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County of London or to any place where Section 22 of the Public Health Act
Amendment Act, 1890, is in force. The Home Secretary on the 4th February,
1903, issued No. 89 of his Statutory Rides and Orders, which is a Sanitary
Accommodation Order, and amongst other things it provides that " every
" sanitary convenience shall be kept in a cleanly state, shall be sufficiently
" ventilated and lighted, and shall not communicate with any workroom except
" through the open air, or through an intervening ventilated space ; provided
" that any workrooms in use prior to the 1st January, 1903, and mechanically
" ventilated in such a manner that air cannot be drawn into the workroom
" through the sanitary convenience, an intervening ventilating space shall not
" be required." Unfortunately, as beforementioned, the Act provides that this
< Irder shall not apply to London, and consequently London has to fall back
upon By-law (.1) of the London County Council, made under the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891, Section 39 (1), with respect to water-closets, in which it
is prohibited to " construct any such water-closet, so that it is approached
" directly through any room used for the purpose! of human habitation, or used
" for the manufacture, preparation, or storage of food of man, or used as a
" factory, workshop, or workplace." Now, it has been held by a magistrate
that a water-closet approached through two doors and a narrow intervening
space is not approached directly.
It is very desirable that the London County Council By-law should be
amended so as to embrace the principle expressed in the Order of the Home
Secretary, namely, the severance of a water-closet from an occupied place by
an intervening ventilated space or lobby.
Water-closels in basements.—By the same London County Council By-law it
is provided that a water-closet in a basement shall have an area of forty square
feet of open space at least five feet in width. Presumably this provision is for
the purpose of aerially disconnecting the water-closet from the interior of the
building. It is difficult to understand why such a large amount of open space
is required in this instance, whilst none at all is required in the instance
quoted above.
Materials of pipes.— Paragraph 12 of By-law No. 4 of the Drainage By-laws
made by the London County Council under the Metropolis Management Act,
18-35, Section 202, runs as follows :—
" Provided that in any case where such drain shall be constructed of
" iron, he shall not be required to cover such drain with concrete,
" but unless it be carried above-ground and also be carried at least
" at each joint on adequate piers or other sufficient supports, con"
structed of iron, stone, brick, or cement concrete, it shall be laid
" on a bed of good concrete in accordance with the requirements
" of this By-law relating to drains which do not pass under a
" building."
And By-law 11, paragraph 1, runs as follows :—
" Any person who shall provide a soil pipe in connection with a new
" building for the purpose of conveying to a sewer any solid or
" liquid excremental filth, or shall for that purpose construct a soil
" pipe in connection with an existing building, shall, whenever