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166
LONDON BUILDING ACT, 1894.
This Act codifies and amends the legislation dealing with the
erection of buildings of all classes, previously scattered throughout
some twenty acts, public and private. Although the whole
Act cannot fail to have some influence on the salubrity of dwellings,
yet there are certain particulars to which the designation
" sanitary " is more specially applicable, and attention will be confined
to them on this occasion. They will be considered under
the headings of (a) site, (b) air spaces, and (c) the dwelling.
Site. —The Act gives the Council no control over the choice
of site except as regards land below the Trinity high-water mark.
Sec. 122 et seq. In this case building of dwelling-houses can only
be sanctioned " with the permission of the Council and subject to
and in accordance with such regulations as the Council may from
time to time prescribe." The regulations may forbid the erection
of houses on such land, may regulate the erection of the same,
and prescribe the level at which the under-surface of the bottom
floor of any such dwelling-house shall be built, and the provision
to be made for the efficient drainage of the buildings. A special
court of appeal is constituted by the Act to hear any objections
to the ruling of the Council in this matter. Under Sec. 164 (1),
the Council is empowered to make bye laws with respect to (inter
alia) "foundations and sites of buildings and other erections;
the mode in which and the materials with which such foundations
and sites are to be made, excavated, filled up, prepared, and completed
for securing stability and for purposes of health; . It
may be possible to prohibit the use of sites which are entirely
unfit for the erection of dwelling-houses under such bye-laws.
By Sec. 216 of the Act, the bye-laws made under Sec. 16 of
the Metropolis Management and Building Acts Amendment
Act, 1878, are continued in force. Bye-law No. 2 of that series
deals with "Foundations and Sites of Buildings," and provides
that "no house, building, or other erection," shall be constructed
on any place which has been "filled up and covered'' with refuse,
i.e., with "any material impregnated or mixed with any fecal
animal or vegetable matter" or with "dust or slop" until the
refuse, &c., shall have been excavated and the site made good with