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142
III- the maintenance of sanitation in
house property.
The sanitary supervision of existing houses is one of the most
important parts of the housing question in Finsbury. It cannot be
doubted that the problem of housing in London is what it is to-day
very largely indeed because in the past strict sanitary supervision
of existing houses has been neglected. This sanitary supervision,
to be effective, must be two-fold in its application, namely, it must
deal (i) with house structure and sanitary maintenance (houses let
in lodgings, house to house inspections, etc.), and (ii) with overcrowding
of persons. During 1904 a large amount of time has
been devoted to this subject. For convenience it may be reported
in sections as follows:—
1. Houses let in Lodgings, etc.—When the Borough was
formed there were a number of houses let in lodgings, registered
under Bye-laws of Section 94 of the Public Health (London) Act,
1891. Bye-laws first came into force in this district in 1897, and
from that year to 1900 the total number of houses registered in all
the constituent parts of the new Borough was 327. During 1901
new Bye-laws had to be framed. After considerable discussion and
amendment these Bye-laws were ratified by the Local Government
Board in November, 1901, and then became law.
The two chief objects of the Bve-laws are (a) the maintenance of
sanitation and cleanliness, and (b) the restriction of overcrowding.
The former is attained by several Bye-laws (9-17), and the latter by
Byelaws 3 and 4. In 1902 we inspected and placed on the register
612 houses, which with 327 gave a total of 939 registered houses in
the Borough. In 1903 the Committee added 170 more, and in 1904
we have registered 52. Some twenty or thirty had to be removed
from register on account of demolition and the total number of
houses now registered is therefore 1,131 in 120 streets and courts.
During the year the usual inspections have been made, and a
number of notices served. In the spring many of the registered
houses were cleansed, in accordance with the requirements of the
Bye-laws. But a number of owners were negligent in this respect