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yard is frequently used for this purpose, and is provided with, a copper, a water tap and a sink.
The washhouse is available for all the tenants, but Dr. Young did not lind that it was always
used. This, in some instances, may be due to fault in its situation when a dark basement is
used for the purpose, or to want of maintenance of the copper in condition fit for use. The
facilities which exist in public washhouses for washing the linen of tiie occupants of a tenement
no doubt also contribute to disuse of the washhouse in a dwelling house. The small sum of
2d. an hour paid at a public washhouse, where ample facilities are provided, is not more than
would be expended for fuel in the tenement house.
Inquiry has also been made as to the accommodation provided in the ordinary tenement
house for the cooking of food. Of 739 tenements visited for this purpose by the Council's
inspectors, including tenements of one, two, three and of four rooms, in a third of the tenements
there was no oven in which food could be baked, the fire-grate being the same as that provided
when the house was originally constructed, or of the same kind, and not more adapted for cooking
purposes than an ordinary bedroom grate. This condition was found especially in tenements of one
room, more than half of which were so circumstanced; in tenements of two rooms about a quarter
were without coal fire or gas ovens for cooking purposes, but in tenements of three or four rooms an
oven heated in one or other of these ways was always found to be provided. In tenements of
one room in which an oven was found, this oven was almost always heated by a coal fire, in
exceptional instances the oven was associated with a gas stove, and in one or two instances the
tenement had both. In tenements of two rooms provided with an oven, in about 85 per cent,
the oven was heated by the fire-grate, in about 2 per cent, there was a gas cooking stove, and in
about 12 per cent, there were both. In tenements of three or four rooms an oven was found, with
a single exception in association with the coal fire-grate, and in 16 per cent, of these tenements
there was also a gas cooking stove. It was often found that no provision had been made for
carrying off the products of combustion of such gas stoves.
For hot water the tenant has to depend upon the use of a kettle. In a trifling number of
instances it was found that a boiler existed in connection with the fire-grate, but almost invariably
this was defective and out of use. In the tenements visited no special provision had been made by
the landlord for the storage of food or coals.
The conditions most needing improvement are the provision of more accessible water
supply for each tenement, so as to enable the tenant to obtain water on the floor on which his tenement
is situated, or on the hilf-landing adjoining, and the provision of a suitable place in connection
with each tenement in which food can be properly stored. The question needs
consideration whether each tenement should not be required to be provided with a cooking stove.
No doubt, in many instances, cooked food is purchased at the cook-shops to be found in poor
neighbourhoods, and the requirement cannot be urged with the same force as in the case of water
supply and storage for food.
These conditions fall far short of those which the Metropolitan Branch of the Society of
Medical Officers of Health has recommended for the purpose of exemption of dwellings from inhabited
house duty.
A medical officer of health, in certifying for this purpose, has to be satisfied that the house
is so constructed as to afford suitable accommodation for each of the families or persons inhabiting
it, and that due provision is made for their sanitary requirements. The Metropolitan
Branch of the Incorporated Society of Medical Officers of Health in 1897 recommended that the
certificate should onlv be granted when the following requirements were complied with—
(а) A definite height and superficial area for living and sleeping rooms, as defined by
the London Building Act, 1894, section 70 ;
(b) That there is a sufficient and available supply of water on each floor ;
(c) That there is at least one water-closet, properly supplied with water, for eveTy
12 occupants (or less) on each floor ;
(d) That the drainage of the premises is in accordance with the regulations recognised
by the authoritv in whose jurisdiction the house is situated ;
(e) That accommodation for clothes washing is provided sufficient for the number
of persons inhabiting1 the house.
Manv houses could no+ be adapted to meet the renuiremen+s of the med:cal officers of health,
but there would be few, if any, which could not, at small expenditure, he made to comply with the
lower standard which I have indicated.
Shirley F. Mhupttt,
Medical Officer of Health.
Dr. Young's Report.
In accordance with the instructions of the Committee inspection has been made in different
parts of London of houses occupied by more than one tenant, with a view to reporting on the
sanitarv accommodation existing in such premises. The term sanitary accommodation has been
regarded as including—
1. The water supplv and the means of getting rid of waste water.
2. The water-closet accommodation and its position.
3. The washhouse accommodation.
A large number of houses in different districts have been visited and details as to the
accommodation existing in them is set out in the appendix to this report.
These may be summarised as follows—
The majority of the premises visited contain from six to ten rooms, usuallv on three and
four floors and a basement.. Thev are let out in single rooms, in two or more rooms, or in floors,
according to the size of the family of the occupants. In some cases it is found that the whole
house is taken by one tenant, who sublets part of it unfurnished to one or more lodgers.