Town Holdings Committee

The Select Committee of Parliament on Town Holdings ran for nearly six years, finally reporting in 1892. Its chair was Lewis Fry, a solicitor and town councillor from Bristol.

The rapid expansion of the population of industrial cities and towns in the early years of the nineteenth century led to the growth of vast urban slums. The realization that overcrowded living conditions were a danger to public health resulted in several parliamentary investigations on town planning.

Several Select Committees examined proposals for redeveloping parts of London. The Town Holdings Committee investigated the land tenure systems in force in towns throughout Great Britain and Ireland, landlord-tenant relations and municipal finance.

The committee was appointed on 18 March 1896 with the membership of Mr. Mellor, Mr. Wodehouse, Lord William Compton, Viscount Wolmer, Mr. Asher, Mr. Lewis Fry, Mr. Edward Russell, Mr. Conybeare, Mr. Goschen, Sir Henry James, Mr. Lawson, Mr. Saunders, Mr. Arthur Balfour, Mr. Gibson, Mr. Macartney, Mr. Tyssen Amherst, Viscount Folkstone, Mr. Sidney Herbert, Mr. Gregory, Sir John Ellis, Mr. Bartley, Mr. Crilly, Mr. O'Dogherty, and Colonel Nolan

The 1897 report included a census of housing which includes details of leases and building operations in progress as well as of the number, quality and types of houses in two hundred and fifty large towns in England and Wales.

Irish Universities Press: Parliamentary papers on Planning series:

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