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The numbers of houses inspected similarly in preceding years
were 1,746, 1,501, 1,447, 1,548, 2,250, 1,341, 806, 534, 789,
1.355, 888, and 1,336, from 1901 to 1912 respectively. The houses
in the poorer districts are subject to more frequent systematic
inspection than houses in the better parts. Some streets are
inspected almost every year. In these cases this inspection is
very necessary. In some streets, where the inhabitants are
drunken, dissolute and reckless, where they are given to wilfully
destroying- property, where they steal and sell the leads off the
roof, where they break up the stair rods for firewood, and sell
the rain-water pipes for old iron, in these streets fresh defects
and dilapidations would be disclosed possibly every week or two,
and it would appear to be impossible to inspect them too often.
These people are unfit to be entrusted with decent houses. They
come into Finsbury because they have been ejected elsewhere.
Finsbury is one of the very few metropolitan boroughs where it
is possible to rent a tenement without giving a reference to a
previous landlord. In many London boroughs, the owner will
not let to a new occupier unless and until he has visited and" seen
the home'' of his prospective tenant and approved of its condition
and of its cleanliness. A house agent or owner who has an
undesirable tenant gives him notice to quit, and in case of default
gets an ejectment order. This preliminary home inspection by
the next landlord brings home to such a tenant, who maliciously
damages property, the stern necessity of reform before he may
hope to move elsewhere, with the alternative of ejectment into
the street and a prolonged search for a new lodging. It is
believed that comparatively few owners or house agents adopt
this restrictive and drastically educative method in Finsbury.
Crowding and Overcrowding—During the year 102 cases
of overcrowding were dealt with and abated: 56 of these were in
registered houses. Twenty were discovered as the result of
systematic house-to-house inspection.
The largest numbers of overcrowded tenements were in
Risinghill Street (20), Cumming Street (5), Baltic Street (4),
Bastwick Street (4), Donegal Street (4), Galway Street (4), Little