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London County Council.
Public Health Department,
Spring Gardens,
December, 1895.
BY-LAWS UNDER THE PUBLIC HEALTH (LONDON) ACT, 1891.
Report of the Medical Officer of Health, submitting a tabular statement showing:
the By-Laws and Regulations which are in force in the several sanitary
districts of the County of London.
I present a return showing the position of the several sanitary authorities in London in relation
to by-laws under the Public Health (London) Act, 1891.
Under the following sections of this Act it is obligatory on the sanitary authority to make the
by-laws referred to—
Sec. 16.—(1.) Every sanitary authority shall make by-laws—
(a) For the prevention of nuisances arising from any snow, ice, salt, dust, ashes,
rubbish, offal, carrion, fish, or filth, or any other matter or thing in any street; and
(b) For preventing nuisances arising from any offensive matter running out of any
manufactory, brewery, slaughterhouse, knacker's yard, butcher's or fishmonger's shop,
or dunghill, into any uncovered place, whether or not surrounded by a wall or fence ; and
(c) For the prevention of the keeping of animals on any premises in such place or
manner as to be a nuisance or injurious or dangerous to health; and
(d) As to the paving of yards and open spaces in connection with dwelling-houses.
Sec. 39.—(2.) Every sanitary authority shall make by-laws with respect to the keeping of
water-closets supplied with sufficient water for their effective action.
Sec. 50.—Every sanitary authority shall make by-laws for securing the cleanliness and
freedom from pollution of tanks, cisterns, and other receptacles used for storing of water
used or likely to be used by man for drinking or domestic purposes, or for manufacturing
drink for the use of man.
Sec. 94.—Every sanitary authority shall make and enforce such by-laws as are requisite for
the following matters (that is to say)—
(a) For fixing the number of persons who may occupy a house or part of a house
which is let in lodgings or occupied by members of more than one family, and for the
separation of the sexes in a house so let or occupied ;
(b) For the registration of houses so let or occupied ;
(c) For the inspection of such houses ;
(d) For enforcing drainage of such houses, and for promoting cleanliness and
ventilation in such houses;
(e) For the cleansing and lime washing at stated times of the premises;
(/) For the taking of precautions incase of any infectious disease.
It will be seen from the accompanying return that by-laws under Sees. 16 (1), 39 (2) and 50
are in force in each of the London sanitary districts.
Sec. 94, dealing with houses let in lodgings, replaces Sec. 35 of the Sanitary Act of 1866, and
Sec. 47 of the Sanitary Law Amendment Act of 1874. Under section 35 of the Act of 1866, the
Secretary of State was empowered, on the application of the nuisance authority, to declare the enactment
in force in a district authorising the authority to make regulations dealing with houses let in lodgings.
Ten of the vestries and district boards in London made application under this section in 1866 or 1867
to the Secretary of State. The Local Government Board Act, 1871, substituted the Local Government
Board for the Secretary of State as the authority to which application must be made. The Sanitary
Law Amendment Act of 1874 extended the list of subject matters with which regulations might
deal, and empowered the Local Government Board to declare the enactment in force in any part of
the metropolis without previous application having been made. Any regulations framed by a sanitary
authority were of no validity however until confirmed by the Local Government Board.
In 1883 the enactment had been put in force in 22 of the 38 districts of the Metropolis outside
the city boundaries, but regulations had actually been made in only thirteen of those districts. The
Local Government Board in this year declared the enactment to be in force in the 16 districts which
had not made application. A circular letter was moreover issued by that Board asking what action
had been taken with reference to the enforcement of regulations. It is stated in the report of the
Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes, 1885, " that two authorities, Chelsea and
Hackney, had been specially active, but that comparatively little had been done by others." The same
report contains the recommendation that " the vestries and district boards which have not already
made and enforced by-laws should proceed to do so."
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