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the City Council, with much more limited resources, has done likewise.
It is surely, however, an obligation on owners to do their part by adequately
securing these dwellings or by providing other accommodation.
In concluding these remarks it may be well to mention that dwelling houses which fall into the category of dangerous structures are not
necessarily insanitary. It is true that many old houses require frequent
inspections in order that defects may be remedied before they have assumed
a serious character, and this work forms one of the most important duties
of the department. Most of the reconditioning of working-class dwellings
which is constantly proceeding is done either voluntarily in consultation
with the sanitary inspectors or as a consequence of intimations served under
the Public Health Act. The older a house, the more prone to defects
does it become. But it is not necessarily the house with the most
apparent sanitary defects, such as a leaky roof or choked drain, that reveals
itself as a dangerous structure. Some houses recently scheduled for
demolition as dangerous structures were among the cleanest and best
maintained in the district; on the other hand, settlement in the walls
may be an outward indication of a graver state of dilapidation inside.
Underground Rooms.—The following extracts from a report by the
Medical Officer of Health indicate the principal points in an exchange of
views which took place during the year between the London County
Council, the Metropolitan Boroughs' Standing Joint Committee and the
City Council.
After a recital of the existing legal provisions governing the use of underground
rooms, the report continued as follows
"The question of the use of basement rooms for dwelling purposes was first
raised by the Committee appointed by the Conference of Public Authorities on
Thames Floods. This Committee had presented their views to the London County
Council to the effect that, where basement rooms in low-lying areas liable to floods
did not comply with existing statutory requirements, steps should be taken at the
earliest practicable time to secure that they were no longer used as dwellings.
"The County Council then considered the matter in relation to suggestions for
amending the law dealing with underground rooms. The law, as it stands, is almost
exclusively concerned with the regulation of those rooms as sleeping places.
Appreciation of the present housing shortage in London and the possible results
likely to ensue from further legal restrictions in regard to underground rooms, led
the County Council to ask for the views of the Metropolitan Boroughs' Standing
Joint Committee on the subject (23rd July, 1928).
"The Standing Joint Committee, before expressing any opinion to the County
Council, requested the fifteen riverside Boroughs individually to state their views
(October 1st, 1928).
"Accordingly, as Westminster is a riverside authority, the matter was brought
before the Public Health Committee on 20th November, 1928, but consideration