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tion of the Board), they are perpetually recurring nuisances, and in some
instances, from their close proximity to inhabited rooms, render such rooms
unfit for habitation This is the case in Jones' Buildings If these nuisances
cannot be dealt with by our present powers, it is certainly full time that the
extension of them was prohibited by legislative enactment
How the health of the people of Nottingham is provided for, as far as
the building of houses is concerned, may be seen by the underquoted clause
of an Act of Parliament, which was obtained by the authorities of that town,
in 1845 The act is 8 & 9 Vict , cap 7, clause 124 "And for the purpose
of insuring the admission of light and air to and amongst the buildings
which may be hereafter erected within the limits of this Act, and for the
purpose of preventing the unhealthy and inconvenient overcrowding of the
dwellings of the poor, and for the purpose of securing due accommodation
and privacy, be it enacted, That no dwelling-house shall adjoin any other
dwelling-house or other building (except an outhouse ordinarily occupied
with such dwelling-house) on more than two sides, and that every dwellinghouse
shall be provided with an attached yard or garden, (separate and distinct
from any other yard or garden) to extend at the least to a distance of
thirty feet from such dwelling-house, or so much on each of the two opposite
or adjacent sides of such dwelling-house as shall together extend at the least
to thirty feet, and that every dwelling-house shall have within its own
curtilage or garden a separate privy, or water-closet, and dust-pit "*
Although in London it would not be possible to obtain so much ground
at the rear or side of houses erected for the poor as is provided at Nottingham,
yet the law should make it incumbent upon all persons erecting dwelling
houses, to provide a thorough ventilation for every house, and should
prohibit the building of houses back to back The proposed new Building
Act not only very imperfectly provides for the efficient ventilation of houses,
but actually sanctions the building of houses back to back As we are now
so severely suffering, both in health and pocket, from the neglect of the
legislature in years gone by, in permitting the erection of houses
unfit for human habitation, advantage should be taken of any Bill
brought before the Houses of Parliament for amending the Budding Act,
to prevent the further erection of unhealthy dwellings The unhealthy
houses which are to be found in all the poor localities in London, may be
gradually purchased and pulled down, under the provisions of the Artizans'
and Labourers' Dwelling Bill, should such Bill become an Act But unless
the proposed New Building Act is sufficiently stringent in its provisions to
prohibit the erection of unhealthy dwellings in the future, very little benefit
will accrue to the public by abolishing existing nuisances, when similar ones
* Sec Dr Hunter's Report on the Housing of the Poor in Towns, published in the Eighth Annual
Report of the Medical Officer of Health of the Privy Council, page 161