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56
habitation," and this remark applied also to one basement room in a house.
The Public Health Committee reported accordingly to the Council that
appropriate action had been taken to remedy the nuisances found, and
that in the case of the two unfit houses and one unfit room the owners
had taken such steps as obviated the need for closing orders. In all
except two cases the conditions which gave rise to complaint were satisfactorily
dealt with within three months of receiving the complaint.
The work entailed in consequence of a statutory complaint such as
has been described adds greatly to the ordinary duties of the Public
Health Department. As regards the administrative side, there is increased
correspondence, interviews and special reports to be made, while the visits
of sanitary inspectors in this instance numbered no fewer than 208.
Further additional work resulted from the allegations contained in an
unofficial survey of the Victoria Ward which was published in May. This
pamphlet received enormous publicity, partly by reason of the picturesque
style adopted by the authors in their descriptions of premises. This
Survey Report, in addition to a number of generalisations regarding the
housing conditions in the Victoria Ward, made a detailed commentary
on houses in certain streets without references to street numbers. A
considerable period elapsed before the promoters of the survey considered
themselves justified in revealing the identity of the houses which they
had severely criticised. In the meantime their publication—which was,
after all, an expression of unofficial opinion—gave rise to much
unjustified criticism, both written and verbal, of the state of the
public health in Westminster. The vital statistics produced by the
Registrar-General are in themselves sufficient proof that Westminster
will compare well with any urban area of similar size and age
throughout the country. In due course the identity of the houses was
revealed, and the Public Health and Housing Committees were in a
position to report to the Council as to the accuracy of the statements in
the Survey Report. Two reports were published, one a joint report by
the two committees concerned dealing with the policy of the Council in
regard to Public Health and Housing, and the other an official report
by the Medical Officer of Health dealing with the sanitary condition of
the 22 houses which were specifically commented upon in the Survey
Report. In a number of instances he was unable to find confirmatory
evidence of the conditions which had lent themselves to such vivid and
appealing description in the Survey Report published only a few months
before. Investigation by a responsible official of such allegations as
serious overcrowding requires time and considerable exactitude, for his
opinion must be supported by requirements laid down in statutes and
bye-laws. In fully half of the cases there was no overcrowding as defined