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44
Sanitary Condition of Certain Properties in the Parish.
The Committee received a letter from the Mansion House
Council on the Dwellings of the Poor, dated 19th April,
forwarding a report on the condition of seventy-nine houses in
the parish.
From the reports made by the inspectors thereon, it
appeared that of the seventy-nine houses alleged to be defective,
more than half were in a satisfactory condition, and that in
reference to the remaining houses, in the majority of cases the
defects mentioned were of such a trivial character as would
not justify the Vestry taking any action. The Public Health
Committee also ascertained that, prior to the receipt of the
report in question, several of the persons responsible for
the more serious defects were under notice to remedy the same.
The Committee directed that a communication embodying
the above facts be addressed to the Mansion House Council.
With regard to the above report, taking for instance two of
the most serious cases in Ward No. 2, St. Margaret, where it
was alleged that a closet had no water supply, the inspector
found a good closet with a special 30-gallon tank for flushing
the same, and in another case where it was alleged that a
closet was stopped up, the closet was found to be in perfectly
good working order.
In other cases where it was alleged there was no water
supply to several closets, the supply had only temporarily been
suspended owing to the cisterns being cleansed.
In another case where it was reported that there was a
broken ceiling, this was found to be the case, but the occupier
had an ejectment order made against him, and the ceiling was
not, for obvious reasons, repaired until the order had been
carried out.
I may state that in nearly every case of complaints being
made as above, the defects were found to be of a most trivial
character.
Greycoat Hospital Schools.
Alterations were carried out during the year in connection
with the water closets and lavatories at these schools.
Noxious Fumes and Black Smoke.
Public Health (London) Act, 1891, Sections 33 and 24.
During the year 1898 the attention of the Public Health
Committee has been called to the increase of the smoke
nuisance in Westminster and in London generally.