 1,645

The balance of dwellings required, approximately 13,000, can be erected in the following areas which are scheduled for future consideration:

  Acres. Roods. Perches.

Whitefriar Street 2 2 12

Sarsfield Road 41    

North City Area (Gloucester Diamond) 6

Goldenbridge 6

Charlemont Street

2 11

Watling Street Extension 7 2 14

Balance of Newfoundland Street Area      

Newmarket, Section 2 3 2

Ballybough Cottages 1 2

Sackville Avenue and Love Lane 1 2

Goose Green 33 2

Raheny 6 1

Cork Street and Ardee Street 2

James’s Street, Part 2 1

John Street and St. Augustine Street 1

Spitalfields Extension 3

Marrowbone Lane Extension 5 1

Mercer Street Extension 2

Artane and Killester 4 2

Millmount (Milltown) 22

Macken Street and King’s Cottages

3

Larkhill Extension 372

Broombridge Area, Cabra 300

Ballyfermot Area 154

Rutland Avenue 96 3 12

Total 1,087    

The above schemes may be proceeded with as and when required, subject to the City Engineer’s approval of drainage and water facilities.

The total number of dwellings which can be provided on these sites would exceed the 19,000 given as the number of dwellings necessary to solve the slum problem, but we would reiterate that no solution is, in our opinion, possible unless a further influx of families from the country is prevented.

These sites are conveniently situated to the centre of the city; with the exception of Larkhill extension, which is on the fringe, they lie within a three mile radius from the City Hall. There is, further, a large area of vacant land between the Finglas and Ballymun Roads, and between the Swords Road and Coolock which could be used for Municipal Housing if required. There is, therefore, no need to allocate St. Anne’s, Clontarf, which is so badly needed as public park.

In the preparation of the layouts provision should, of course, be made for the major roads and other features required to fit in with the general Town plan which will provide suitable road connections from the housing areas to the centre of the city.

The Corporation has wisely adopted the policy of providing, in the larger housing areas, sites for churches, schools, shopping centres, playgrounds and, in some cases, district public parks. Where circumstances permit, an industrial zone, suitable for the establishment of light industries, has been provided. We recommend that this policy be adhered to. *

Georgian Streets and Squares.*

A further word should be said upon the subject of the streets and squares of old three and four storey brick houses, which have degenerated in use into badly or non-adapted tenements. A question is asked on page 14 in the introduction to this Report. This must be answered, but possibly it is beyond the scope of a sketch development plan to enter into detailed questions which, furthermore, are primarily the concern of the Housing Committee. But there is the general aspect which may be considered as twofold; social and architectural. *

Socially.*

Should the people who live in these houses be rehoused on the same or approximately the same sites? The conclusion to which we have come is that these people can be better housed on external sites, provided adequate transport both physical and financial is arranged. *

Architecturally.*

There is the natural desire to retain, if possible, some of the most characteristic streets of the city. A careful survey has revealed that the structure of some of these houses is unsound and that, whatever the site is used for, these unsound buildings must be replaced. But a great number of them, so far as their major structural features are concerned, are sound, in addition to being of high civic dignity of appearance. Indeed a rapid and somewhat casual glance out of a ear passing through Mountjoy Square, Gardiner Street and Dominick Street might lead a stranger to imagine that these North Dublin streets were as well occupied as Fitzwilliam Street on the South. A very little closer scrutiny reveals the difference.

Suggestions for the treatment of these degenerated Georgian houses have been made continually over many years. There were proposals long before Lord Aberdeen’s Competition of 1913 and some of the best projects elicited by that competition were devoted, especially by some of the local competitors, to that end.

In spite of our admiration for the excellent work of your Housing Architect, we would not like to see these whole street frontages destroyed and blocks of flats substituted, possibly for reasons of orientation, with their narrow ends only facing on to the streets. These streets and buildings, however unsuited for their present use, were designed and built by local people whose ideas of town planning and house design were extremely advanced. We would like to see the whole of the inhabitants of these buildings who require to be housed under better conditions, given accommodation in the new housing estates and a direct check given to the incursion of persons from outside or elsewhere seeping in and continuing an equally unsatisfactory state of affairs. The houses should be temporarily closed pending reconditioning - preferably by grouping several together. We believe that part of the population arising from the normal growth of Dublin which we envisage (not an incursion from the country) would be glad to occupy remodelled flats in such situations from which the whole of the present slum atmosphere had been banished.

In brief, we recommend that the present inhabitants could be rehoused more satisfactorily to themselves and more economically to the Corporation on new sites further out, yet easily accessible to the centre; and that the 18th century houses, whose structure is sound, should be reconditioned and remodelled to be let at economic rents. This work (reconditioning) could be undertaken by the owners if they wished, or it might be done by public utility companies assisted by cheap loans. The work would proceed gradually as demand arose.

Thus these Georgian streets and squares of Dublin might run through three grades of social occupation: originally built for a wealthy and aristocratic country population requiring a town house in the capital of society; they were next inhabited with scant alteration by the poorest of the poor, squatting in noble apartments and suffering from inadequate sanitary conveniences. Finally, they should be remodelled scientifically for a prosperous bourgeoisie, or perhaps more exactly the necessary “black-coat” population of a centre of Government.

It might be added that a somewhat similar metamorphosis has occurred in the corresponding areas of Liverpool, which, like Dublin (though to a lesser degree), enjoys a clear atmosphere at the centre. Such a change would be possible in Manchester.

We would suggest that the present inhabitants of these houses, being used to highly urbanised conditions, might be provided with something more reminiscent of these surroundings in their new homes. Instead of being in garden suburb conditions, they might be housed in terraces with ample play and park space, with little or no gardens attached directly to the houses, but with allotment space adjacent, and communal hot water supply and other amenities. There need be no change in the overall density, as compared with suburban garden housing schemes, but a slight re-arrangement of the space would produce certain compactness of actual houses.

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