HC Deb 24 February 1887 vol 311 cc458-9
MR. JENNINGS (Stockport)

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the Government intend to act, in reference to the prison sites, upon the statement of the Prime Minister, as expressed in his special Memorandum on the first Report of the Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes, to the effect that the State should sell the prison sites to some authority or trust that would build thereon workmen's dwellings at cost price; and, whether the Government have received any offers for Coldbath Fields, or taken any steps to dispose of that site to such Bodies as can be trusted to use it for the purpose of building thereon the cheapest class of dwellings?

CAPTAIN PENTON (Finsbury, Central)

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the Pea-body Trustees have made an offer for the Coldbath Fields Prison site, for the purpose of erecting artizans' dwellings thereon; and, if so, whether, before accepting this or any other offer for the entire site, he will give the Metropolitan Board of Works, or the Clerkenwell Vestry, time to consider the advisability of tendering for a portion of the site, to be retained as an open space, in accordance with the Resolutions of those Boards, as to the necessity for such a space in this densely-populated neighbourhood?

THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)

I have stated more than once in this House that it is my desire to dispose of the prison sites in the way recommended by the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes. I have received an offer for the site of Coldbath Fields Prison from a Society whose purpose it is to provide cheap and healthy homes for the working classes. This offer is now under consideration. I have received no offer from the Peabody Trustees. Any proposal either from the Metropolitan Board of Works or from the Clerkenwell Vestry for the retention of a portion of the site as an open space will receive my careful attention. I must add that both these Bodies have had ample time to consider the question.