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§ 3. DWELLINGS.
House to House Inspections.—The number of streets, or parts of streets,
inspected from house to house during the year was 3, consisting of 43 houses,
containing 314 rooms, all occupied, let to 110 families.
Houses occupied in separate dwellings.—These consist of houses (I.) so constructed
or (II.) adapted or (III.) sublet so as to be occupied in dwellings that
may be (A) self-contained or (B) not self-contained.
(A) Houses occupied in separate and self-contained dwellings in St. Pancras
are set out in List I. appended to this Report. Such dwellings - may be
completely self-contained dwellings, or partly self-contained. In the latter case,
when the w.c., scullery, or washhouse, anyone or more of these, are not within
the front door of the dwelling, but are on the same floor and reserved for the
sole use of the dwelling, such dwelling may be conveniently styled selfcomplete
dwellings.
(B) Houses occupied in separate but not self-contained dwellings embrace
houses constructed so that the w.c.'s, sculleries, washhouses, or open lobbies, ^
any one or more of these, are on the same floor as and used in association
with dwellings forming associated dwellings; and houses so constructed that
every separate room of every separate dwelling opens directly on to a staircase
or corridor used in common, in addition to the domestic and sanitary
conveniences being so used, and the dwellings in such houses may appropriately
be termed common dwellings, the only severance being the separate
rooms.
The lines of cleavage between a house, a dwelling, a lodging, &c, appear
to be those (1) of structure and (2) of usage. The structural are the degrees of
severance of one tenant's occupation from another's, and the usage the degrees
of control by the landlord in the matter of access {i.e., locking the door), of
service (i.e., rendering domestic service), of furniture (i.e., furnished apartments),
and of residence (i.e., residence of the landlord upon the premises).
Section 70 of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, Part IV., provides
that in letting for habitation to persons of the working classes a house, or part
of a house, there shall be implied the condition that the house is at the
commencement of the holding in all respects reasonably fit for human
habitation. This is very vague, and additional provision is required somewhat
to the following effect:—In letting for habitation as a dwelling part of
a house there shall be provided a sufficient and accessible water supply and
liquid waste on the same storey, or adjoining half-storey, as the dwelling or
part of the dwelling is situated, and in the absence of such water supply and
liquid waste it shall be implied that the dwelling is not reasonably fit for
human habitation.
Underground Dwellings.—During the year notices were served upon the
owners of two underground rooms let separately from the rest of the house
as dwellings to discontinue their use as dwellings.
Registered Tenement Houses.—The number of houses let in separate dwellings
or in lodgings to members of more than one family, and registered under the
Bye-laws, was at the end of the year 834, and of these 104 inspections and
158 re-inspections (after notices) were made. In addition 2090 house to house
inquiries in tenemented streets were made as to the number of dwellings, &c.,
in each house, and 41 houses were measured and entered for registration.