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BOCHUM.
Most of the houses on the outskirts are small, generally of two stories or of one
story with or without attic rooms above. They are cheaply built and their
arrangements are of the simplest. In the village of Hamme are scores of
miners’ houses of small size, containing two tenements of two or three rooms
below and one or two rooms above ; the rents vary from 10s. Qd. to 12s. 6d. per
month. Many of these tenements have plots of land attached and stalls for
goats or pigs. The goat is assiduously fostered in the Bochum district. It is
known as the “miner’s cow,” and it saves the milk bill of hundreds of families
in the colliery districts of Westphalia. So important has the industry of goat
grazing and breeding become that regular goat fairs are held yearly at Dortmund,
and the agricultural societies encourage the improvement of the stock by the
offer of premiums. Allotment gardens are also popular.
A very important factor in the housing arrangements of Bochum are the
colonies of houses which have been erected by the large collieries and iron works.
The Bochumer Verein, which owns coal mines, iron and steel works, and
machine works, has provided nearly 1,500 dwellings of all kinds, most of them
in or near the town, others situated some distance away. Of these dwellings
about 1,000 consist of three rooms, 100 of four rooms, two only are of two
rooms, and the rest have five, six, or more. As a rule the houses are built in
small detached blocks, and the English plan of living rooms below and bedrooms
above is favoured. Cellarage is universal, gardens are usual, and a large
proportion of the dwellings have outbuildings for goats, pigs, and even cows.
The average rent per room is about a shilling a week, which is much under
cost.
The large colony of Stahlhausen, in the neighbourhood of the original
Bochum Works, may be regarded as a model in its way. An abundance of
trees and planted spaces gives to the surroundings of the houses a rural aspect,
and an air of comfort and well-being rests upon the place. While the dwellings
are commodious, the convenience of their inhabitants is studied by the provision
of promenades, playgrounds for the children, and a co-operative store for the
supply of food and other articles of domestic use. The latest housing project of
this firm is a colony of some 70 dwellings of the “single-family” type, with
two rooms below and two above, built in rows in picturesque style and intended
to be let at £9 or £10 per annum. For the unmarried workmen there is
a large boarding-house (Kosthaus) at Stahlhausen, in which 1,000 men are
lodged and fed at a charge of 10d. per day or 6s. 8d. per week, which is barely
half the cost of board in private houses. Among the regular lodgers are many
Poles and Italians.
Other workmen’s colonies in the immediate vicinity of the town are those
built by the companies owning the Dannenbaum, Hannibal, Constantin der
Grosse, Hanover, and Lothringen collieries. In the districts of North and South
Bochum 1,825 purely miners’ dwellings have been provided by the companies, the
return varying from 2\ to 3 per cent. The rents range from £4 10s. to £6 per
annum for two rooms with appurtenances, from £4 10s. to £7 10s. for three
rooms, and from £6 to £9 for four rooms. A Building and Savings Society
has also built 122 workmen’s dwellings in several parts of the town and suburbs.
The rents are fixed as nearly as possible at cost price, and at present run as
follows :—1st story, £3 17s. per room per annum ; 2nd story, £4 2s. : 3rd story.
£3 17s. ; 4th story, £3 10s.
The municipality has done little or nothing directly in regard to housing.
It owns a number of tenements, but they are only intended for its workpeople,
and their acquisition has been dictated by convenience rather than by benevolent
motive. The rent varies from £4 to £4 10s. per room per annum, equal to
from 4s. Id. to 5s. 2d. per week for a tenement of three rooms, though attic
tenements of this size are let for less than 3s. per week.
It is customary to reckou rent at Bochum at so many marks per room and
year, and the rates vary not only as between the old town and the newly
incorporated suburbs^ but also as between different parts of the town, and, a^ain,
within the same building it varies according as the story is lower or hu her.
The usual range may be taken as from 80 to 100 marks per room yearly in the
old ton n, and fiom oO to 80 marks in the new municipal area. It will be
undeistood, howe\er, that three rooms, as a rule, cost less proportionately than
