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frying pan cannot be put on the fire. The byelaws with respect to
houses let in lodgings, or occupied by members of more than one family,
do not even demand one water-closet to be provided for every twelve
persons occupying the house. Whatever the number of persons in a
sub-let house a water-closet on each floor is, in many cases, necessary.
This would obviate the necessity of carrying chamber utensils down
the stairs and through a room possibly occupied by another family,
and would prevent the nuisance sometimes caused by tenants throwing
filth through the window into the street, yard, or passage below. I urge
that if the bylaws relating to houses let in lodgings were amended, so
as to deal satisfactorily with the conditions just enumerated, it would
result in a distinct improvement in Deptford housing.
DOUBLE TENANCIES.
In the majority of these tenancies the original intention in their construction
was for one family only; they consist of two floors, kitchen,
and room on ground floor, and two rooms upstairs. The stairway
rises in most cases from the hall, and in some cases from the kitchen,
through which the upper tenants must pass to get to their apartments
or to the yard. There are also cases in which the stairway rises
from a passage which extends from the front door to the yard; in this
case the upper tenant has access to the yard at all hours, in the former
cases the entrance to the yard is either through kitchen and room
or kitchen and passage.
There are two kinds of letting—separate letting by the agent or
owner, and sub-letting by the tenant.
When the house is let by the agent or owner each tenant is supplied
with a rent book; the tenant of the upper portion, in this class of
letting, cannot at all times have access to the yard if the entrance
to the yard is through any of the apartments of the ground floor tenant.
In the case of sub-letting one tenant pays the full rent to the agent or
owner and occupies only one half the house, generally the ground
floor portion, and sub-lets the upper portion. In this case the upper
tenant has a greater chance of having access to the yard at all hours,
because they are generally relations or acquaintances, and if any trouble
arises the upper tenant can leave at a moment's notice. In many
cases of this kind the agent or owner is not aware the house is sub-let.
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