London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1932
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
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Following their consideration of the survey, the council represented to the Ministry of Health
and the London County Council that existing legal powers are not sufficient to enable them to deal
with unsatisfactory basement rooms adequately; with the result that the county council included
in their 1933 General Powers Bill a clause which will enable the council to close such rooms
for living and sleeping purposes in any area declared to be an improvement area. The clause will
further enable the council to close any individual room in an improvement area for living and
sleeping purposes, irrespective as to whether that rocm is let separately or in conjunction with
other rooms.
MEASURES TAKEN TO DEAL WITH OVERCROWDING AND INDECENT OCCUPATION.
In houses let in lodgings, of which there are several thousand in Kensington, the council can take action to prevent overcrowding unless each cccupant has the amount of cubic feet of air space set out below :—
| Each person over 10 years, must have in a | Each person under 10 years, must have in a | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Existing by-laws for a rent-restricted room in a house let in lodgings | 300 | 400 | 150 | 200 | |
| Existing by-laws for a decontrolled room in a house let in lodgings | 400 | 400 | 300 | 300 | |
In private dwelling houses there is no legal standard of overcrowding, but the sanitary inspectors
regard such a condition to exist unless the occupants are provided with the air space set out above.
In houses let in lodgings it is illegal to permit a sleeping room to be occupied by persons of the
opposite sex over 12 years of age not living as man and wife; there is no power to deal with such
indecent occupation in private dwelling houses.
When a sanitary inspector discovers a case of overcrowding in any house, or a case of
indecent occupation in a house let in lodgings, an intimation notice is served and the facts are
reported to the next meeting of the public health committee.
The following table shows the number of cases of overcrowding and indecent occupation detected in the last seven years and the effectiveness of the action taken can be deduced therefrom.
| 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overcrowding :— Intimation notices served | 103 | 88 | 72 | 33 | 25 | 42 | 84 |
| Statutory notices' served where the intimation notice was not complied with | 38 | 28 | 10 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 6 |
| Summonses issued | 6 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| Indecent Occupation :— Intimation notices served | 79 | 92 | 84 | 23 | 27 | 16 | 28 |
| Statutory notices served where the intimation notice was not complied with | 12 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 1 | — |
| Summonses issued | — | — | 1 | _ | 1 | — | — |
As only 32 summonses were eventually issued in 447 cases of overcrowding, and only two
summonses in regard to 349 cases of indecent occupation in the seven years, it will be seen that
764 families were able to improve their accommodation without the council having to resort to
extreme measures. Moreover, the figures for 1932 suggest that those on whom notices were
served had less difficulty in securing alternative accommodation than was experienced in previous
years.
These conclusions are borne out by the results of the survey made in 1932. In this survey of
10,863 basement rooms, of which 4,134 were used for sleeping purposes, only one case of indecent
occupation was found. Cases of overcrowding were not specially recorded during the survey,
but it is safe to say that very few instances were noted where the amount of air space fcr each
person required by law was not available.
Unfortunately, the legal standard for overcrowding is a low one, with the result that in some
cases a man and his wife with eight children can live in two rooms and still come within it. The
council have made representations to the Ministry of Health and the county council asking
that they should be allowed to enforce in improvement areas a standard of 450 cubic feet of air
space for every person in a room used wholly or partly for sleeping purposes.
With a view to securing the greatest possible advantage from new houses provided by the
borough council, the county council and housing associations working in Kensington, arrangements
were made in 1925 for those persons managing the new houses to notify the medical