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114
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Pancras Road, N.W.,
17th November, 1909.
To the Public Health Committee,
Mr. Chairman, Madam, and Gentlemen,—
Report of the Chief Clerk ox the Legal Proceedings token icith a view to the
closing of the du elling houses in Weirs Passage, Somers Town.
I beg to report upon the legal proceedings taken with a view to the closing
of the dwelling houses in Weirs Passage.
W eirs Passage forms part of the Chapel Grove and Eastnor Place areas
for which improvement schemes under the Housing of the Working Classes
Act, 1890, Part II., were approved and adopted by the late Vestry on May
11th, 1898, and amended by the Borough Council in 1901.
On the 17th August, 1905. the Local Government Board issued their Order
sanctioning these schemes. Upon notice of the Order being served on the
owners of every part of the areas, petitions were presented to the Local
Government Board by the freeholders of both areas, and also by one of the
leaseholders affected by the schemes. The Order sanctioning the schemes
therefore became Provisional.
The Local Government Board, on the 13th June, 1906, introduced a Bill in
the House of Commons to confirm the Provisional Order relating to the schemes
in question. This Bill became law on the 4th August, 1906. It is provided
in the Act (Section 1) that " the Order set out in the schedule hereto shall be
and the same is hereby confirmed, and all the provisions thereof shall have full
validity and force as from a date to be fixed by an Order of the Local Government
Board not being less than twelve months from the passing of this Act."
In the summer of 1908, Mr. Edgar Dudley, one of the Inspectors of the
Local Government Board, visited the properties comprised in the schemes for
the purpose of enabling the Board to decide whether the circumstances were
such as to require an Order putting in force the provisions of the Saint
Pancras (Chapel Grove and Eastnor Place) Order of 1906.
On the 25th January, 1909, a communication was received from the Board,
stating that having regard to the account given by Mr. Dudley of his
inspections of these areas, the Board were disposed to think that the necessities
of the case would be met for the present if the Borough Council succeeded in
obtaining Closing Orders in respect of the dwelling houses in Weirs Passage,
which the Inspector considered should cease to be inhabited.
Upon the receipt of this letter, the Public Health Committee viewed
the houses in Weirs Passage, and on their recommendation the Borougli
Council resolved on the 17th March, 1909, that application be made to the
Magistrate under the Housing of the Working Classes Acts for Closing
Orders. On the 3rd June, the Medical Officer of Health represented the
houses numbered 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 5, 7, 9, 11, Weirs Passage as unfit for human
habitation.
On the 7th July, Mr. d'Eyncourt, the Magistrate sitting at the Clerkenwell
Police Court, granted summonses against the owners of the above-mentioned