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141
and will be, by many who under most adverse circumstances are
struggling to maintain a decent standard of living. The standard
of public health is essentially the standard of cleanliness, and therefore
the Public Washhouses are an important public health provision
in the Borough.
In such tenement houses it is common to see a complete home
constituted of 2 rooms only—one with kitchen fireplace and a
copper set in the wall; the other, a small room, maybe with no
fireplace and no cupboard. The most serious deficiences are in
respect to the inadequate space for healthy reasonable comfort and
for children to play, the lack of any provision for storing food,
the absence of a scullery sink for washing up, no provision for
washing of body, clothing, etc., or means of storing coal or wood.
When such accommodation is let to a married couple with a
family such provisions represent, in my judgment, the minimum
requirements of health, decency and comfort. But the problem
is, how are they to be provided? Many of these tenement houses
are owned by landlords who are themselves poor, and many others
show a very poor return in the rentals charged for the capital
they represent; and if the law is made much more stringent with
reference to them, such accommodation can scarcely be available
at the existing low rentals. Nevertheless, the present state of
things urgently demands some betterment, and there should be an
established minimum standard of requirement for any separate
family dwelling.
We are able to enforce water-supply on each floor so occupied,
but this is often from a tap only, and (in default of slopsinks)
all the dirty water has generally to be carried down one or
more flights of steps. It should be made possible to demand that
in addition to a water-supply there should be a proper scullery
sink upon each floor. If the total number of lodgers in a tenement
house exceeds 12, the landlord is required to provide 2 waterclosets,
but the second water-closet is almost invariably situated
against the other water-closet in the back yard. It should be a
legal requirement that the second water-closets in these cases should
be placed upon the first floor, where it could also serve, if necessary,