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182
was not being duly observed." Your Vestry, thereupon, directed
the necessary steps to be taken, in proper cases, to enforce the
provisions of the Act with regard to the rooms mentioned in the
three Lists of the three District Surveyors, received in March and
June, which comprised 242 rooms in 187 houses, a number far in
excess of the numbers contained in any previous lists. The
particulars in which the several rooms were alleged not to comply
with the requirements of the section, may be summarised as
follows:—
No proper area, in 13 houses.
Area covered (not open), in 7 houses.
Area not six inches below the floor of room, in 167 houses.
Area not of sufficient width, in 25 houses.
Area in front of window; insufficient in width, height, and
depth; room not high enough; window opening of insufficient
dimensions, in 5 houses.
Room less than seven feet in height, in 6 houses.
Ceiling of room not one foot above the footway, in 9 houses.
Not all of the rooms, it may be added, are "underground rooms" in
the eye of the law, some of the houses having been built prior to
the passing of the Act in 1855.
It was mentioned above, that no action had been taken by the
Metropolitan Board of Works upon the half-yearly reports of
Underground Rooms, made by the District Surveyors, and it
appears from a report of the Building Act Committee of the
London County Council (dated 19th February, 1890), that "no
record has hitherto been kept as to whether any legal action had
been taken by the local authority." The Committee therefore