Hamilton Area Housing

See also 1910 Housing reports

Udston Rows, Dykehead, Hamilton

This property is situated at Dykehead, in the Parish of Hamilton, and is known as Udston Rows. It is owned by the Udston Coal Company, Limited, and consists of 36 single and 7 double-apartment houses. The rent is 1s. 6d. and 2s. 6d. per week for single- and double-apartment houses respectively. This is a very poor type of house. There are no washhouses or sculleries, and the sanitary arrangements are simply disgraceful - indescribable. [Evidence presented to Royal Commission, 25th March 1914]

Quarter Colliery Rows

These rows are situated about two miles south of Hamilton Burgh, and are owned by the United Collieries, Limited. This property consists of 107 one-apartment and 75 two-apartment houses. The rent per week, including rates, is 2s. 11d. for one-apartment and 3s. 3d. for two-apartment houses. They are old, and very poor types of houses. In consequence of pressure from the Local Authorities an attempt is being made to improve the position - or rather, we should say, elude the authorities - and at the date of our visit, sculleries, washhouses, and closets were in course of erection. When completed, those new erections will at best serve only as a makeshift or stop-gap : the new closet being of the dry-bucket type which is emptied into an open ash-pit, and left there for an indefinite period, as there is no regular method of collecting the refuse at this place. The whole thing is most objectionable, and should be banned by the public health authorities. There is no water either in the new sculleries or the new washhouses. This patching up of old death-dens appears to us to be a most dangerous practice. [Evidence presented to Royal Commission, 25th March 1914]

Low Quarter

This is a scattered group of houses belonging to the United Collieries, Limited. They are situated on the outskirts of the Quarter district, and consist of 10 one-apartment and 6 two-apartment houses. The rent, including rates, is 1s. 5d. and 3s. 3d. per week for one- and two-apartment houses respectively. The houses are very old, and are of a rather mean type. The sanitation and other conveniences can only be described as wretched. We are of the opinion that these houses are wholly unfit for human habitation. [Evidence presented to Royal Commission, 25th March 1914]

Cadzow Rows

Cadzow Rows - In Cadzow, just outside of the burgh of Hamilton, and where water and drainage facilities are available, the Local Authority asked the owners to introduce sinks and other conveniences for the tenants, and generally to make the houses in all respects fit for human habitation. The owners appealed, and the case was taken to the Sheriff Court, under Section 15 of the Housing, Town Planning, etc., Act, 1909. The Sheriff sustained the appeal of the Colliery Company. As a result, nothing has been done. The case forms a precedent, and will doubtless retard the provision of water-closets and sinks, etc., in miners' houses in the county. The Sheriff's interlocutor is quoted in full in the Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Lanarkshire for 1911, pp. 221 et seq. The Medical Officer of Health of Lanarkshire will no doubt provide the Commission with full details of this and other cases which demonstrate the necessity for providing county districts with fuller legal powers for the provision of sinks and water-closets in each dwelling-house in those parts of their area which are urban in character, or where a water supply and drainage system are available. [Evidence presented to Royal Commission, 12th March 1913 by Dr Fred Dittmar]

Cadzow Rows -This property, which in owned by the Cadzow Coal Company, Limited, is situated in the landward part of Hamilton. It consists of 82 one-apartment and 101 two-apartment houses. The rent per week is 1s. 11d. and 2s. 5d. respectively. Seventy-two of the one-apartment houses are built back to back. The houses are of the ordinary brick type. There are no sculleries, all dirty water being emptied into open gutters. One washhouse and one water-closet for every six houses. The place presents a drab and dilapidated appearance. The water in supplied by means of stand-pipes. [Evidence presented to Royal Commission, 25th March 1914]

Ferniegair

These rows are owned by Russell, Limited, and are situated near to the Ferniegair Collieries, Hamilton. They consist of 13 one-apartment, 31 two-apartment, and 7 three-apartment houses. The rent per week is 1s. 10 1/2d. for one-apartment and 2s. 8d. for two-apartment houses respectively. There are no sculleries ; there is one wash-house and one dry-closet for every five houses. The water is supplied by means of stand-pipes set at intervals along the row. There is no regular method of collecting the refuse, and very little is done in the. way of scavenging. [Evidence presented to Royal Commission, 25th March 1914]

