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55
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
All the 171 inspections in Hampstead were concerned with basement houses and 93 underground
rooms were found to be illegally occupied. In 80 cases structural works were carried out;
in 12 cases the use of the room was discontinued, and in 1 case, a Closing Order was made in 1912. In
Battersea the 78 inspections were of underground rooms. 35 of these were illegally occupied. In
14 cases the use of the room was at once discontinued. Notices requiring alterations were served with
respect to the others. Eight underground rooms were represented in Westminster. Four Closing
Orders were made, and the remaining 4 rooms were dealt with under the Public Health Act. In Woolwich,
3 underground rooms were represented, and dealt with under the Housing, Town Planning, Act.

Under Section 17 (7) of the Housing and Town Planning Act, a room habitually used as a sleeping
place, the surface of the floor of which is more than three feet below the surface of the part of the street
adjoining or nearest to the room, is deemed to be unfit for human habitation, if it is not on an average
at least seven feet in height from floor to ceiling, or does not comply with regulations which the local
authority with the consent of the Local Government Board may prescribe. So far as is shown in the
annual reports of medical officers of health, regulations made by eight authorities have been approved
by the Local Government Board, these authorities being the metropolitan borough councils of Battersea,
Hampstead, Lambeth, Poplar, St. Marylebone, Stoke Newington, Wandsworth and Woolwich. In five
other cases draft regulations were, at the end of the year, awaiting the approval of the Board. In the
report relating to Holborn, Dr. Bond, the medical officer of health, states that he prepared regulations
in accordance with the provisions of the Act, and after careful consideration by the Committee, the
matter was adjourned for the present.

Continued on next page.
* Time allowed to tenants to find room elsewhere.