Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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64 Annual Report of the London County Council, 1913.
The following table has been compiled from the annual reports of medical officers of health, and shows the number of houses let in lodgings on the register, the number of inspections, notices issued and proceedings taken during the year 1913.
| Metropolitan borough. | Number of places. | No. of Inspections, 1913. | No. of Notices, 1913. | No. of Prosecutions, 1913. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| On register at end of 1912. | Added in 1913. | Re- moved in 1913. | On register at end of 1913. | ||||
| City of London | 227 | - | - | 222 | — | 272 | - |
| Battersea | 123 | - | 9 | 114 | 309 | 84 | - |
| Bermondsey | 228 | - | 10 | 218 | 872 | 117 | - |
| Bethnal Green | 528 | 280 | 232 | 576 | 2,042 | 596 | - |
| Camberwell | 262 | 30 | - | 292 | 531 | 565 | - |
| Chelsea | 569 | - | — | - | - | - | - |
| Deptford | 273 | 68 | 52 | 289 | 564 | 195 | - |
| Finsbury | 1,209 | - | 21 | 1,188 | 6,611 | 1,239 | - |
| Fulham | 114 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Greenwich | 238 | 5 | - | 243 | 273 | 148 | - |
| Hackney | 470 | - | - | 470 | 387 | 221 | - |
| Hammersmith | 2,451 | 247 | 184 | 2,514 | - | 755 | - |
| Hampstead | 425 | 17 | 73 | 369 | 371 | 183 | - |
| Holborn | 606 | 41 | 6 | 641 | 901 | 239 | 5 |
| Islington | (a) | - | - | 12,160 | 1,325 | 20 | |
| Kensington | 2,094 | 11 | 12 | 2,093 | 7,470 | 900 | 6 |
| Lambeth | 372 | — | - | 372 | 744 | - | - |
| Lewisham | 3 | 2 | - | 5 | 14 | 3 | - |
| Paddington | 1,348 | 55 | 27 | 1,376 | 7,597 | 2,360 | 6 |
| Poplar | 1,137 | 11 | - | 1,148 | 2,633 | 285 | 1 |
| St. Marylebone | 1,001 | 241 | 29 | 1,213 | 7,970 | 2,030 | - |
| St. Pancras | 2,358 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Shoreditch | 272 | 8 | - | 280 | 449 | 316 | - |
| Southwark | 1,229 | 30 | 12 | 1,247 | 12,819 | 3,000 | 5 |
| Stepney | 2,911 | 2,509 | 2,911 | 2,509 | 5,310 | 2,819 | 8 |
| Stoke Newington | 207 | 220 | Frequent | - | |||
| Wandsworth | 292 | - | - | 292 | 930 | 531 | - |
| Westminster | 1,345 | - | 45 | 1,300 | 6,810 | 1,235 | - |
| Woolwich | 432 | 10 | 10 | 432 | 531 | 360 | - |
Registration
and inspection
of houses
let in
lodgings.
Houses let
in lodgings
—by-laws
Reference was made in the annual reports for the years 1910-12 to a provision in the Housing,
Town Planning, etc., Act, 1909 (section 16) which extends the power of making by-laws as to lodginghouses
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 Lambeth new by-laws have been drafted. In last year's report relating to
St. Pancras it was 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 has pointed out that the by-laws at present in operation in
Deptford are quite inadequate, only 10 per cent. of sublet houses being registered. Woolwich is in
a very anomalous position 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
(a) No register is now kept, under the Borough of Islington's new by-laws, but during the year there
were 1,848 houses on the lists for inspection.