Plymouth, Housing, The Montpelier Huts

PLYMOUTH
DATA

The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History

HOUSING -- THE MONTPELIER HUTS

Sometime around 1894 Sir John Jackson, who was engaged in constructing the Royal Dockyard Extension at Keyham, erected some dwellings on land at Montpelier, in the parish of Pennycross, for his workers. They were little better than mud huts so when he erected some better properties at Camel's Head, the navvies moved in to them, leaving the Montpelier Huts, as they were known, to the homeless people of the day.

In December 1898 the Devonport Borough Surveyor, the Inspector of Nuisances and the Ministry of Health all reported to Devonport Corporation that, to quote the Ministry, 'the whole of the houses at Montpelier were more or less unfit for human habitation.' Devonport Corporation was forced to condemn them in 1899 and the occupiers evicted.

On February 8th 1899 notices to repair the properties were served on Mr Hedley Foot of 10 Notte Street, Plymouth, and Mr George Lewry of Langstone Terrace, Pennycross, in respect of:

Numbers 1 to 17 Montpelier Terrace;
Numbers 22 to 36 Wisteria Terrace;
Numbers 1 to 32 Hawthorn Grove; and
Numbers 1 to 16 Rosebloom Grove.

A Notice in respect of numbers 1 to 21 Wisteria Terrace was issued to Mr Hedley Foot solely.

The following month Mr Robert Edridge, solicitor, of 41 Wych Street, Strand, London, and Mr F Pearson, builder, of 6 Villa Road, Brixton, London, appeared before the Council and claimed that the Closing Orders for the first group of properties listed above should,not be made by the Council.

In April 1899 a reporter from the Western Daily Mercury described the houses as:

'fearfully damp, the reason being that the materials of which the houses are built absorb the rain, which soaks through and comes out on the other side of the wall. Examination of the insides of the houses shows that inside a very thin coat of plaster there is only dry, crumbly mud.'

The builder had left unpaved areas around each house for the purpose of the occupants creating gardens but those were now just covered in mud and water. The efforts of the occupants to keep their feet from getting wet, which involved bringing stones from the roadway, had merely resulted in the outside being higher than the inside, causing the rainwater to run off the stones into the houses.

'When one reflects that everything is broken - boundary wall and gullies, and practically every fixture that was ever put into the houses - while the inhabitants are in such a state of dirt and poverty that many of them are without a presentable piece of furniture, while the abundance of objectionable vermin is such that the inspectors, after making visits, have had to consign every article of clothing to baths of water, it is even hard, then, to realise the state of this colony.'

So bad were the sanitary arrangements that the Western Daily Mercury declined to publish details.

It is clear that Sir John Jackson did not retain ownership of the properties because doubt was cast on whether or not the owners would be able to afford to put the properties right. However, one owner did state that he intended to repair his property and thus avoid the eviction order.

By July 1899 numbers 12, 13, 14 and 27 Wisteria Terrace had been repaired.

As yet it is unclear if these properties were repaired and were the ones destroyed in the Second World War.