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* For overcrowding.
† For other conditions.
The following information on this subject is contained in the annual reports of the medical officers
of health:—
Paddington.—" With the present exemptions, comparatively few houses can be added to the
register, although many of the houses now exempt ought, it is believed, to be registered." An enumeration
of the inhabitants made at the time of the annual cleansing gave 15,168 persons in 8,192 rooms,
comprised in 4,902 tenements. The cases of overcrowding in 1908 numbered 300, as compared with
344 in 1907 and 412 in 1906. In many of the 300 cases the amount of overcrowding was but slight.
In November it was found that there were 3,382 unoccupied rooms in streets occupied mainly by the
working classes. The death-rate of the population in the "registered streets" was, in 1908, 23.5 per
1,000 and of that in the rest of the borough 10.8 per 1,000.
Fulham.—"In the report for 1906 the attention of the Council was called to the unsatisfactory
nature of the exemption clauses of the by-laws in respect of houses let in lodgings or occupied by members
of more than one family, and further experience has shown that these clauses must be amended if any
use is to be made of the by-laws, as at present many houses escape registration, which can only be dealt
with satisfactorily in the interests alike of owners and occupiers, in this manner/'
St. Marylebone.—There are approximately 1,000 houses let in lodgings in the borough which
require very constant supervision. The principal conditions receiving attention are dirt, vermin,
insufficient water supply and overcrowding.
Hampstead.—" The number of tenement houses in Hampstead that might with advantage be
dealt with under the by-laws relating to houses let in lodgings is over 800, but hitherto the sanitary
inspectors have been so much occupied with other work that it has been found impossible to keep anything
like so large a number of houses under proper supervision ; now that an additional lady
inspector has been appointed it will be possible to make a considerable increase in the number of houses
placed upon the register."
St. Pancras.—The question of the amendment of the by-laws was the subject of a local inquiry
by the Local Government Board during the year, the County Council having taken exception to the
proposals relating to the basis of exemption of houses. The Local Government Board expressed the
opinion that the borough council would do well to repeal the by-laws in question and to take into
consideration the question of substituting a series based on the Board's present model with an exemption
clause depending on rental limits similar to that contained in the model. The Board thought it
might be advisable to divide the borough into two or more areas with different rental limits in
different areas. Dr. Sykes reports that in due course exemption clauses will be submitted for the
consideration of his committee.
Stoke Newington.—" In the borough of Stoke Newington, more especially in the southern division,
there is a considerable number of houses let in lodgings under circumstances and conditions which render
it desirable, in the interest of personal and public health, that they should be registered and inspected
at frequent intervals. Hitherto it has not been possible to make such a frequent inspection of the
registered houses let in lodgings, as is called for in the health interests of those who occupy them.
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