London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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London County Council 1912

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

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Report of the County Medical Officer—General.

Metropolitan borough.Number of Places.Number of Inpection 1912Number of Notice 1912Number of Prosections 1912
On register at end of 1911.Added in 1912.Removed in 1912.On register at end of 1912.
Deptford2732732739
Finsbury1,209__1,20910,2401,182
Fulham114
Greenwich21523228416128
Hackney470470404199
Hammersmith2,4122051662,451759
Hampstead425425201925
Holborn6337346069982341
Islington(a)(a)9,0371,20512
Kensington2,09132,0948,7041,23610
Lambeth372372744
Lewisham118331
Paddington1,3481,3487,1612,0221
Poplar1,124131,1372,5355262
St. Marylebone1,0522783291,0017,7741,881
St. Pancras2,3531162,35810,2441,176
Shoreditch266627237995
Southwark1,23671,22910,8492,616
Stepney2,9112,9115,3192,61112
Stoke Newington217207
Wandsworth292292769538
Westminster1,392471,3455,5551,1054
Woolwich42985432516241
Totals including Islington23,82455861423,59584,91519,3627

Houses let
in lodgings
—by-laws
Reference was made in the annual report for 1910 to a provision in the Housing, Town Planning,
etc., Act, 1909 (section 16) which extends the power of making by-laws as to lodging-houses for the working
classes so as to impose duties upon the owner of the premises in addition to or in substitution for any
other person.
So far as can be gathered from the annual reports, new by-laws have been adopted in Battersea,
Bethnal Green, Hackney, Islington, Kensington, Paddington, Poplar, St. Marylebone, Shoreditch,
and Westminster. In the case of Hampstead new by-laws have been informally submitted to the Local
Government Board, and in Lambeth the question is still under consideration. In the report relating
to St. Pancras it is stated that inasmuch as inspection under the Housing, Town Planning Act is to
supersede inspection under Section 94 of the Public Health (London) Act, there is no intention to recast
the by-laws. Dr. Whitehouse points out that the by-laws at present in operation in Deptford are quite
inadequate, only 10 per cent. of sublet houses being registered. Dr. Davies discusses the anomalous
position of Woolwich in this respect. At present three different sets of by-laws are in existence, one
each in Woolwich, Eltham and Plumstead. The by-laws in Eltham assign a rent limit which nullifies
all action, and no houses have ever been registered in this parish. In the by-laws relating to the other
two parishes all the sections dealing with structural defects are in abeyance owing to difficulty in fixing
the responsibility as between "landlord" and "tenant." New by-laws have been under consideration
for several years, in fact ever since the formation of the borough, and on two occasions a draft code has
been submitted to the Local Government Board. The Board, however, required certain alterations to
which the borough council could not agree, and the question of making new by-laws has been
deferred.
(a) No register is now kept, under the Borough of Islington's new by-laws, but during the year there
were 1,572 houses on the lists for inspection.
18820 I 2