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important question. It should be a condition in selecting tenants that
the work must be in Westminster, and preference should be given to
those who have resided at least two years previously in the City.
Reference was made when writing last year as to the conditions at
St. George's House, the old casual wards of the workhouse. It is satisfactory
to record that by the end of 1926 all the tenants had left. The
building is therefore now empty. The owners made generous awards
to the remaining tenants, who were thus enabled to obtain other accommodation.
Obstructive Buildings in Willow Place—This is a narrow court,
approached through a still narrower passage. There were five old
houses of the cottage type in the court. The two houses on the
right were inhabited and are in fair condition, the drainage having been
made modern only a few years ago. The three houses on the left had
been empty for years, were utterly dilapidated and quite unfit for habitation.
They were reported to the Public Health Committee as obstructive
buildings, obstructing light and air from the cottages on the right. On
these facts being represented to the owners measures were undertaken to
demolish them and to clear the site. This has been done, with lasting
benefit to the other two houses.
The new bye-laws of the L.C.C. regulating houses let in lodgings
came into operation in March, 1926. In 1925 it was recorded that there
were 1,103 houses on the register under the old bye-laws of the City
Council. The old register was found to contain a number of houses, the
ownership of many of which had changed, and a certain number where
the character of the lettings had altered so materially that the houses in
question could no longer be classified as houses let in lodgings. As the
new bye-laws difier in many important respects from the old and moreover
cover a much wider field as regards requirements, it was deemed
expedient to begin with a fresh register. As suggested in the memorandum
from the L.C.C., the progress of registration is being gradually established.
At the end of 1926 thirteen houses had been registered.
Underground Bedrooms.—The use of underground rooms as sleeping
rooms contrary to the regulations made by the Council under the Housing
and Town Planning Act, 1909, which have effect as if made under the
Housing Act, 1925, was brought to the notice of the Sanitary Authority
in 18 instances. In 13, the question arose in connection with the conversion
of large houses into flats and the suitability of the basement
quarters for the caretaker or servants' was found to be contrary to the
terms of the regulations. Objection was raised in similar circumstances
in connection with three new houses. In two instances there had been