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71
The question of water supply is particularly important. In many
tenement houses the only water supply for the whole house is that
drawn from a tap in the basement, and very few are provided with a
separate tap for each tenement. It is difficult for the occupiers of these
houses to practice the cleanliness that is essential for wholesome living.
There was formerly some doubt whether sanitary authorities were not
empowered to require a separate water-supply to each tenement under
section 48 (1) of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, which provides
as follows:
An occupied house without a proper and sufficient supply of
water shall be a nuisance liable to be dealt with summarily under
this Act, and, if it is a dwelling house, shall be deemed unfit for
human habitation.
In 1905, however, an important decision was given in the Marylebone
Police Court by Mr. Plowden, who in dismissing a case instituted
by the Paddington Borough Council stated that the words "proper and
sufficient" in the above section referred to the source of supply and not
to the provision of taps within the house In 1907 the London County
Council placed the matter on a more satisfactory basis by securing the
insertion of the following section in their Act of that year:
(78) For the purposes of section 48 (provisions as to house
without proper water supply) of the Public Health (London) Act,
1891, a tenement house shall be deemed to be a house without a
proper and sufficient supply of water unless there shall be provided
on the storey or one of the storeys in which the rooms or lodgings
in the separate occupation of each family occupying such house are
situate a sufficient provision fcr the supply of water for domestic
purposes.
It is provided, however, that this section shall not apply to "any
tenement house in respect of which it can be shown that any such
provision for the supply of water as aforesaid is not reasonably necessary."
During the year 1909 the number of houses dealt with under this
section was 85. In each house a water tap and a glazed earthenware
sink were provided on each floor. The provision of a sink is important,