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19
HOUSE DRAINAGE.
Plans properly indexed of the majority of houses exist and
are in the custody of the Public Health Department; some of
the plans date back from the year 1856. They can be consulted
by any person interested. The new plans deposited during the
year amounted to 419 and dealt with 433 premises. The length
of drainage supervised and tested by the Inspectors during the
year amounted to 50,440 feet. If laid out in one continuous
line the pipes would reach from Westminster Bridge almost to
Croydon, for the length is over nine miles.
Since so much time is taken up in the supervision of drainage
and such supervision necessarily requires considerable technical
knowledge, the Public Health Committee adopted the suggestion
that two of the staff should practically confine their attention to
this matter as an experiment until the duties of the whole staff
were revised and settled accordingly. Messrs. Gorniot & Perry
have undertaken this important duty, the one being allotted
to the district south of the Marylebone Road, the other the
district north of the Marylebone Road. So far they have
carried the work out to my entire satisfaction.
The only defect that the author can see in the supervision
of new drainage works is the sub-division between the two
Committees, the Works Committee being responsible for the
portion of drain between the house and the sewer and for
" combined " drains, and the Public Health Department for the
drain within the house and fittings generally. Hence a builder
or owner has to deal with two offices and much time may be,
and in fact is, occasionally wasted by this arrangement.
OVERCROWDING AND THE OCCUPATION OF
KITCHENS.
Both these offences are the direct result of poverty. It may
be taken that few persons will herd together in an uncomfortable,
unhealthy fashion if they could afford to pay higher rents for
superior accommodation. It is impracticable and inhuman to
put the utmost letter of the law in force in the central districts of
the Metropolis against overcrowding. Granted that it is not
healthy to sleep in a room with shut windows with a cube of
somewhat less than 300 cubic feet, yet if a person cannot afford a
better lodging, the alternative may be sleeping in the open on a
winter's night.
The law is peculiar as to kitchens; they must not be let
" separately "—that is, not in conjunction with rooms on an upper
floor save they conform to a number of conditions. If, on the
other hand, they are let with some room—or, for aught I know,
a cupboard—upstairs, such letting cannot be called " separate,"
and takes the kitchens out of the Act. This is law, but not