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Houses Let in Lodgings.—At the end of the year 2,091 lodging houses remained on the
Council's register. Under the powers conferred by Section 16 of the Housing Act, 1909, new
bye-laws for the prevention of overcrowding and the general regulation of lodging houses have
been framed by the Council, and were confirmed by the Local Government Board in January 1912.
Bye-Laws.—The new bye-laws are 26 in number, and do not differ materially from the
bye-laws sanctioned in August, 1905, except in the following important respects, namely:—
1. Under Bye-Law 16 the duty of thoroughly cleansing and lime-washing every room in a
lodging house once a year is now imposed on the owner of the house, that is to say, the person
who is the owner within the meaning of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, and who is in the
new bye-laws described as the landlord. Formerly this duty was imposed on the person entitled
to the profit arising from the letting of the rooms in a lodging house. In many cases such persons
holding the house from the owner on a weekly tenancy are men of straw, and quite unable to
pay for the work of annual cleansing and lime-washing. They were also required to maintain the
windows of staircases, passages and rooms in working order. All these duties are now transferred
to the owner, who is given a right of entry by Section 16 of the Housing, Town Planning, etc., Act,
1909, for the purpose of carrying out any work which he is required by the bye-laws to execute.
With the transference of these duties to persons who are better able to perform them, considerable
improvement should be effected in the general condition of the lodging houses in the Borough.
2. Sub-section 3 of Section 16 of the Housing Act, 1909, also provides that where work
required by the bye-laws has not been done, the Council may themselves execute the necessary
works and recover the cost in the manner provided by Section 15 of the same Act.
3. It should further be noted that whereas the old bye-laws were applicable to any class of
premises in which separate tenements were let below a certain rental, the term "lodging house,"
and therefore the application of the new bye-laws, is by definition limited to houses intended for
the working classes, and let to members of more than one family.
4.—Bye-Law 5 makes it illegal for persons of opposite sex above the age of 12 years, and
not being persons living together as husband and wife, to occupy the same sleeping apartment.
The age at which this prohibition applies has been raised from 10 to 12, and a serious defect has
been removed from the old bye-law, which met the case of husband and wife by making it an
offence for more than two persons of different sex to occupy the same bedroom. In this form the
regulations for the separation of the sexes were often at fault in the worst cases, and permitted a
girl of any age to share a room with her widowed father or elder brother, provided there was no
third occupant over the age of 10 years.
5. Under the old bye-laws the "keeper" was responsible for cleansing common passages and
staircases, for seeing that they were ventilated daily, and for maintaining the bedding and other
articles in furnished rooms in a clean and wholesome condition. These duties are now transferred
to the tenant of the house, who must either carry them out himself or take the whole responsibility
for the default of any deputy he may appoint to act in his stead. The new bye-laws do not mention
the " keeper," and their application has been materially simplified by the elimination of this many
sided personage whose functions may be limited to those of a lodging house deputy and rent
collector, or who may on occasions combine the office of keeper, tenant, landlord, and owner.
Inspection.—The inspections and re-inspections of the registered lodging houses in the
Borough numbered 7,265. Notices requiring the remedy of defects found were served in 1,032
instances, and 71 cases of overcrowding were abated. The owners of five lodging houses were
summoned for failing to comply with notices requiring the execution of drainage work or other
sanitary repairs. The tenant of one lodging house was summoned and fined 20s. for failing to
abate a case of overcrowding, and four further summonses were taken out for various breaches of
the lodging house bye-laws.
Furnished Rooms.—Of the 2,091 lodging houses on the Council's Register 197 are let
in furnished rooms, the rent charged being at the rate of Is. per room for one night, or 6s. for a
complete week. No less than 141 of these furnished lodging houses are grouped together on a
comparatively small site in Notting Dale, in close proximity to 19 Common Lodging Houses.
Being homeless and without furniture or property of any kind save the clothes they stand up in, the
majority of the occupiers of furnished rooms belong to the dregs of society. 1 he men are not