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68
Indeed, it may be said that there has been proceeding for a
number of years, a change of usage more than a change of actual
property. Whole streets and squares of houses, formerly occupied
by single families and often good class families, are now occupied as
separate dwellings on separate floors. The private house has become
several tenements. There is a common passage and a common staircase,
both of which are open to the public, and a considerable degree of
privacy is destroyed, and the passage and staircase act as the
ventilating shaft for the foul atmosphere derived from the dwelling
rooms opening on to the stair. The history of such a house is a
dismal record of degeneration. Year by year the state slowly but
surely becomes worse. The house was structurally designed for one
family and is now occupied by four or more families. The sanitary
conveniences were also designed for one family and now provide for
four families. The same must be said of the water supply and washhouse
accommodation. There can be no doubt that the ill-ventilation
and the difficulty of access to the water-closet, scullery, washhouse,
or dust-bin may directly act as causes of ill-health and
undesirable habits. Hence it comes about that both house and
tenants degenerate. It is hardly necessary to add that it was this
kind of house which Mr. Cubitt Nichols referred to in his report
{vide supra) as requiring constant supervision from the Sanitary
Authority, and many of which he recommended for registration
under the Bye-laws for Houses Let in Lodgings.
In the second place, another of the general characteristics of house
property in the Borough is that the yards in the rear of the houses
have, in so many cases, been built over. The condition of things
constantly to be observed is this: Between two streets, running
parallel, there existed, when the houses were first built, an open
space, subdivided into yards. Thus fresh air was obtainable
in the rear as well as in the front of the houses. In the yards
were constructed various conveniences for sanitary purposes, washing,
refuse collection, &c. Thus the house, as a private house, was
equipped. But in addition to the invasion of tenants to which
reference has already been made, another change soon came about.
The yards became covered in or otherwise built over, generally for
workshop premises, Even when such buildings are only small they