View report page

20
of the eastern portion of Pall Mall. It was found that, in
the original plans of this hotel, the sanitary arrangements
had been provided upon an inadequate scale, and that for
its large number of guests and working staff more than
one hundred extra water-closets, besides baths, handbasins,
and other sanitary comforts would be needed in
order to make perfect the sumptuous suites of apartments
and the palatial restaurants that were being constructed.
The question was as to how the necessary soil-pipes were
to be planned and where they were to be placed.
In the bye-laws made by the London County Council,
under the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, section 39 (1),
the wording runs as follows: —
" 4.—Any person who shall provide a soil-pipe in
" connection with a building to be hereafter erected
" shall cause such soil-pipe to be situated outside such
" building; and any person who shall provide, or con"
struct, or refit a soil-pipe in connection with an exist"
ing building shall, whenever practicable, cause such
" soil-pipe to be situated outside such building, and
" in all cases where such soil-pipe shall be situated
" within any building, shall construct such soil-pipe in
" drawn lead, or of heavy cast-iron, jointed with
" molten lead and properly caulked."
In this case the building had already been erected
and its drainage plans had passed the Works Committee
and had been finally sanctioned by the Vestry. It
might, therefore, have been contended that the additional
soil-pipes came under the second part of the
bye-law, as "constructed in connection with an existing
building1." But this technical point was not taken, and
it came to this: either this large aggregate of wealthy
guests was to be deprived of the extra closets that were
needed for their suites of apartments; the soil-pipes were
to be trained up over the stone facades of the hotel; or
long horizontal stretches of soil-pipe would have to be
carried through the interior of the building, in order to
reach the various well-holes and areas in which the