London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1909
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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a much more limited application, but they will set a standard of accommodation by which tenement
houses will be compared by the tenants, whose needs in these respects landlords will desire, and
indeed eventually find it necessary, to meet.
Houses infested with vermin.
Section 20 of the Council's General Powers Act of 1904 empowers sanitary authorities to require
the cleansing of rooms and their contents from vermin, and in default to do such cleansing themselves.
Under these powers a large number of rooms and articles have been cleansed during 1909, and
in a few instances prosecutions were instituted and penalties obtained for non-compliance with
the order of the sanitarv authorities.
The following table has been compiled mainly from information on this subject contained in the annual reports of medical officers of health:—
| Sanitary area. | Number of rooms or premises cleansed. | Sanitary area. | Number of rooms or premises cleansed. |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of London | — | Kensington | 260 rooms. |
| Battersea | — | Lambeth | 148 persons & |
| Bermondsey | 146 rooms. | houses. | |
| Bethnal Green | 273 rooms. | Lewisham | 6 premises. |
| Camberwell | 30 premises. | Paddington | 172 premises. |
| Chelsea | 118 rooms. | Poplar | 232 rooms. |
| Deptford | 11 premises. | St. Marylebone | 24 premises. |
| Finsbury | 13 premises. | St. Pancras | 172 premises. |
| Fulham | 52 rooms. | Shoreditch | 99 premises. |
| Greenwich | 9 premises. | Southwark | 1,881 rooms. |
| Hackney | 220 premises. | Stepney | 1,395 rooms. |
| Hammersmith | 62 rooms. | Stoke Newington | 41 rooms. |
| Hampstead | 62 rooms. | Wandsworth | 70 premises. |
| Holborn | 26 premises. | Westminster, City of | 191 premises & |
| Islington | 124 premises. | 16 rooms in | |
| Woolwich | other premises. 159 rooms. |
Revenue Act, 1903.
Under section 11 of the Revenue Act, 1903, on the certificate of the medical officer of health
that the house is so constructed as to afford suitable accommodation for each of the families or
persons inhabiting it, with due provision for their sanitary requirements, there is exemption from or
reduction of inhabited house duty, as follows:—
(1) Where a house, so far as it is used as a dwelling house, is used for the sole purpose
of providing separate dwellings—
(а) The value of any dwelling in the house which is of an annual value below twenty
pounds shall be excluded from the annual value of the house for the purposes of inhabited
house duty; and
(b) The rate of inhabited house duty, in respect of any dwelling in the house of an
annual value of twenty pounds, but not exceeding forty pounds, shall be reduced to threepence;
and
(c) The rate of inhabited house duty, in respect of any dwelling in the house of
an annual value exceeding forty pounds, but not exceeding sixty pounds, shall be reduced
to sixpence.
For the purposes of these provisions medical officers of health were called upon to certify
numerous houses during the year, and in some instances the application was granted, in others it was
refused, while in others, again, it was only granted after alterations had been made to meet the conditions
necessary, before certification. The Act appears to be instrumental in ensuring a higher standard
of dwelling accommodation than before. The medical officer of health of Poplar reports that the
borough council, in 1908, directed the attention of the Board of Inland Revenue to the insanitary
condition of some certificated tenement dwellings in Bow, and the Board thereupon cancelled the
certificate. Extensive repairs of the premises are being carried out with a view to renewed certification.
The number of applications received and certificates granted during 1909 is shown in the
following table:—
2057 m