DRESDEN.
195
decentralization is slow and the bulk of the upper storeys of the houses within a
radius of a quarter of a mile of the Altmarkt (the very centre of the original
Dresden) are still let for residential purposes, the occupiers of the topmost floors
being almost invariably workpeople. In describing working-class dwellings in
Dresden, therefore, it seems necessary to distinguish those in the centre from
those at the circumference of the town, for most of the former are at least two.
and many of them three centuries old, while few of the latter were standing
three decades ago. Many of the side streets in this part of Dresden are too
narrow to admit two horse-vehicles abreast. As regards internal construction
the various houses in this quarter differ somewhat in detail, but so far as the
provision of light and air is concerned, the principle is practically the same
throughout. The tall narrow-fronted houses in one street stand back-to-back
with similar houses facing another street. Only the rooms with windows
looking into either of these streets can be said to be properly lighted, for the
other rooms depend for light and air on windows looking into a court of such
meagre dimensions as to be termed a “ shaft ” (light-shaft) and, as the houses
have a depth of about 60 feet, all of them have rooms at the back which are
windowless and only indirectly lighted from the next room, which is itself
imperfectly lighted through a window in the “ shaft.”
A somewhat detailed description of one of these houses seems necessary in
order to render it possible to realise the nature of the dwelling accommodation
available for working-class families in the older part of the town. A house in
the Schreibergasse may be taken as a fair sample. Here the ground and part of
the first floor are occupied by a shop and offices belonging to a cheese and butter
business. The front of the house is divided from the back by the “shaft”
or well. On the first floor there are two tenements, one at the back and
one in front. The back tenement is reached through a passage about 18 feet in
length by 5 feet in width lighted by three windows from the well or shaft. In
this passage are two w.c.’s and also a metal trough and water tap. The tenement
consists of four rooms and is occupied by a workman’s family (husband, wife and
child), one room being let furnished to a single man, also a workman. The rent of.
the four rooms is £12 per annum, or 4s. Id. per week. Two of the three rooms
available for the workman and his wife and child have no light but such as
enters from the general living room, which has two windows looking into the
shaft. This is a good-sized room, measuring 17^ feet by 14 feet, and serves
also as the sleeping room for the husband and wife. In the adjoining room the
child sleeps. This is what is called an “ alcove,” a term locally applied to any
room which derives its only light from some other room. The “ alcove
measures 17£ by 8 feet. All three rooms have a height of ten feet. The
lodger’s room is entered from the landing ; it has two windows looking into
the shaft, and is slightly irregular in shape, being 8 feet 4 inches in wiath. at
one end and 6 feet 8 inches at the other. The length is 15 feet and the height
10 feet 8 inches. In the front part of the house, on the same floor, only three
of the five rooms are used for dwelling purposes, the other two foiming P ai t °
the business premises below, from which they are accessible by a separate
staircase. Of the three rooms forming the tenement, one is practically a
corridor (but is capable of being used for sleeping purposes), the others being akitchen
and a bed-sitting room respectively. Both kitchen and corridor are
dark, as they have no windows communicating with the open air ; the former
lias á length of 15 Get, a width of 5 feet, and is 10^ feet high. The bed-sitting
room, which lias two windows looking into the &Ar^6^u^ nieasures 16 feet
by 10 feet and is the same height as the kitchen 10^ feet The rent oi this
dwelling, which is occupied by an unmarried workman, is £lo per annum or
9d. per week, so that in the front part of the house what is practically a
two-roomed dwelling fetches la. 2d. per week more than can be got for a
four-roomed dwelling at the back. It should be stated that in addition to the
accommodation just described, eacli tenant has a portion ot the cellamge below
the house set apart for his own use, arid lias the right to malee use of the loft on
stated days for drying laundry.
Passing to the second floor of this house we find again a back tenement
and a front tenement. The former is occupied by a working-class family and
is practically a repetition of the corresponding dwelling on the floor immediately
29088 2 B “
