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189
[1902
HOUSES LET IN LODGINGS.
At the end of the year there were 533 houses, of which 404 were situated
in the South and 129 in the North district, let in lodgings or occupied by
members of more than one family, as against 520 in the preceding year. It
cannot be pretended that this number is adequate in a borough in which so
many houses are let out in tenements, the actual number of these tenements at
the census being 79,129, of which 55,801 consisted of four rooms and
under, in which 196,423 persons resided. There is no question, in the mind of
your Medical Officer of Health, that the registration of certain of these houses
leads to theirgreater supervision, which in turn results in their greater cleanliness,
but, on the other hand, there can be no good purpose served in placing them
on the register unless they can be afterwards systematically visited. Their
inspection must not be left to haphazard, such as is, and must always be, the
case when there are not special inspectors for the work. At present one Inspector
devotes the whole of his time to it, and another divides his time between
it and the purchase and procuration of samples of food for analysis under the
provisions of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts. The time has now arrived
when this duty should be undertaken by one man, and when the inspection of
the registered houses in the Northern district of the Borough should occupy
the whole time of another, particularly as their number is being
rapidly increased. At the present time the Public Health Committee have a
report on this matter under their consideration.
There is a desire on the part of some persons, who cannot be fully
cognisant of the facts, that every house let in lodgings should be placed on the
register. To do so would require years of work, in measuring up the size of
the rooms, the fixing of the number of persons beyond which it was not
permissible that they should be occupied, and would also require a large
increase in the staff, while in the end it would not serve any really useful
purpose. This is not only the opinion of your Medical Officer of Health but
of nearly every person who has an intimate knowledge of this work. In
Islington there are thousands of houses let in tenements which it would be
nothing short of a scandal to place on the register. They are kept in a most
cleanly state, are occupied by persons of a superior class in life, who let
apartments to people of an equally good social position, who take a deep
interest in their surroundings, who are quarterly or even yearly tenants, and
who are permanent residents. These houses do not require systematic supervision.
But there are also tenement houses, which are rented by persons who
cater for the artizan or the labouring classes, whose tenants pay by the week,
and who are themselves neither too cleanly in their habits nor too careful of
their homes. It is here we are likely to find overcrowding, and in fact do find