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64
On the 22nd April a lengthy Report upon Underground Dwellings was
presented to the Public Health Committee, and received by the Council on the
20th May. And on the 14th October a supplemental Report was made to the
Public Health Committee.
The temporary Inspectors engaged in the work of inspection made weekly
returns, and the result of summarising these preliminary returns showed that
they had inspected 129 streets, consisting of 4,480 houses, containing 7,474
basement rooms, of which 535 were unoccupied, 4,615 were occupied for
purposes other than sleeping, and 2,324 were occupied for sleeping purposes,
1,247 in conjunction with rooms on other floors, and 1,077 not in conjunction
with rooms on other floors.
Upon revision of these rough totals it was found that there were 1,257
underground dwelling rooms occupied by 3,541 persons.
Upon further revision of these returns it was found that of 2,589 basement
rooms occupied for sleeping purposes 898 were occupied in conjunction with
rooms on other floors, namely, 3 on the fourth floor, 73 on the third floor,
98 on the second floor, 258 on the first floor, and 466 on the ground floor, and
that 415 were occupied in conjunction with rooms in the basement, and that
of the total 1,276 were underground dwelling-rooms illegally within the
complicated definitions of the enactments.
The Supplemental Report referred to 8 additional streets, 258 additional
houses, and 419 additional basement rooms, making a total of 137 streets,
4,738 houses, and 7,893 basement rooms inspected.