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on all occasions but one, this being done presumably to prevent
the new tap dripping, filling the small sink, and overflowing,
so causing a nuisance.
Mr. Gill, after taking a week to consider the case, decided in
favour of the defendant in the case of No. 8, and in favour of
the Woolwich Borough Council re No. 9. He held that, as
regards No. 8, the General Powers Act did not apply, as each
of the occupiers of the house had separate occupation of a room
on each floor, the tenant who sub-let to the other occupiers
having sole legal occupation of the washhouse, although he
permitted the other occupiers to use it.
With regard to No. 9, the occupier of the two upper rooms
had no water supply on the floor on which his rooms were
situated, and he held it reasonable that there should be a
supply, and fined the defendant 20s. and 23s. costs.
The 3rd case was also a six-roomed house on three floors.
The basement consisted of a washhouse with tap and sink (the
only water supply in the house) and a room recently vacated
on account of its low height and dark condition. A family of
a man and wife and one child lived on the ground floor, and a
man, wife, and two children, on the top floor. The staircase,
consisting of 22 steps, in two flights, is in the middle of the
the house, hence unlighted, and the lower flight very dark. A
notice having been served to provide a proper and sufficient
supply for the tenants on the top floor, the owner fixed an
additional tap outside of the house on the same level as the
existing tap in the basement, but approached without the
necessity of going to the basement. This was, as stated to the
Medical Officer of Health on inspection, no improvement,
the tenant of the top room still using the tap in the
basement. She had the alternative of coming down one
flight of stairs, going outside the house by a side door