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26
Water Supply to Tenement Houses.
Sections 2 and 48 of the Public Health (London) Act
provides that where there is a constant supply of water,
absence of proper water fittings shall be deemed a nnisance,
and that an occupied house without a proper and sufficient
supply of water shall be a nuisance, liable to be dealt with
summarily, and if it is a dwelling house shall be deemed
unfit for human habitation.
It has hitherto been considered that a single tap.
accessible to all the inmates of a tenement house, satisfied
the statute. In a case, however, heard at the Woolwich
Police-court the owner of a three storied tenement house
was summoned for not providing the tenants with a
proper water supply, although there was a tap in the yard,
and the Magistrate made an order against the defendant
with £5 5s. costs.
The London County Council, by a circular letter, call
the attention of the Borough Councils to this case, and
express a hope that the various authorities will take all
possible steps to secure the provision of a proper and
sufficient supply of water for the tenants of every floor of a
tenement hotise.
The writer does not think that the decision of a single
magistrate on a case which was no doubt selected carefully
can be applicable to all the tenement houses of the metropolis,
nor have magisterial decisions to be taken as
precedents. Any attempt to carry out the suggestion of the
London County Council in a wholesale manner is to be
deprecated; each case must be judged on its particular
merits.
It is no doubt inconvenient for the tenant of the upper
floor of a high building to have, to carry water from the
basement, and in some cases dirty conditions may for this
reason prevail.
On the other hand cleanly tenants will not let the distance
of a water tap be a bar to getting a sufficient supply to
keep their rooms in a proper state. The expense of improvements
of this kind ultimately falls on the tenant, and the