View report page

room doors were continuously shut, and the Council asked for
an order to abate the nuisance alleged to arise from that rather
dark and stuffy staircase. They said that could be done by
putting a skylight in the roof at a cost of for each house.
He thought the work might be done so as to effect an improvement
in the premises as regarded light and air, but he had to
consider whether that improvement could be made compulsory.
"He had always thought that there was no magic in
the words 'structural alteration,' and that everything depended
upon whether, as a fact, the premises were in such a state as
to be a nuisance or injurious or dangerous to health. If so, he
had always thought that an order to abate the nuisance or the
danger must follow, whether that order involved a structural
alteration or not, and he had in his time made or refused
several such orders according as he had been satisfied or not
with the evidence in that particular.
"In this case he was of opinion that the premises were
not in such a state as to be a nuisance within any meaning of
the word 'nuisance' as used in the Public Health Acts that he
was aware of. He was also of opinion that these premises
were not in such a state as to be injurious or dangerous to
health. It seemed to him that the worst that could be said
against them was that they gave to tenants who were careless
about letting into their rooms such bad air as London afforded,
an opportunity of living in a more stuffy atmosphere than was
good for them according to modern ideas.
"He was of opinion that the tenants could themselves
use these premises in such a way as would entirely negative
all the evidence given by the Council as to the danger of
injury to the health of the tenants. It followed that he was
not prepared to make the order asked for, and that he must
dismiss the summons. As scientific evidence was called on
both sides he should allow the defendant £5 5s. costs."
Since the hearing of this summons no statutory notices
calling upon owners to provide light and ventilation to the
staircases have been served; but, inasmuch as in my opinion
such staircases are injurious to the health of the persons living
in such houses, I am bound by Act of Parliament to cause the
Sanitary Inspectors to send an intimation to the owner of such
conditions, but without asking the Sanitary Authority for
power to proceed further. Personally, I should have preferred