Allanton Rows

Allanton Rows - This group of miners' rows is owned by Messrs Wm. Barr & Sons, and is situated about halfway between Hamilton and Larkhall. It consists of 30 one-apartment and 40 two-apartment houses. Ten of the one-apartment houses are built back to back. The rent varies here according to the meanness of the place, and may be put down roughly as from 2s. to 3s. per week. The sanitation here is in a most disgraceful condition. [Evidence presented to Royal Commission, 25th March 1914]

Allanton Rows, Ferniegair - These houses were referred to on page 160 of the Special Report on Housing. Intimation was made to the owners that the houses presented numerous sanitary defects, including the want of proper sanitary conveniences, defective surface-drainage channels, water supply not sufficiently near to some of the houses, a number of the houses back to back, and the wooden floors of most houses unventilated, and that, before making a Representation, the Medical Officer of Health wished to know what improvements they were prepared to carry out. Negotiations were afterwards entered into with the owners, and a plan and specification showing the improvements necessary were prepared by the Local Sanitary Inspector. The owners agreed to carry out the work specified, and it is presently in progress. [1910 Annual Report of the County & District Medical Officer]

Eddlewood Colliery Rows

This is a large group of houses, which consists mostly of two-storey tenements. It is owned by John Watson, Limited, and is situated in the landward part of the Hamilton Burgh. The houses are in fair condition, the front row having water inside the house. Rent for room and kitchen, 6s. 10d. per fortnight. The other rows got their water by means of stand-pipes on the street. Rent, 5s. l0d. per fortnight. The sanitary arrangements are very crude, and consist of the ordinary dry-closet and privy midden. [Evidence presented to Royal Commission, 25th March 1914]

Ross Street, Ferniegair

This group of 42 two-apartment dwellings is referred to in the Special Report on Housing, page 159, and was inspected by the Committee on 27t/h October. Intimation was afterwards made to the owners that the houses presented sanitary defects, including want of proper sanitary conveniences, defective surface drainage channels, water supply not sufficiently near some of the houses, and some of the houses affected by underground workings and in need of repair, and stating that before making a Representation to the Local Authority, the Medical Officer of Health would be glad to know what improvements they were prepared to carry out. A meeting between the Colliery Manager and the Local Sanitary Inspector was held at the property, and the question of the repairs and sanitary improvements necessary was fully discussed. It was urged on behalf of the Company that the coal was presently being worked from under the site of the houses, and that in these circumstances the introduction of sanitary improvements might be delayed. Considerable correspondence took place between the Colliery Company and the Public Health Department, and the Company were pressed to come to a definite understanding as to the nature and extent of the repairs to be carried out, but the proposals put forward by them were unsatisfactory. In the interval, as the result of the underground workings, many of the dwellings were rendered unfit for human habitation, and the Company were informed that in these circumstances it might be necessary for the Medical Officer of Health to make a Representation under the Housing Acts, with the view of having the houses shut up. In reply, the Company stated that it was their intention to do everything possible to keep the houses in a good condition while the coal was being wrought immediately below, but if the Local Authority found it necessary to shut up some of the houses meantime, they presumed the Company had no option in the matter. The houses were again inspected by the Medical Officer of Health along with the representatives of the Company, on 2nd May, 1911, when it was found that many of them were not only dangerous to health but dangerous to life. The Medical Officer of Health in reporting the position of matters to the Committee on 5th May, stated that the Company were, no doubt, in a difficult, position as their workmen could not find houses in the locality, that although willing to spend money in putting the houses into a sanitary state, nothing could be done meantime owing to the instability of the site, and that in the circumstances the Committee might approve of the worst houses being closed without recourse to a formal Closing Order, and so soon as the subsidence had been arrested the question of reconstruction would be taken up. The Committee decided to continue the matter in order that a definite understanding might be arrived at as to the specific houses which the Company were prepared to close now, and a formal undertaking obtained from them in the matter. [1910 Annual Report of the County & District Medical Officer]