Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Annual report on the health, sanitary condition, &c., &c., of the Parish of St. Mary Abbotts, Kensington for the year, 1898
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THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES.
Bye-Laws for Houses Let in Lodgings or Occupied
by Members of more than one Family.
Under the provisions of the Sanitary Acts of 1866 and
1874, regulations were made by your Vestry, in 1885, and
some 1,500 houses have been registered thereunder. The said
Acts being repealed, and modified provisions in respect to byelaws
having been enacted in the Public Health (London) Act,
1891, the Local Government Board addressed a circular letter
on the subject to the Sanitary Authorities in 1892, and again
in 1894. The Board pointed out that the powers conferred by
the new Act (section 94) "differ in some respects from those
exerciseable under section 35 of the Sanitary Act, 1866, and
section 47 of the Sanitary Law Amendment Act, 1874, in
pursuance of which the regulations now in force in (this)
district were made"; inasmuch as section 94 of the new Act
"no longer provides that such matters as the enforcement of
privy accommodation, the paving of premises, the notices to be
given in case of infectious or contagious disease, the cleansing
of cisterns, or the keeping of water-closets in good order, &c.,
shall be dealt with by regulations applicable to houses let in
lodgings. These matters, "it was added," can be otherwise
dealt with, in some cases by bye-laws made by the Sanitary
Authority, and applicable generally to all houses in the
district, whether let in lodgings or not, and in others by byelaws
made by the London County Council." The Board's
letter was accompanied by copies of "a model series of byelaws,
which they had caused to be prepared for the use of Sanitary
Authorities under section 94 of the Act;" and it was stated
that "these model forms were drawn up after very careful consideration
by the Board of the regulations which might be
properly enforced in the case of the class of houses to which
the enactment applies." The Board's model clauses deal with
none of the subjects above named, and it was suggested that the