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In Collinson Street the basement rooms have, by the means of staircases,
been connected with those of the ground floor, the two being let
as one occupation. This has been done to avoid the Public Health Act
in regard to underground rooms. I find, however, that in two cases
the basement proper has been sub-let to other families, and so has contravened
Section 96 of the Public Health Act. The basement dwellings
of the blocks A to L have not the surface of the floors of any of the
rooms more than three feet below the surface of the adjoining street
or of the ground adjoining or nearest to them. They are therefore not
underground rooms as defined by the 96th Section of the Public Health
Act.
With regard to the basement rooms in Collinson Street only those
separately occupied can be brought under the operation of the Section
on underground rooms.
I advise that, unless the Managers of these buildings are prepared
to abide by the previous arrangement not to allow any children to occupy
these dark and dirty basements in the blocks, some of the worst
tenements in regard to light and ventilation be taken under Section 2
before the Magistrate for his decision. The same remarks would apply
to the cellar dwellings in Collinson Street when both basement and
ground floors are occupied by one family. In regard to the basement
being occupied in contravention of Section 96, notices will be at once
served upon them.
Although, as a whole, these basement dwellings are quite unfit to be
used as dwellings, I would advise the Committee to proceed in the way I
have pointed out."
Report on the King's Court Area.
The following report was submitted to the Public Health Committee
:—
In accordance with the request of the Public Health Committee, I
beg to submit a report on the structural condition and general sanitary
state of the houses, with statistics in relation to the population of the
Courts contained in the area which is bounded on the North by Suffolk
Grove, and on the East by Southwark Bridge Road, and od the West by
Great Suffolk Street.
This area, which was represented under the Housing of the Working
Classes Act some seven years ago by the late Medical Officer of Health
for the parish of St. George the Martyr, has been variously named and
sub-divided. I am disposed to apply the name King's Court Area to the
space included in the above-mentioned boundaries.