View report page

124
In connection with the inquiry by the Special Committee
of 1896, as to the causes of the high death-rate in the
" Notting-dale " special area, an application was made to the
County Council to define the meaning of the term " common
lodging-house," to which a reply was received to the following
effect :—
" The Council is advised that in order to bring a house within the
operation of the Common Lodging-Houses Acts, 1851 and 1853, it is
essential that the following facts should exist:—
1. The house must be kept by somebody for the purpose of gain.
2. It must be open for the reception of all comers as lodgers.
3. The persons resorting to the house must be or such a class a;,
if left to themselves, would either be unwilling or unable to
secure cleanliness and prevent overcrowding.
4. Some one room or rooms in the house must be used in common
by all the lodgers.
"A large variety of circumstances might arise in any particular cast
which might come before the Council, but it is safe to say that if in any
case one of the four facts above mentioned were absent, it would be a
doubtful question whether the house could be regarded as a common
lodging-house within the meaning and intention of the statutes, and such
a case would need special and particular consideration.
" This opinion has been come to after a careful study of the decisions
in the following cases :—
Booth v. Ferrett.—Decision by Lord Chief Justice Coleridge
and Mr. Justice Mathew.
Langdon v. Broadbent.—Decision by Mr. Justice Grove and
Mr. Justice Lindley."
It is manifest that the houses in the "Notting-dale"
special area cannot, under the provisions of the existing law,
be dealt with as common lodging-houses, excepting in so far
as they may be registered as such by the Council upon the
application of the owners—a fact which the Special Committee
fully recognized in their report.