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49
registerable under the bylaws, because of the numerous blocks of artizans' dwellings
which are to all intents and purposes blocks of separate houses, and the number of
tenement buildings belonging to the same class which have been excluded from
the sphere of operation of the bylaws by a decision of the Divisional Court. There
are, however, without doubt, a very large proportion of houses in the Borough which
are occupied by members of more than one family, and the Borough Council pointed
out that a large amount of the sanitary work done in the Borough was carried out in
connection with such houses, although it was not thought necessary to register them.
In November an intimation was received from the County Council, that their
Medical Officer of Health had received instructions to have enquiries made in
Shoreditch on the subject of houses let in lodgings.
In connection with the correspondence above referred to, it may be mentioned
that the London County Council have been advised by Mr. C. A. Cripps. K.C., that
section 94 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, which requires bylaws to be made
and enforced, is imperative, and that there is no provision as to a power to exempt
from the operation of the bylaws such houses as come within the definition of a
lodging house. When the Shoreditch bylaws were made, in 1894, an exemption clause
was allowed by the Local Government Board. By this clause a lodging house is
exempt from the operation of the bylaws, until the .landlord of such lodging house
shall have been required to furnish the statement of particulars which is set forth in
the fifth bylaw. These particulars have to be furnished by the landlord within fourteen
days of the receipt of a notice in writing from the Clerk to the Sanitary Authority.
This notice is sent only when it has been decided by the Borough Council to
register a lodging house. In view of the exemption clause, there appears to be a
discretionary power as to what lodging houses are to be registered in Shoreditch. The
subject of the registration of lodging houses was considered by the late Shoreditch
Vestry, in 1896, and aft9r a good deal of discussion it was decided to register houses
which are occupied by members of more than one family, in which the landlord does not
reside on the premises and which are not kept in a proper sanitary condition, and
the Inspectors were accordingly instructed to report such houses for registration.
In carrying out their instructions, the attention of the Sanitary Inspectors is
more especially directed to those houses which are observed to be recurrent sources of
sanitary trouble.
CUSTOMS AND INLAND REVENUE ACTS.
Applications for certificates as to the sanitary fitness of dwellings for the purpose
of obtaining exemption from inhabited house duty were received in respect to 72
tenements. They were inspected in accordance with statutory requirement, and in 42
instances the certificates were granted after a good deal of work, including the reconstruction
of the drains, repairing of the yards and general cleansing and repairing had
been carried out. The remaining applications were not entertained.