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On the 15th December, the Inspectors further reported that they made
two special night visits to the same houses in Inkhorn Court. They state
that on the 9th instant, they found no abatement of the overcrowding or
indecent occupation; but, on their visit last night (the 14th instant), at
11.30, and again at G a.m. the following morning, they found the overcrowding
and indecent occupation abated, with the exception of two cases, viz.,
at No. 9, where in room No. 5, there were two men, one woman, and a child;
and at No. 10, in room No. 2, there were one man, two women, and three
children. The owner of the above-named houses, Mr. castleberg, upon
being informed that the Board would institute proceedings against him for
the infringement of their regulations respecting registered lodging houses,
promised that, for the future, there should be no cause for complaint. It
appears, from the Reports of the Inspectors, that Mr. castleberg is the
owner of several houses in Castle Alley, as well as in Inkhorn Court, and
that the parties occupying one set of rooms in one of these courts, when
threatened with proceedings removed to the houses in the other court, and
then, when discovered there, moved back to the houses in the court which
they had just left.
Registered Common Lodging Houses.
My attention having recently been directed to a Report of the Chief
Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, which contained, inter alia, a
statement respecting the general condition of the common lodging houses, I
deemed it to be my duty, in my fortnightly statement, dated 24th Oct., 1870,
to draw the attention of your Board to the following paragraph in the
Report, and to make a few comments upon it.
" In consequence of the prevalence of famine or relapsing fever during
the past year, particularly in the Parishes of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, and
Christ Church, Spitalfields, and other Districts of the Metropolis, which
created considerable alarm, it was deemed expedient to make some alteration
in the cubical space allowed for each lodger. Hitherto the space allotted
did not, in some cases, exceed 200 cubical feet; the alteration adopted increased
it to 300. In new houses, or houses to be re-opened, this is easily
accomplished, but to alter the numbers (at a great pecuniary loss to the
keepers) in the registered houses at first seemed an insurmountable difficulty.
I am, however, gratified to state that out of 410 houses and rooms remeasured
and re-apportioned, the new scale has been adopted without
opposition."
On inspecting some of the registered lodging houses, I found that out of
the 93 rooms which have been recently measured by the Inspectors and
myself, 53 had less than 300 cubic feet allotted for each lodger. In eleven
of these rooms, the cubical space for each bed was respectively 206, 208,
212, 213, 218, 219, 224, 226, 227, and 234 feet.