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TENEMENT HOUSES.
There are, approximately, 750 of these premises in your
Borough, and even from the little I have seen of them up to the
present, I judge that they demand most constant and systematic
surveillance. Wherever one has a collection of individuals using
common property and conveniences the responsibility for good
sanitary conduct is necessarily sub-divided. This sub-division of
responsibility will act like dry-rot on the hygienic morals of the
community concerned, unless pretty drastic measures are
employed. It is alike to the interest of the property owner and
the tenant that very frequent inspection should be carried out.
The London County Council (General Powers) Act, 1907,
Section 78, contains a long-needed provision as to water supply
of tenement houses. The wording is somewhat involved, but it
is taken to mean that there must be a proper and sufficient
supply of water on every floor of a tenement house on which
there are rooms separately occupied.
At the time of writing this report, an instance has come to
hand where a poor crippled old woman has had to carry all the
water required up seven flights of stairs ! This usually means
that all waste water has to be carried down the same length of
stairs. Cleanliness is seriously discouraged by such conditions
as these.
The Section referred to above is quoted in extenso:—
" For the purpose of section 48 (Provisions as to house without
proper water supply) of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, a
tenement house shall be deemed to be a house without a proper
and sufficient supply of water, unless there shall be provided on
the storey or one of the storeys in which the rooms or lodgings
in the separate occupation of each family occupying such house
are situate a sufficient provision for the supply of water for
domestic purposes :