London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1923
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
This page requires JavaScript
70
need of new by-laws under Section 26, a deputation from the Borough Council appeared before
the County Council's Public Health Committee in February, 1923.
The number of houses let in lodgings on the Council's Register at the end of the year was
2,428, 269 houses having been added during the preceding twelve months. The effect of registration
is to render the premises subject to the requirements of the Council's By-Laws made under
Section 94 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, as extended by Section 16 of the Housing,
Town Planning, etc. Act, 1909.
The inspections and re-inspections of the registered lodging houses in the Borough during 1923
numbered 7,903. The owners of fourteen of these houses were summoned for breaches of the
lodging house by-laws, or for failure to carry out sanitary works required by the Council.
Houses Let in Furnished Rooms.--Of the 2,428 lodging houses on the Council's Register,
89 were in 1923 let in furnished rooms, the average rent charged being at the rate of 7/- per week
per room.
The following figures show the number of houses let in-furnished rooms in the different parts of the Borough.
| Norland Ward | 52 |
| St. Charles Ward | 14 |
| Pembridge Ward | 11 |
| Golborne Ward | 12 |
| Other Wards | 0 |
| 89 |
These houses constitute the most unsatisfactory and undesirable form of housing accommodation
and it is therefore very pleasing to note that the number of dwellings of this type in the
Borough is gradually diminishing. In 1912 there were 187, no less than 103 being in the Notting
Dale area. In 1920 the number in the Borough was 101; in 1921 and 1922, 95; and in 1923, 89.
The total number of inspections of these houses in 1923 was 1410.
RETURN OF BASEMENT DWELLINGS IN THE BOROUGH, IN NORTH AND SOUTH KENSINGTON AND IN THE SEVERAL WARDS.
| No. of basementsused for dwelling purposes. | No. of basement dwellings with ceilings at or below street level. | No. of basementdwellings in which the width of the front area does not exceed 3 feet. | No. of basementdwellings in which the width of the front area exceeds 3 feet and does not exceed 4 feet. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Borough - | 13,095 | 684 | 1,233 | 2,087 |
| North Kensington | 5,180 | 338 | 689 | 855 |
| South Kensington | 7,915 | 346 | 544 | 1,232 |
| Wards. | ||||
| St. Charles | 1,212 | 33 | 150 | 181 |
| Golborne | 1,155 | 88 | 26 | 43 |
| Norland | 1,394 | 123 | 330 | 474 |
| Pembridge | 1,419 | 94 | 183 | 157 |
| Holland | 1,618 | 134 | 26 | 72 |
| Earl's Court | 1,863 | 121 | 65 | 28 |
| Queen's Gate | 1,071 | 13 | 96 | 95 |
| Redcliffe | 1,949 | 63 | 148 | 175 |
| Brompton | 1,414 | 15 | 209 | 862 |
HOUSE REPAIRS AND IMPROVEMENTS IN HOUSING CONDITIONS.
No subject has occupied more of the time and attention of the Public Health Committee
during the past year than that of house repair and improvement of existing housing accommodation.
This difficult problem has also received a considerable amount of attention by the Council and by
various organisations interested in the Borough.
It is well known that during the War and for some time after its termination, the cessation of
building operations by private individuals and the prohibitive cost of material and labour combined
to bring about a position, as regards the number of persons occupying tenement houses and the
state of repair in which these houses were kept, which the Council were practically powerless to
remedy substantially.