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Tho by-law in force in registered houses in Kensington which regulates cleansing, prescribes
that "the owner of a registered house shall cause the walls and ceilings of every room and of the
common passages, staircase, water-closets and outhouses thereof to be thoroughly stopped, cleansed,
and, where not papered or painted, well and sufficiently whitewashed or coloured at least once every
year, between the months of April and August both inclusive, and at any other time when necessary."
There is no requirement that the sanitary authority shall be notified when the work of cleansing is
commenced, and the inspector, under existing circumstances, is often quite unaware that such work
is in progress, and has no opportunity of satisfying himself that it is executed in a proper manner.
In many instances the result is that a covering of fresh wall-paper is made to hide irorn view whatever
has accumulated upon the walls—paper, vermin, dirt—all, in fact, that it is deemed advisable to
cover up and conceal, and the rooms are perhaps rendered quite inviting to an uncritical eye for a
day or two. Then the trouble begins, and at the end of a few weeks or months the futility of the
measures which have been adopted is abundantly apparent.
That the fault is to a large extent due to the method, or rather want of method, so far as cleansing
arrangements are concerned, and is not in special degree attributable to the dirty habits and manner
of lite of the tenants, is shown by the conspicuous contrast presented by rooms in registered
common lodging-houses as compared with tenements in houses let in lodgings, whether registered or
unregistered, in Kensington. In the case of the former half-yearly cleansing is carried out, and it is
carried out under the eye of the inspector, with the result that it is an exceptional thing for the walls
and ceilings of a common lodging-house to show traces of vermin. Intruders are driven from the
open country, so to speak, where traces of their presence are readily discernible, to obscurer hiding
places in bedsteads and bedding, in which from time to time, under existing circumstances, they are apt
to gain a footing. In many a tenement house in Kensington, however, the walls and ceilings proclaim
at once that vermin hold undisputed possession of the field, and under these circumstances to
criticise the condition of beds and bedding is quite beside the mark. The Vestry have had under
consideration (vide Annual Report of Medical Officer of Health for 1898, p. 125) "the desirability of a
proposed by-law requiring the landlord of a registered house to give notice to the sanitary authority,
when intending to carry out the annual cleansing, so as to enable the sanitary inspector to supervise
the execution of the work." The Local Government Board, however, expressed doubt as to whether
such a by-law could be made, and suggested "that a definite period should be fixed for the execution
of the work of cleansing, &c., meaning one month, so that the sanitary authority, knowing about when
the work would be in progress should have a chance of being able to exercise supervision." There can
be no question that this chance would be more likely to be improved by increasing the number ot
inspectors, and so diminishing the unmanageably wide field of operations of each individual inspector,
than it could be by any alteration of the wording of the by-law.
Dirty bedding.—Another very important matter and one to which Dr. Dudfield has directed attention
in his recent reports is the need of power to enforce in "furnished" rooms in registered houses the
provision "of bedding which should be clean and wholesome and free from noxious insects." The sanitary
committee of the Vestry considered this question and recommended that a draft by-law in the following
terms should be submitted to the Local Government Board for approval—"The landlord or keeper of a
registered house in which rooms are let in furnished lodgings shall cause the bedding and other articles
in such rooms to be at all times maintained in a clean and wholesome condition and free from
noxious insects." The question is under the consideration of the Local Government Board. The
need for some improvement in the condition of bedding in the rooms of tenement houses in
Kensington (and it is unfortunately not only the beds and bedding in "furnished" rooms which
are at fault) is very apparent at the present time. I made notes in a few instances in which
extreme conditions of the kind referred to were observed—cases in which the torn and dirty
rags which served as bed linen" were found to be fouled with blood and excreta and to present
innumerable marks of vermin which had accumulated during many months. There would probably be
no legal difficulty raised to prevent the destruction of such worthless materials, unless perchance the
plausible but mischievous contention were successfully advanced that "bed linen" of any kind was
better than no bed linen at all. But it is the prevention of the attainment of such extreme conditions
that is desirable. In the case of common lodging-houses there is a regulation which requires the
keeper to "wash or otherwise cleanse all the bedsteads, beds, mattresses or palliasses, pillows, blankets,
rugs, covers, sheets, and chamber utensils as often as shall be reasonably necessary to keep the same at
all times in wholesome condition." The persevering enforcement of this regulation has led to the
standard which obtains in common lodging-houses at the present time being far better than that of
tenement houses generally, and to its presenting a very marked contrast to that in tenement houses
frequented by the lodging-house class or a class a little above them in the social scale.
In "furnished" rooms the "keeper" provides the bedding as a rule, but it is generally understood
that, the occupier is responsible for washing bed linen. In a few instances sheets were said to
be changed once a week, and in one house let out in "furnished" rooms, which I visited, the bed linen
was apparently actually washed as frequently as this, for a copper was placed at the disposal of the
tenants, and the deputy's wife stated that she was very particular about the washing, and the condition
of the bedding bore out her statement. In some instances, in which no washing appliances are provided
in the house itself, women make use of the public baths and washhouses which are fortunately (so far
as the particular district is concerned) situated not far from the locality in which "furnished" rooms
abound in Kensington. In most cases, however, very little supervision is exercised in regard to this
matter. On asking a deputy in charge of a house let out in "furnished" rooms how often the tenants
washed their bed linen, he replied, "when I walks round them, and some of them want a deal of
walking round." It was manifest from the condition of the house in question that the standard
maintained was far from being a satisfactory one, and the need for exercise of additional control was
obvious. Curiously enough this deputy's standard became satisfactory when he left this house and
entered the adjoining one. Here, under the same management, was a common lodging-house which