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London County Council.
REPORT BY THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH AS
TO HOUSES LET IN LODGINGS.
(Printed under an order by the Public Health Committee dated 23rd October, 1902.)
In presenting the annexed summary of replies received from medical officers of health of
metropolitan boroughs, together with other particulars, with reference to houses let in lodgings, I should
point out that in several instances the codes of by-laws now in operation have only recently come into
force, and there has not been opportunity of studying their working. Again in several instances
new by-laws have been drafted, but are not yet confirmed. This is the case in the City of Westminster
and the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, where for the time being the original codes of by-laws
of the districts now combined to form Westminster and Woolwich respectively are still in force.
New by-laws have also been under consideration in Fulham, Greenwich and Kensington.
With respect to replies to the question whether difficulties have been experienced in the
administration of the by-laws, may be mentioned the statement of the medical officer of health of
Bethnal-green that, since the decision in the case of Weatheritt v. Cantley, owners decline to supply
particulars for registration, but it would appear that when similar objection was made in Finsbury
the sanitary authority obtained a favourable decision from the magistrate. A few of the medical
officers of health refer to difficulty experienced in requiring "landlords," who are often without means,
to carry out works of cleansing, and suggest that "owners" should be made responsible for such
works/ The reply received from the medical officer of health of Fulham shows that the Local
Government Board expressed their willingness to confirm a by-law having this effect, but the sanitary
authority has not adopted these by-laws.
I have pointed out in presenting former returns the difficulty that has arisen from the
existence of rent-limits of exemption by reason of the fact that these limits have in some instances
been fixed so low as to exclude houses much needing regulation from the operation of the by-laws,
and the medical officer of health of Hammersmith states that this is the effect of the rent limits of the
by-laws in operation in that district at the present time, while the medical officer of health of
Battersea states that, upon receiving notice of registration, landlords have very frequently raised the
rents in order to take the premises beyond the scope of the by-laws. In several cases the difficulty
has been from time to time in part met by amending the limits of rental specified, and in four of the
existing codes of by-laws, those of Camberwell, Fulham, Poplar and Stoke Newington, such amended
limits obtain at the present time, while in Paddington there are amended rent-limits, and there is also
exemption of houses where the landlord himself resides on the premises and the sub-letting by such
landlord is to not more than one lodger. An exemption of a similar character to that last specified
is contained in the Finsbury by-laws.
At the present time by-laws containing rent-limits of exemption are in force in 11 of the
29 boroughs, viz., Battersea, Camberwell, Fulham, Hackney, Hammersmith, Paddington, Poplar,
Southwark, Stoke Newington, Wandsworth and the City of London, and the by-laws of two districts,
St. Martin-in-the-Fields and St. Margaret and St. John Westminster, which now form part of the
City of Westminster, and of the Bltham district, in which by-laws framed originally by the Lee Board
of Works are still in force, contain similar clauses. The Southwark by-laws were confirmed as
recently as November 20th, 1902.
In six codes of by-laws, viz., those of Greenwich, Hampstead, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham
and Shoreditch, there is a clause which provides that houses shall be exempted from the operation of
the by-laws until the landlord has been requested to furnish a statement as to certain particulars.
A clause of a similar kind occurs in the by-laws of three of the districts (St. James,Westminster,
St. George, Hanover-square and the Strand) now forming part of the City of Westminster.
In a few boroughs the by-laws are so worded that a house is exempted from the operation
of the by-laws until the borough council or one of its committees has determined that it shall
be registered. This is the case in Bethnal-green, in St. Pancras and in the districts formerly
know as Woolwich and Plumstead, and now included in the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich;
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