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Difficulty arises in respect of existing basement W.C.'s in old buildings. The removal of
these W.Cs. can hardly be insisted upon unless gross defects are observed, and it remains
for the structure to be improved and also the ventilation. This is done by one of two methods.
First, where practicable, ventilation is through the stallboard and if necessary a piece of the
shop floor overhead is removed to enable access to the open air to be obtained. Where this
cannot be done a ventilation fan, of an exhaust type, has occasionally been permitted.
The former method is illustrated by the following plan. (Sketch Plan II.)
— Section A.B-
sketch plan ii.
As regards sanitation in general it is satisfactory to be able to report that overcrowding
of workrooms is now of very infrequent occurrence.
Underground Workrooms.—A difficulty which I fear will increase in the future if the
rentals of offices continue to increase—which renders every superficial foot of floor space of
considerable value—is that created by the use to which basements are now being put. Some
of these were originally intended as store-rooms for large warehouses and now they are used
as offices. In many of the older buildings these underground rooms are so located that the
ceiling is on the street level and the lighting is obtained from glazed pavement lights which
cover a small area. To convert such a room into an office is certainly undesirable even when
a light reflector, fixed at an appropriate angle, is used for lighting purposes, and perhaps two
or three inches between the window and the ceiling level are perforated with holes to make