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10
Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement
Act, 1875.
This Act was, as is generally known, passed to enable the Local
Authority (which in London, excepting the City, is the Metropolitan
Board of Works), with the consent of Parliament and the Home
Secretary, to carry into effect schemes for the re-arrangement and
re-construction of the Streets and Houses of close, narrow, and badly
arranged districts, partly indicated by a low condition of health, as
being unfit for human habitation. Under this Act the late Dr.
Ross, as Medical Officer of Health of this Board, proposed to
officially represent that certain Houses, Courts, and Alleys comprised
within the area bounded by Great Queen Street and Wild Court
on the North ; Chapel Place and King's Head Yard on the Northeast
; Princes Street and Duke Street on the South-east, and Drury
Lane on the South-west, and known as the Great Wild Street District,
were an unhealthy area within the meaning of this Act, and
that the powers of the Act ought to be applied to remedy the evils
existing therein ; but his decease, in the month of September last,
delayed the proceedings. Dr. Lovett, his successor in office, applied
himself to the subject, and made an official representation to the
Local Authority. A Special Committee of that Board, attended by
several Members of this Board, in the month of March last, carefully
inspected the locality, and the subject is, at the date of this Report,
under the consideration of the Metropolitan Board as the Local
Authority.
Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act, 1868.
The Board have continued their endeavours to enforce this Act,
with the view of improving the condition of the dwellings of the
poorer classes in this District, and orders for that purpose have been
made in respect of houses in Monmouth Court, Neals Yard, and
Tower Street, which are in course of prosecution. Notwithstanding
these efforts there are portions of the District in which, by reason of
the narrowness of the Streets and Courts, and the limited space on
which the present dwellings were erected a century ago, the sanitary
evils now existing can alone be remedied by the application of the
provisions of the Artizans' Dwellings Improvement Act, 1875.
Much, however, yet remains to be done towards rendering the close
and densely populated portions of the District healthy. The inhabitants
thereof are for the most part low Irish, and to introduce,
cultivate, and enforce habits of cleanliness and sobriety amongst them
is very difficult.
Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1875.
The Adulteration Acts of 1860 and 1872 have been repealed,
and the above Act, by the passing whereof very considerable