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133
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
There are however a large number of houses let to members
of more than one family, and which come under the By-laws which
it would be advisable to place on the Register when such are
not kept in a sanitary condition. It has not been my practice to
ask for houses to be placed on the Register which are well looked
after by the landlord as I do not think anything would be gained
by such registration.
I am, Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
(Signed) P.CALDWELL SMITH,
Medical Officer of Health.
The houses in Larch Road, Balham, which were ordered by
the Council to be placed on the Register in 1902 and mentioned
in the Report for last year have now been placed on the Register.
The case came before the Magistrate at the South Western
Police Court and the following judgment was delivered by him:—
WANDSWORTH BOROUGH COUNCIL
v.
CURREY.
Copy of Judgment delivered by J. Rose, Esq., the Magistrate
sitting at the South-Western Police Court, on the 23rd
September, 1903.
Viewed from outside, the structure in question seems to be
an ordinary small dwelling-house.
The interior has, however, been altered so as to adapt each
floor for use as a flat, and each is occupied by a different family as
if it were a flat.
But the alterations made by the addition of a kitchen and
water-closet to each floor are not in my opinion such as to justify
me in finding that the whole structure has ceased to be a " house "
and has become a pile of residences as the erection proposed in
Rogers v. Hosegood (1900) 2 Ch. p. 393, or a block of flats such as
the Artizans Dwellings in Weatherite v. Cautley (1901) 2 King's
Bench Division 285, and the mode of use cannot change the
nature of the building.