Slum clearance as an instrument of sanitary reform: The flawed vision of Edinburgh's first slum clearance scheme: Fid-Bau Portal

Slum clearance as an instrument of sanitary reform: The flawed vision of Edinburgh's first slum clearance scheme

Smith, P.J.

Beginning in the 1860s, slum clearance was increasingly regarded as a valid and valuable technique of sanitary reform. As originally employed, however, the concept was inherently flawed, unable to deliver its expected benefits because it offered no guarantee of improved housing and environmental conditions for the residents of the areas that were targeted for improvement. Edinburgh, where a large scheme was embarked upon in the late 1860s, was an excellent case in point. Although contemporary assessments of the scheme's sanitary effects were highly positive, closer analysis suggests that the real consequences were by no means so favourable. Large tracts of Edinburgh's worst slum areas were replaced and death rates fell in the poorest and most congested quarters of the city, but the best available evidence indicates that the clearance scheme was not a major factor in the reduced mortality. Instead, it probably helped to perpetuate slum conditions, as filtered‐down houses became more crowded and dilapidated in their turn. Edinburgh's officials came to the same realization in the 1890s, which led them to accept the need for municipal rehousing projects as the essential complement to slum clearance.