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from the street by a narrow passage, or an archway under a house; in some of these the houses were
at the time in a fair condition owing to the fact that repairs had been effected within a recent period,
in other cases the houses were old and worn out.
During the inspection I visited 462 dwellings, and in 280 of these defective conditions were
found to exist; these include dilapidations such as defective roofs and ceilings, broken plaster of the
walls, defective flooring, guttering and stack.pipes, and unpaved or insufficiently paved yards and forecourts
adjoining the houses.
As a rule it was found that waterclosets were provided with separate flushing cisterns (the
domestic water supply being generally obtained from the rising main), that drain inlets were provided
with properly trapped gulleys, and that sinks situated within houses were aerially disconnected from the
drains, and discharged over gulley traps outside the buildings. Although defective conditions of water.
closets and traps were observed, it may be said that there was little ground for fault to be found in
regard to these matters; the action of the vestry has apparently, during recent years, caused much
improvement of the drainage of premises, and especially in maintaining house drains and fittings in a
fair condition of repair. I found also that, with few exceptions, houses are well provided with movable
dust receptacles consisting of galvanised iron pails, which, however, are not fitted with covers. These
pails were originally distributed to all houses in the parish by the vestry, and can now be replaced by
owners, when necessary, at a trifling cost. In many instances it was observed that the custom of keeping
poultry and other animals tended to cause a dirty and untidy condition of the back yards.
The condition, however, which was most noticeable, and which I found to exist in a large number
of houses, especially in the older premises, was dampness of the walls in some cases extending up as
high as the ceiling of the ground floor room. This is probably due in a great measure to some
structural defect, such as the absence of a proper damp course ; in many of these houses, however, it was
observed that the level of the ground floor was below that of the adjoining ground, and that the floors were
often laid either directly on the soil without any intervening air space, or that the ground underneath the
flooring was not covered with a layer of concrete. In some houses, owing to the action of the vestry,
attempts have been made, with a fair amount of success, to remedy these conditions, by excavation of
the ground beneath the floor and by the insertion of damp courses.
As the result of proceedings under the Housing of the Working Classes Act much improvement
has been, and is still being effected in some parts of the parish, especially where houses had been
erected during the last few years in place of premises which the owners had demolished after closing
orders had been obtained. Houses in Columbia.road, Ezra.street, Harts.lane, and Brady.street may
be referred to as illustrations. In other instances, however, the results obtained under this Act had not
been so satisfactory. This is probably due to the fact that attempts have been made to place the
existing houses in a habitable condition, but either the repairs were not of a sufficiently substantial
character, or else the condition of the premises was such as to render of little use any measures short
of reconstruction, and the result has been that within a short period the premises have again fallen into
a defective state. In this connection I may cite the case of a row of houses which had been closed
under a magistrate's order a short time prior to my visit in order that they should be rendered fit for
habitation, this was the second time within a period of about four years that it had been necessary to
apply for closing orders with regard to these premises. Again I found a number of houses to be in a
defective condition, with damp walls, defective paving, and dilapidations, yet these houses had some
eighteen months previously been repaired to meet the requirements of a magistrate's closing order.
Most of the houses which I visited, were occupied by more than one family. Some of these,
evidently, had been originally designed for occupation by one family only, but some were recent buildings
erected with a view to accommodate two or more families, and were provided with separate washhouse
and water.closet for each tenement.
Inquiry was made at many houses as to the number of residents, and in many instances it was
found (more especially in single room tenements) that overcrowding existed, that is to say, the amount
of cubic space per head was less than the minimum amount which is adopted as a standard in the model
by-laws of the Local Government Board as to houses occupied by members of more than one family.
These by.laws prescribe 400 cubic feet for each person in rooms occupied as living and sleeping rooms, and
300 cubic feet in rooms used as sleeping rooms only, two children under ten being regarded as equivalent
to one adult. The following are a few instances of the conditions met with in single room tenements —
a family consisting of father, mother and four children living in a room of about 960 cubic feet capacity;
a father, mother and two children in a room of 980 cubic feet capacity ; father, mother and three children
in a room of 710 cubic feet; father, mother and two children in a room of 740 cubic feet capacity.
In connection with the subject of overcrowding I append the following table as regards Bethnal.
green from the annual report of the medical officer of health of the administrative County of London.
In this report it is pointed out that in the census report for 1891, the number of persons in each
sanitary district occupying tenements of less than five rooms, and more than two persons in a room is
taken as representing a condition of overcrowding. The following figures show the number of tenements
thus occupied and the number of person3 and the percentage of the population of the parish dwelling
in them.
1 room
2 rooms
3 rooms
4 rooms
Number of 1 to 4
roomed tenements with
more than two
occupants per room.
Number of occupiers
of such tenements.
Percentage of
population in such
tenements.
2,927
2,583
1,447
539
11,498
15,955
11,496
5,260
8.90
12.36
8.90
4.07