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94
There are underground rooms that do not conform to the
requirements which are occupied by persons for the purposes of trade
or business, or in some districts as offices for as long or longer hours
than are spent in bed rooms. It is reasonable to suppose that if it is
deemed to be undesirable to sleep under such conditions for a few
hours it is equally undesirable that such underground rooms should
be occupied during as long, or perhaps a longer period of time during
working hours. It is prescribed by Section 101 (1) of the Factory
and Workshop Act, 1901, that no room which is underground (i.e., so
situated that the surface of the floor is more than three feet below the
surface of the footway of the adjoining street or of the ground adjoining
or close to the room) can be used as a bakehouse unless it was so
used in 1901. In the Memorandum upon the Structural Requirements
of the Factory and Workshop Acts issued by H.M. Stationery Office
in 1912 it is stated that:—" Basements are, in general, unsuitable for
use as workrooms, owing to the difficulty in providing proper lighting
and ventilation, and in preventing contamination of the atmosphere
by dust and other impurities entering the windows from the street
level"; but this opinion has not the force of law. It would appear
to be desirable for legislation to be introduced which would, at all
events, prevent underground rooms which would in all probability be
occupied by persons for any considerable length of time by day or by
night being constructed in the future, unless they are so constructed
as to conform to the prescribed standards.
Kilburn Vale Area.
An official representation under Section I of the Housing Act,
1930, having been made to the London County Council by one of its
Medical Officers of Health, with respect to three areas known as the
Kilburn Vale Areas, the County Council on 7th July declared each
of the areas to be a clearance area, and resolved to secure the clearance
of the areas by purchasing the land comprised in the areas (shown
by a pink colour on the map), and itself undertook or otherwise to
secure the demolition of the buildings thereon. Further, it was
resolved that for the purpose of securing a cleared area of convenient
shape and dimensions, and for the satisfactory development or user
of the cleared areas that the County Council should, by compulsory
purchase orders, acquire the additional lands (shown by a grey colour
on the map).