268
HAMBURG.
A further notable project of the same kind is the colony of 256 dwellings
which has lately been built by the “Production” Co-operative Society in
Barm beck. The large, massive, and imposing building surrounds a spacious
rectangle, in the centre of which is a playground. The tenements are of two,
three, and four rooms with a kitchen large enough to be used as a living room ;
the corridors are airy, and most of the dwellings have balconies. The rooms
are all well lighted, the kitchen walls are partly tiled, each dwelling has a
clothes closet and a shower bath, and the storage attics are divided amongst the
tenants, while in the cellars are wash-rooms for common use. The rents vary
according to the story and range from £13 175. upwards for two rooms and a
kitchen, from £20 upwards for three rooms and a kitchen, and from £22 10s.
upwards for four rooms and a kitchen.
Altona possesses the great advantage over Hamburg in housing matters
that it is without the slums which are found in the older districts of the latter
town, and it does not suffer from congestion. There is an abundance of land
still unbuilt upon, and in the laying out of new streets, care is being taken to
secure to all dwellings ample ventilation and light. The working classes live
principally in the harbour district, in the north, in the districts adjoining
Hamburg, and in Ottensen, to the west. Large buildings do not as yet predominate,
and the back house has not been much developed. The general arrangement
of the dwellings does not differ from that of Hamburg dwellings of
modern erection, and here, too, tenements of two or three rooms and a
kitchen are the rule. Tenements of a single room are forbidden by the bye-laws,
but there are many basement dwellings. The Census of December, 1905, showed
that 30‘0 per cent, of all dwellings contained a heatable room and a kitchen ;
33'4 per cent, two heatable rooms and a kitchen, and 19*2 per cent, three
heatable rooms and a kitchen.
The building regulations of Altona deviate in many details from those of
Hamburg. They require that in the inner districts one-quarter of a building
plot shall be left free in the case of houses containing not more than two
dwellings on different floors, one-third where this number of dwellings is
exceeded, and one-half in the case of back houses, and the area unbuilt upon
must as a rule be 158J square feet for each dwelling in the block. In the
outer districts the open space must be one-third or two-thirds of the plot,
according to locality. Buildings on a street may in general be as high as
the street is wide, and, in exceptional cases, one-tenth higher, to a
maximum of 71 b feet, but the height may not exceed 35 feet 9 inches
where the street is only from 26 feet to 35 feet 9 inches wide. In the case of
a back building the maximum height is the depth of the space between the
front of such building and the opposite boundary of the plot or structure
standing upon it, but erections not exceeding 16 feet 3 inches in height and
264 square feet in area are here disregarded. It is required, moreover, that a
back building shall be detached, and that the space dividing it from the front
building shall be at least 32 feet 6 inches wide. A minimum height of 9 feet
9 inches is prescribed for rooms in new flat tenements with the exception of the
highest story, which need only be 9 feet 1 inch. Attic rooms can only be used
for habitation under special conditions.
Rents are somewhat lower in Altona than in Hamburg, though the higher
taxation in the former place often nullifies the difference. The usual rent of
a three-room tenement (two living and bed rooms and kitchen) is 4s. 1(M., but
as little as 4s. is paid for old property and as much as 5s. 9d. for new, and that
of a four-room tenement ranges from 5s. 9<A to 6s. 9d. In the rent, water and
chimney sweeping are included. It may be noted that while in 1905 the
Hamburg dwellings rented up to £12 10s. inclusive formed 15*5 per cent, of the
whole, the corresponding group in Altona formed 29 5 per cent, of the whole,
and while the rents between £12 10s and £25 formed 52 per cent, of the whole
in Hamburg, they formed 57'2 per cent, in Altona.
The municipality of Altona owns a good deal of land and it tries as far as
possible to check speculation in building sites, with a view to the promotion of
healthy housing conditions, but it has not erected dwellings for the working
classes. This has been done on a large scale, however, by the Savings and
Building Society, which in 1906 owned 127 blocks containing 1,111 tenements,
