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the ground storey by means of windows or skylights opening directly into the external air or shall be
otherwise adequately ventilated, and the principal staircase in every dwelling-house not subject to the
above provision shall be ventilated by means of a window or skylight opening directly into the external
air. The following are the requirements as to habitable rooms under the Act of 1894—
The height of such rooms must be eight feet six inches, an increase of one foot six inches
beyond the height previously required. Habitable rooms, however, wholly or partly in the
roof must, under the new Act, be not less than eight feet high throughout not less than onehalf
the area of the room, an increase of one foot above the height previously required.
Every habitable room must have one or more windows opening directly into the external
air or into a conservatory, with a total superficies clear of the sash frames, free from any
obstruction to the light, equal to at least one-tenth of the floor area of the room, and so
constructed that a portion equal to at least one-twentieth of such floor area can be opened, and
extending to at least seven feet above the floor level. Special requirements are made for the
lighting and ventilation of rooms having no external wall or situated wholly or partially in
the roof.
Provision is made to secure the ventilation of the space beneath the wooden floor of a basement
room when the floor is not constructed of solid wood bedded in concrete. Provision is also made to
protect habitable rooms over stables from nuisance from such stables.
With a view to giving facilities to land owners to clear areas and re-arrange streets, power is
given to the Council to relax or modify the conditions of the Act as to open space and width of streets
if they think it desirable to do so.
A consideration of the provisions relating to air space about houses and intended to ensure the
adequate lighting of habitable rooms shows that the requirements of the Building Act of 1894 are in
some particulars insufficient. The provisions of the Act differ materially from those of the Bill introduced
by the London County Council. It may be hoped, however, that as certain important principles
have, although inadequately, received recognition by Parliament, the Act will have an educational value
which will lead to results still better than can be actually enforced under its provisions. How far
the Building Law of 1894 will attain the object in view remains to be seen, but it may be anticipated
that if its provisions are later found to be inadequate, an extension of the powers it confers will not be
refused by the legislature.
Metropolis Management (Plumstead and Hackney) Act, 1893.
On the 25th March, 1894, in pursuance of the Metropolis Management (Plumstead and Hackney)
Act, 1893, the parish of Plumstead ceased to be united with the parishes of Charlton-next-Woolwich,
Eltham, Lee, and Kidbrooke, these four parishes continuing to be a district under the name of the Lee
district. At the same time the parish of St. Mary, Stoke Newington, ceased to be united with the
parish of Hackney.
The Act of 1893 also provided that all by-laws and regulations made by the Plumstead district
board, and subsisting on the 25th March, 1894, shall continue in force in the parish of Plumstead, and
be enforceable by the Plumstead vestry instead of by the Plumstead district board, until repealed or
altered by the Plumstead vestry in accordance with the law applicable thereto; and all the by-laws and
regulations made by the Hackney district board, and subsisting on the 25th March, 1894, shall
continue in force in the parishes of St. Mary, Stoke Newington, and Hackney, and be enforceable by
the St. Mary, Stoke Newington vestry, and the Hackney vestry in their respective parishes instead of
by the Hackney district board, until repealed or altered in accordance with the law relating thereto.

February, 1896.
Shirley F. Murphy,
Medical Officer of Health.