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90
London County Council in regard to fire. The requirements in question are
those demanding in houses constructed in flats of fire resisting materials, that
on the staircases the front doors of the flats shall be automatically closing, and
that the fanlights over such doors shall be fixed, the effect of which is that no
airing of a flat dwelling can be obtained through the door or fanlight on the
staircase.
"Your Committee approved of plans for dwellings on the Brantome
Place Area, now known as Flaxman Terrace, one of the conditions of which
approval was that the dwellings should be capable of being aired or blown
through in the morning after having been closed up during the night. This
airing or 'through blow' of air (of which the term 'through ventilation'
conveys an utterly inadequate conception) can only be obtained from one front
of a building through to another front. If the 'through blow' has to be
obtained within the dwelling or flat itself and not off the staircase outside the
flat, this restricts the conditions of construction to such an extent that only
two dwellings or flats can be designed on each floor, and this mode of construction
is costly. Economy demands four fiats on each floor, and compels
two of the four flats to be so constructed that all the rooms must be on one
front, as was the case in the back to back houses which were condemned on
this site and which these flats have displaced. No 'airing' or 'through
blow' is possible in a one-fronted dwelling or flat where the openings are all
on one side, as it is physically impossible for the wind to blow out of the same
opening as it blows into, and the only way of obtaining a 'through blow' is
by an opening on the other side of the building. For one-fronted flats this
'through blow' can only be obtained by means of the front door with fanlight
over through the common staircase to an opening in the outer wall on
the other side of the staircase. The reason given for the requirement of the
London County Council is that if a fire occurred in a flat the smoke might fill
the staircase. I venture to suggest that the remedy is to require the staircase
to be more open to the air.
"A horizontal arcade, even when only reaching to the first floor level, is a
notoriously unhealthy mode of construction unless it is short and fully open to
the air at the sides or ends, and a vertical arcade such as the common staircase
of a house constructed in flats is an equally unhealthy form of construction
unless there be sufficient openings to allow of ample and permanent communication
with the open air. The best way to remedy a draught is to make the
openings larger without necessarily going to the extreme of removing the
whole of the enclosing arcade so as to make it vertically or horizontally an
open street.
"I beg to recommend that a representation be made to the Public Health
Department of the London County Council calling their attention to the fact
that the requirements under the London Building Acts—means of escape in
case of fire—as to the complete closure or closability of common staircases of
buildings constructed in flats, and of the front doors of such flats and fanlights
over, on such staircases are obstructive of the airing or through blow or through
ventilation of dwellings and conducive to the increase of consumption in the
Metropolis."
This was approved by your Council on 16th December, 1908, and a resolution
adopted to send a copy of the Report to the London County Council.