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32
The sanitary conditons of these basement workrooms are by no
means satisfactory in respect of lighting, warming, ventilation, and in
some cases aerial disconnection from water-closets. As stated in my
Annual Reports for 1904,1905, and 1906, I am of opinion that regulations
should be made by the Secretary of State for the Home Department,
prohibiting the use of underground rooms for workshops unless they
complied with certain conditions. If such regulations were in force,
architects in designing new buildings for use as shops on the ground
floor and residential flats or sets of chambers on the upper floors, would
cause the underground rooms to conform with the regulations, so that
the shops and basements might be let at the full rental value.
I would suggest that the regulations to be framed should require
(1) a certain proportion of glazed fanlight area (above the street level),
according to the floor surface of the basement room, a certain proportion
of this fanlight area to be made to open for ventilation ; (2) that no
room should be used as a workroom, which has not some means of
through ventilation, either by a window, or through a door and
adjoining room with window, to the back area or courtyard; (3) that
the w.c. should not be in a vault under the street ventilating directly
into the workroom, or into an area which is only top-lighted, without
means of ventilation, and which either is part of the workroom or has a
window from the workroom opening into it; (4) that the w.C. should
not open directly or be ventilated into an underground workroom ; (5
that there should be an open fireplace and flue in every basement workroom
; or, if a gas stove is to be used, a proper flue should be provided
to carry off the products of combustion.
It probably would not be possible to make existing underground
workshops comply at once with the regulations to be framed; but it
might be feasible to apply the regulations to existing workshops after a
certain period, in the same manner as the Factory and Workshops Act
Sections were made to apply to underground bakehouses after a certain
period, which allowed owners and occupiers to make the necessary
alterations after due notice.