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6
by the new building,* the rooms in which are under 7 feet in height, and
are without sufficient ventilation. The building in Osborn Place is intended
to consist of ten rooms, and is approached by a narrow passage of only
two feet in width. This narrow passage will be the only means of affording
light and air to several of the rooms. The respective owners of these
buildings have been officially informed by me, that, if the houses are
completed in the manner contemplated, and let out in tenements, it will be
my duty to advise the Board to take proceedings under the Nuisances
Removal Act to prevent their being occupied, as the rooms will be
unfitted for human habitation, owing to the want of sufficient light and
ventilation.
I have on two previous occasions, viz. : in my Eeport for the quarter
ending October 1st, 1859, and again in my Report for the quarter following,
directed the attention of the Board to the sanitary defects in the
Building Act, and as it is probable that a new Building Act will be passed
during the ensuing Session of Parliament, I have again very briefly brought
the subject under your notice.
The most important defect in the present Building Act, is that which
relates to the requirement of providing an open space of at least 100 square
feet at the rear or sides of those houses, in which all the rooms cannot be
lighted and ventilated from the street or alley adjoining. But as nothing
is said about the arrangement of such open space, it may consist of a slip
of ground, being only one foot in width and 100 feet in length, or it may
be of any other shape, if only the 100 square feet, required by the act, has
been provided. Not a word is said in the act respecting the necessity of there
being a window opening into this space. The act is also silent upon the
size of the windows in any of the rooms in a house, and of the height of the
rooms, except those in the basement and attic, when these rooms are let as
separate tenements. Every room, used as a sleeping-room, should be at
the least 8 feet in height.
To show how the spirit of this act nas been evaded in this
district, I may, in addition to the instance in Osborn Place above-mentioned,
bring to your recollection the fact, that in 1861, four new houses
were erected in Bear's Head Yard, upon a space of ground, on which only
two houses should have been allowed. One of these houses, No. 2, has a
narrow passage by the side of it, in addition to the open space forming the
Court in front, so that all the rooms in this house are said to be lighted
and ventilated, and therefore an open space at the rear is not required.
The yard at the rear of this house is apparently common to it, and to No. 1,
but as No. 2 does not, according to the Act of Parliament, require an open
space in the rear, the yard, which is exactly 100 square feet, is said to
belong exclusively to No. 1. As it was found to be impossible, by any
contrivance, to give to ths house No. 3, which was intended to contain
• As this Court is not a public way, but is private property the Board cannot prevent the
Landlord from building upon it. It is much to be desired that the open spaces in all the Courts
were placed under the jurisdiction of the Board, for then, encroachments upon them could be
pro vented.