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60
HOUSING OP THE WORKING CLASSES ACT.
Worsdale Court.
In January notices were served with the object of getting the houses
in the above Court closed on representation made by the Medical Officer
of Health under the Housing of the Working Classes Act. The Magistrate
at the hearing decided to view the premises. Having done so on
the 7th February he gave his decision, that the houses were not in such
a state as to justify him in making a closing order. The Magistrate
therefore dismissed the summons with £5 15s. 0d. costs against the
Council. He thought that, with certain alterations made by the landlords
so as to secure through ventilation in the rooms of the houses, the
houses in respect to healthiness would be much improved.
Report on Nos. 60 to 70 Tabard Street.
The following Report was submitted to the Public Health Committee : —
" The houses numbered 60 to 70, Tabard Street are, with the
exception of No. 70, which is wholly brick, partly brick and partly
wooden in structure. There are three habitable floors with a cellar beneath.
On the ground floor there is a large room in the front 10 feet by 16 feet,
and a smaller room at the back 8 feet by 8 feet. The smaller room at
the back has running on two sides of it a passage leading from the front
entrance into the yard at the rear. The yard is 20 feet by 9 feet and there
is a washhouse 12 feet by 4 feet. There is one water-closet for the whole
house. The water is obtained from a stand-pipe in the yard and there
is no water supply on either the first or second floors. On the first floor
there are two rooms each 14 feet square, and a garret above of one room
14 feet square and 6 feet 6 inches high. All the other rooms exceed 8
feet in height. The staircase is old and dilapidated. The walls of the
rooms are in fairly good condition and are colour-washed. The arrangement
on the ground floor whereby a passage is provided, renders that
and the back room dark. The rooms in nearly all the cases are let
furnished and separately occupied. The residents are of the lowest of
the casual class. These rooms like the other furnished rooms in Tabard
Street, are often let to persons of immoral character. Cases of overcrowding
frequently occur which are dealt with by the Lady Inspector.
The general sanitary condition of the premises is fair, the rooms are
clean and the sanitary appliances are in good order. The worst features
are the ill-arrangement of the rooms on the ground floor and the unsatisfactory
character of the people living in the houses. I should like to see
houses of this description closed, but I am unable, owing to the cleanly
way in which they are kept, to recommend the Committee to issue
notices with that object, as I feel satisfied that we should be defeated in
such attempt"