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40
Bolton Road.
There were in this road 33 houses, but within the past year or so ten have been demolished
by a business man who proposes to erect premises for commercial purposes. Careful consideration
must be given with a view to deciding whether the remaining 23 houses should be regarded as
constituting a clearance area or an improvement area.
Bramley Mews.
There are 14 dwellings in this mews, with about 45 occupants. At present they do not
constitute a clearance or improvement area, but it is possible that they may call for attention
during the course of the next five years.
Hayden's Place (including Tavistock Mews).
This is a site comprising 11 or 12 houses which have no yards; the water closets are
without external walls and, in some cases, have inadequate ventilation. This appears to be a
small clearance or improvement area.
Other Areas.
There are other areas in North Kensington which appear to come within the category of
improvement areas. These have not yet been defined.
BY-LAWS RELATING TO HOUSES LET IN LODGINGS.
At the beginning of 1923, there were on the council's register of houses let in lodgings
2,169 houses, and in the first month of that year it was resolved to appoint additional staff to make
a routine inspection of all houses on the register, to bring them up to the standard enforceable
under the by-laws then in operation, and also to inspect all other houses let in lodgings with a view
to placing on the register those which it was thought desirable should be brought under periodical
review.
In March, 1926, when the present code of by-laws came into operation, the number on the register
had reached 3,651.
The introduction of the new by-laws, with their altered requirements, called for re-inspection,
and two temporary sanitary inspectors, who had been retained for housing work, commenced to
" comb through " the borough again. Owing to the altered definition of a house let in lodgings,
which resulted in a house occupied by two families only or by one family with two lodgers being
non-registerable, there has been a gradual decline in the number of houses on the register, and the
figure at the end of December, 1931, was 3,090.
The formidable task of making detailed inspections of all houses let in lodgings in the borough,
which was commenced in 1923, was completed in the early weeks of 1931, and the council now have
a valuable record of all houses inspected.
The by-laws for houses let in lodgings have proved to be of the greatest use and, together
with the work under Section 17 of the Housing Act already referred to, they are a valuable instrument
in maintaining habitable conditions in houses let in lodgings in North Kensington. The following
is a record of the work carried out under the by-laws during the year 1931 :—
No. of houses inspected under the by-laws 2,143
Total number of inspections 9,437
No. of instances where the houses were cleansed under the by-laws 1,009
FOOD SUPPLY.
MILK SUPPLY.
Milk and Dairies (Consolidation) Act, 1915.—When the Act came into operation the council
decided that a number of samples of milk should be taken each year for the purpose of examination
for the presence of tubercle bacilli. In the year 1931, 20 samples were so taken, and all
were certified as being free from tubercle bacilli.
Of 314 formal samples of milk taken under the Food and Drugs (Adulteration) Act in 1931,
13 were certified by the public analyst as adulterated, i.e., containing less than 3 per cent, of fat
or 8.5 per cent, of non-fatty solids. These particulars, however, do not give any indication of the
general quality of the milk supplied in Kensington; therefore, it will be interesting to note the
average composition of the samples taken in the borough during the year. These figures are
given in the following table :—