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their friends and relatives do the same and all are mixed up in a
very friendly association, you can never get the prevention of
unhealthy tenancies carried through".
It would seem that by 1882 there was still the problem of bad
housing even after the passing of the Public Health Act of 1848 and
the effective powers contained in the Sanitary Act of 1866; Bad
sanitary administration by the recalcitrant local authorities was the
prime cause, not the absence of sanitary powers.
The Royal Commission on Housing of the Working Classes
reporting in 1884 averred that Medical Officers of Health being in
private practice were thereby under the influence of their employers
hence were loath to exercise their sanitary duties, as it might
conflict with their far more lucrative private earnings, and would
soon bring a hornet's nest about his ears, were he to be diligent in
the exercise of his public health duties. On the other hand it was
freely acknowledged that the tenants of rented properties, mostly
ignorant of health matters were careless of their responsibilities
to take due care of the premises they occupied and used them
wastefully and negligently thereby aggravating the problems facing
sanitary administrators.
The Labouring Classes Lodging Houses Acts 1851 and 1857
substituted the Metropolitan Board of Works for the supine Vestries
and District 3oards for housing administration purposes and empowered
the purchase of certain prison sites for re-housing the
poor displaced from the cleared slum properties. It also gave the
authority powers of acquisition at insanitary house values only.
3eing permissive in form, these statutes were only occasionally
implemented to the detriment of a large section of London's poor.
The Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890 directed the
Medical Officer of Health to cause the inspection of insanitary
dwellings to be made and to make representations to the London
County Council thereon with the resultant clearance of large areas,
the building of dwellings thereon for re-housing of the displaced
persons and the general improvement of housing conditions of the
working classes. Vestries and District Boards were also empowered
to carry out minor works for the improvement of houses. Finally the
spate of Post (1914/18) War housing legislation imposed Metropolitan
housing administration principally on the London County Council
thus emphasising the continued reluptance of Parliament to clothe
the inferior London sanitary authorities with these important health
promoting functions no doubt by reason of their long history of