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Camberwell Provident Dispensary, and Mr. A. E. Mullins, a
local architect. A good deal of evidence was given both for
and against, and the summons was adjourned for the
magistrate to view the property. On April 8th the judgment
set out below, which has been copied from the Morning
Advertiser, was delivered. Unfortunately for the Council's
case the magistrate visited the premises on a particularly fine
and bright day:—
"Mr. Hopkins said the cases of which this was a type
were not very uncommon incidents of the constant struggle on
the part of the local authorities to keep London healthy and
sanitary, according to advancing modern ideas, but the
question raised was very difficult, and he hoped they were in a
fair way of getting it authoritatively settled by the. High Court.
In form the summons was to obtain an order to abate a
nuisance, but in substance the contest was whether the owner
of a house built long prior to the passing of the Public Health
(London) Act could be compelled to make a structural alteration
in it to the extent of putting a skylight in the roof for the
purpose of lighting and ventilating a staircase and landing
alleged to be dark and unventilated.
"He had been favoured with the views of eminent
scientific gentlemen upon the condition of the house, with
particulars of the carbonic acid proportion in samples of air
taken within and without, with;particulars of air stagnation,
and finally he had himself visited the property. The houses
under the defendant's control were tiny houses in a mean
street. They were in very good order and repair, and were,
perhaps, exceptionally well cared for, for such property. They
consisted of four living rooms, two on the ground floor and two
on the first floor, and in the middle of the house, entered from
the ground floor passage, was a straight staircase, the sides of
which ran right up to the ceiling lines of the first floor. On
the floor line of the first floor was a tiny landing, off which on
left and right two doors opened into the two first floor rooms.
THE QUESTION OF "NUISANCE."
" Doors and windows being all open there was light
and circulation and ventilation, and draught enough and to
spare. When the doors and windows were shut the staircase
was rather dark and was apt to become stuffy when the top