View report page

6
by an adult male and two adult females In Marlborough Court, a woman and her son aged
twenty-six, slept together In Inkhorn Court, six persons occupied a room, viz, a man and
his wife, the wife's sister aged nineteen, a servant girl aged fourteen, but looking twenty, and
two children In a room in Commercial Place, there were a woman, her son aged eighteen,
a child aged five years, a female lodger and her infant These, and a similar case in Hayes
Court, where more than one family occupied a room, have been reported to the police, who
will cause the landlord to register these houses as common lodging houses In another room
there slept a man and his wife, and a son aged eighteen years; in another, a woman, her son
aged eighteen years, and her two adult daughters A woman, with three grown up sons and two
grown up daughters occupied another room A father and daughter occupied another room in
this court In a room in Orange Row, the Inspector learnt that there slept a brother and sister,
the former about twenty-three years of age, and the latter about eighteen The unfortunate
feature in this case is, that the female, on being spoken to on the subject, thought that there was
no impropriety in occupying the same sleeping apartment with her brother In three rooms
in Hayes Court, the dimensions of each room being 10 feet 8 X 8, it was ascertained that
each of these rooms was occupied by eight persons; the number that each is calculated to hold
being only two, or at the utmost three, the entire cubic space is 640 feet, which is only eighty
cubic feet to each person An idea of the space of eighty cubic feet may be readily formed,
by imagining a box five feet long, four feet wide, and five feet deep Each of these small rooms
has only one window, which opens into a narrow court Other instances of indecent occupation
and over-crowding might be given, but enough has been quoted to show how the poor
crowd together in this district I have no doubt that a similar state of things will be found to
exist in other districts in London, if pains were taken by a house to house visitation, to
ascertain how the poor live It may well be asked, how in a population so circumstanced can
morality or virtue exist, where decency is so totally disregarded!
Although I have brought to your notice so many cases of over-crowding and
indecent occupation, I have not thought it expedient to urge the Board to take legal proceedings
to reduce the number in any of these over-crowded rooms, but I have contented myself by
addressing a few words to the father or mother in the occupation of such room, upon the
indecency and great impropriety of permitting their adult children of both sexes to sleep together
in the same room; and also, upon the danger which will accrue to the health of the whole
family by breathing such an impure atmosphere, as is engendered in an over-crowded room; and
I have also called upon, or written to, the landlord, and remonstrated with him on the subject
This has been attended with some advantage, for in a few of the worst pases, the landlord has
given notice to the tenants to quit the premises
In order to carry out, beneficially, any law made for the welfare of the community,
it is necessary that the public generally should be informed of the advantages which may
reasonably be expected to flow from the operation of such law; for unless a cordial co-operation
of the public be obtained, it will be difficult to enforce obedience to any law ; and hence, I am
desirous that, before compulsory measures be adopted to enforce obedience to the sanitary
regulations as regards over-crowding, the importance of them should be generally felt and
acknowledged, especially so by the working classes, who form the great bulk of the community
In order that the law upon the subject of over-crowding may be mqre generally known, I
would respectfully suggest that the Clause in the Nuisances Removal Act, relating to the
subject, be printed, and a copy of it sent to every landlord holding property, which is let out
in tenements, in this district The danger of allowing a deadly atmosphere to be engendered
by the crowding together of persons in a small room without efficient ventilation, is unfortunately
not confined to the inmates of that particular room, but those diseases which are
therein 'generated, extend far beyond its immediate vicinity, and under some circumstances,
a large portion of a district will suffer in consequence The subject of over-crowding is
perhaps one of the most difficult that the local authorities have to deal with Poverty is an
evil which it is not in their power to relieve It has been remarked by some of the poor
inhabitants of these crowded localities, that they can only occupy such a, sized room as their,