View report page

12
years, been directed to this matter, and, as is recorded in my quarterly
reports, numerous cellars and under-ground rooms, used as dwellings,
have been discontinued for such use. There is, however, considerable
difficulty indealing with these cases; for it frequently happens that no
sooner has one family been compelled to remove, than, in the course of a
short time another, or perhaps the same family, again occupies the room.
The Inspectors, on visiting several new houses which have recently
been erected in this District, found that the under-ground rooms therein
were not fit for habitation, yet many of them were occupied by families
as sleeping-rooms, contrary to the provisions of the Building Act. It
surely would be much better to get enacted a clause, in the proposed
new Building Act, to prohibit the letting of any new house, unless all
the rooms therein were fit for habitation, than to allow houses to be built
with rooms unfit for habitation, and then, when such rooms are found to
be occupied, to empower the Local Board to proceed against the persons
using them as sleeping apartments.
So far back as March, 1863, I directed public attention, in my
quarterly report, to the provisions of section CO of the Amended Local
Management Act, which requires the District Surveyor to make a report
twice in every year, or oftener if required, of all underground rooms or
cellars occupied as dwellings, within the meaning of the 103rd section of
the 18 and 19 Vict., c. 120. This clause has not been acted on.
The Baths and Wash-houses in Goulston Squabe.
These Baths and Wash-houses, which were erected about 30 years
ago, were the first of the kind in London, and being the first, the building
was unavoidably very costly; and I am grieved to find that this model
establishment, which has done so much good to the poor of this district,
has for several years past been closed. There is, however, a prospect at
the present time of re-opening them, as several influential ladies and
gentlemen, who feeling a lively interest in the welfare of the poorer
classes, to whom this institution was such a boon, have resolved to make
an earnest endeavour to put the building in thorough repair, and re-open the
baths and wash-houses for the use of the public, and particularly for the
poor of this populous district. My cwn testimony, and that of the Dean of
Lichfield, who was for many years the esteemed Rector of Whitechapel, have
been strongly given in letters recently published in " The Times'''' newspaper,
in favor of the moral and physical advantages which the poor derived from
the Baths and Wash-houses in Goulston Square.
The full advantages of this establishment will not however be realized
unless a convenient access be made to it. At present, the building is hid
from view, and the approaches to it are through such narrow courts and
places, that the public are deterred from availing themselves of the advantages
which are there offered to them.