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foster. In standard works on hygiene, it is commonly stated that, excluding the water needed for
use in water-closets and in general baths, about 12 gallons (weighing 120 pounds) per head/per day are
required for domestic purposes. Dr. Parkes divided these 12 gallons as follows :—
Cooking ¾ gallon
Fluids as drink ¾ „
Ablution 5 gallons
Share of utensil and house washing 3 „
Share of clothes, laundry washing 3 „
Inquiry in several London tenemented houses visited shows that only about one-sixth of this
amount, i.e., some 2 gallons instead of 12, is the average quantity employed where the difficulties
associated with carrying the water upstairs are specially experienced. With such small amounts
of water, after deducting the quantity needed for maintaining life, there remains an absurdly
inadequate supply for cleansing purposes. Personal ablution necessarily can be only imperfectly
carried out, and for such purposes as floor washing, for example, the quantity of water used is too
often only sufficient (as a local inspector observed) to "soak the dirt into the boards."
The hardship entailed by the need for carrying everything up a lofty flight of stairs in
London houses of a certain type was eloquently described by the late Dr. Poor:; in his book entitled
" The Dwelling House." He calculated the amount of work performed by a footman in carrying coal
upstairs at about four foot-tons per diem. When houses of the sort in question become converted
into tenement houses, tLe hardship is vastly intensified, and even under conditions of parsimony as
regards use of water such as have been described above, many thousands of foot-tons of work per
annum need to be performed merely in conveying water upstairs.
The criticism may be made that this entails expenditure of muscular energy which may not
be altogether unbeneficial. But it needs to be remembered that the labour, which is poor enough
exercise at the best, falls to be performed, as a rule, by the mother of the family, and that she has to
carry it out day by day without intermission, and even at times when she is rendered, for one or
another reason, unfit to perform hard work.
In the Woolwich house, referred to above, the magistrate had before him the fact that the
woman on the top floor was pregnant at the time when she was carrying pails of water upstairs ; and
in one of the Paddington houses, the summons in regard to which was dismissed by Mr. Plowden,
the r* cent inspection of the Council's officers elicited the fact that a woman was being confined in a
top-floor room and that the disadvantages associated with want of a proper water supply were
intensified by reason of that fact.
The Council has been in communication with the Metropolitan Water Board on the subject of
supply of water on upper floors, and that Board has expressed its willingness to co-operate as far as
possible in the direction desired by the Council. The Board adds: " It is of course understood that
proper arrangements would be made to prevent the lower floors taking away the pressure from the
higher floors during the busy times of the day, and further that the Board would not contribute in
any way towards the cost of providing the necessary pipes and fittings in the houses. It is of course
desirable that the Chief Engineer of the Board should be communicated with in each case before
arrangements for an improved supply are commenced, so that there may be no misapprehension as to
the height at which the supply can be afforded."
Further inquiry has been recently made by the Council's inspectors, and the general result
of this is to show that the conditions found by Dr. Young as regards water supply some three years
ago remain practically unaltered. Obviously, as matters at present stand, very little improvement is
being effected in regard to the water supply on the upper floors of tenement houses, and, in face of
the Paddington decision, it is not likely that any further action will be taken by the health
authorities. The details obtained by the Council's inspectors in the recent inquiry show that in
86 per cent, of the houses the water supply was situated only on the basement or ground floors.
It may be suggested that, admitting the case for the amendment of law is a very strong one,
there remains some doubt as to the extent to which additional water supply taps on upper floors can be
icasonably insisted upon. For instance, in a house of three storeys above the ground floor it might
be argued that to require three additional water taps with additional sink wastes would be unreasonable.
It appears to me that the difficulty would be met by accepting the principle that the provision of a
waiter supply tap on the half landing next adjoining a tenement should be accepted as meeting
the requirements of the family occupying that tenement.
The following table contains information on a number of further points which were made the
subject of inquiry by the Council's inspectors.
Total
number
of
houses
inspected..
Number of tenements of
Totel
number
of tenements.
Total
number
of
rooms.
N» mbei
of tenements
without
ovens
for
cooking
food.
Number
of tenements
without
provision
for
lies ting
water
in connection
with fire
grate.
Number
of gas
cooking
stoves
without
ventilation
fixed in
living or
.sleeping
rooms.
Number of houses
without a tap or sink
above the basement
level.
Numbei of houses
without a tap or sink
above the ground-floor
level.
Total
number
of
houses
without
a tap or
sink
above
the
basement
or
ground
floor
level.
One
room.
Two
rooms.
Three
rooms.
Four
rooms
or
more.
Houses
with
basement
and two
floors
above.
Houses
with
basement
and
three
floors
above.
Houses
with
basement
and four
floors
above.
Houses
with
ground
floor
and two
floors
above.
Houses
with
ground
floor
and
i liree
floors
above.
Houses
with
ground
floor
and foulfloors
above.
274
414
377
101
63 |
1,055
1,843
321
1,041
107
24
67
29
106
10
0
236