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9
Sanitary Condition of Houses and Places Improved.
Since the publication of my last Report improvements have been effected
under the provisions of the Nuisances' Removal Act, in the following
localities, viz., 1.—Providence Court, Glass-House Street. 2.—Easington
Buildings, Montague Street. 3.—Bell Court and Bell Place, Princes Street.
4.—Goulston Street. 5.—Jacob's Court. 6.—Upper Keate Street.
1. Providence Court.—In this court one of the houses was considered
to be unfit for habitation, in consequence of its being close to two privies,
which were common to the inhabitants of the eight houses constituting this
court. Soon after the serving of the usual notices on the landlord to close
this house, he pulled down the offensive privies, and has since erected, for the
better convenience and health of the tenants, a separate privy for each house.
2. Easington Buildings.—This was a long, narrow court, consisting of
18 houses, nine on each side, and closed at the further end by a high wall.
It was entered under an archway, formed by part of a house in Montague
Street, so that it was impossible for the air properly to circulate therein.
The landlord having received notice that the whole place was unfit for
habitation, in consequence of its being insufficiently ventilated, (and which
had been represented to me by the late Dr. Richardson as being the most
unhealthy court in his medical district) had an interview with mo, respecting
the condition of this court, when he proposed to give immediate notice to all
the tenants to quit the premises, and said that he would pull down two of
the houses, one on each side, at the end of the court, and erect on their sites
the proper conveniences for the tenants; which conveniences were then so
placed as to cause a nuisance to some of the inhabitants; that he would
ventilate the court by taking down that portion of the house in Montague
Street which extended over the entrance to it; that, as the houses had no
back yards, he would ventilate them in the best practicable manner from the
roof, so as to obtain a current of air through each house; and that he would
provide a water-waste-preventer for the use of his tenants, so that they
should have a constant supply of water direct from the main. All these
improvements are now nearly completed.
3.—The fourteen houses in Bell Lane and Bell Place, Princes Street,
have been taken down, in consequence of such defective ventilation as
rendered them unfit for habitation. A better class of houses, fewer in
number, is in the course of being erected in their stead.
4.—The ground-floors of Nos. 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15, Goulston Street,
being unfit for habitation, in consequence of defective ventilation, orders
have been given to the owner either to improve the ventilation or to close the
rooms. The landlord has so far complied with the orders as to close the
room and cupboard at No. 5, as mentioned at page 8, and he has thrown
the two rooms, at Nos. 7, 13, and 15, into one; and he is about to do the
same with the rooms at Nos. 9 and 11.
5.—The houses in Jacob's Court, Castle Alley, which were considered to