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161 [1900
HOUSES LET IN LODGINGS.
During the year 41 additional houses let in lodgings or occupied by members
of more than one family were placed on the register; and in the same period one
house was removed from it, so that it now contains 459 houses.
There are two inspectors engaged in supervising these premises, one of them
(Inspector Jordan) devotes the whole of his time to the work, while the second
(Inspector Cowling) is also employed in taking or procuring samples of food for
analysis under the provisions of the Adulteration Acts.
For the information of the Council it may be stated that for many years the
principle adopted in placing houses on the register has been that only those houses
whose owners neglected their sanitary state to the detriment of the tenants, or
those in which the tenants were dirty in their habits and therefore required
supervision, should be brought within the provisions of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891. In this way neglected properties and uncleanly tenants have
come under sanitary control, which has proved much to their advantage.
Those of the working classes, especially the labouring classes, who have large
families continue to find it more and more difficult to obtain suitable accommodation
for themselves and their children, because owners and agents of property
have, in increasing numbers, set their faces against letting tenements to people
whose children number more than two or at the outside three. Some will not
even let them then but only to families of which all the members are adults.
At the time of writing there is a rumour that the census returns will show a
decrease in the population of Islington. If this be so, then the only explanation
that will account for it is that which has just been given, for it happens that there
are more houses now occupied in the borough than there were in 1896, when the
last enumeration of the population took place.