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Square and Bateman Street. They were occupied not only by English
families but by others of various nationalities including Chinese, Burmese,
and Indians.
II.—Clifford's Row, Ebury Gardens, Eaton Cottages, Ebury Bridge Road
(part), Gregory Cottages, Grosvenor Cottages, and Willow Place.
The Council considered the question of declaring the above, mostly
scattered rows of old cottages, to be Clearance Areas and, following the
requirements of the statutes, have asked the London County Council
whether they propose to deal with them as such. If the London County
Council do not intimate their intention themselves to make Clearance
Orders the City Council will proceed to deal with them in this way.
The several areas embrace 64 houses, mostly of the cottage type,
occupied by 68 families.
Closure of Parts of Buildings Unfit for Human Habitation.
Consequent upon the amendments made by the Housing Act, 1935,
the Regulations made under the Housing, Town Planning, etc., Act,
1909, by the City Council in 1915 with regard to underground rooms were
rescinded and new Regulations, based upon the Ministry of Health's
model code, were made and adopted.
The new regulations make restrictions as to the use for human habitation
of any underground room not complying with their provisions. The
former regulations were applicable only to underground rooms used for
sleeping purposes. This is an important difference so far not generally
fully appreciated by owners, who not infrequently feel that legal conditions
will be satisfied by simply arranging that underground rooms not
complying with the regulations shall no longer be used as bedrooms.
Although the standards laid down in the regulations provide a useful
and exact method of determining the fitness or unfitness of an underground
room on matters of fact as distinct from those of opinion, the procedure
adopted by the Council in dealing with basements is founded on the
statutes themselves. The Act of 1935 enlarged the scope of these operations
by extending the reference from rooms separately occupied to rooms
not necessarily so occupied. Whereas it was formerly not possible to
make a closing order on an empty room, an order can now be made if the
room is suitable for occupation by the working classes. The removal of
the former restrictions has considerably improved the machinery for
dealing with underground rooms.