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enable the constituted local authorities to purchase, for the purpose of
demolishing all such houses as are deemed unfit for habitation, and to
empower the authorities to sell or let the ground under proper restrictions
to public companies, or private individuals, for the purpose of erecting suitable
houses for the use of the working classes. But, unless a sufficiently
stringent Building Act is passed which shall prevent the erection of unhealthy
houses, very little advantage will accrue, either in the improvement
of the physical or moral condition of the classes intended to be benefitted
by the pulling down of the existing unhealthy buildings, if houses of an
equally unhealthy character can be erected.
I am led to make the above remarks in consequence of having had my
attention directed to two new houses which have been built within the last
six or eight months in Wood's Court, Norton Folgate.
Wood's Court.
This court, which is about 87 feet long is entered through an archway
5 feet wide. The court, opposite the two houses in question, is only 10 feet
wide. These houses, which consist of two rooms each, are situated on the
north side of the court, and the opposite side is occupied by workshops.
The size of the lower rooms in each house is about 14 feet 0 inches in
length, 12 feet in width, and 8 feet in height; the room above is rather
larger: as these houses are built against the wall of adjoining premises
they arc without back yards, and without back ventilation. The closet,
water supply, and sink, are situated in the cellar, which is entered by a
flight of steps insufficiently lighted, leading directly from the sitting room,
and separated only from it by a door, which forms part of the side or wall
of the room, so that the offensive smell from the cellar readily enters the
sitting room, and makes its way into the room above by means of the
staircase. The cellar to each of these houses is 14 feet 6 inches in
length, but is only 0 feet in width, and is dark, it being lighted only by
means of a grating in the court, 2 feet by l½ feet. Neither of these houses
has a dust bin or other place where the tenants can deposit their house
refuse, and the slops from the upper room must be carried through
the lower room to the privy in the basement. Both at the time of my
visit and of that of the Inspector, the smell in the sitting room and in
the cellar of one of the houses was very offensive. These houses being,
in their present condition, unfit for habitation, it will be my duty to
take the necessary steps, either to get them closed, or to compel the landlord
so to alter them as to make them fit for habitation. If only one house
instead of two houses had been erected on this site, a space would
have been left, on which all the necessary conveniences for the house
might have been erected.
Metropolitan Building and Management Bill.
As there is a New Building Bill before the House of Commons, which
has been prepared by the Metropolitan Board of Works, I have directed
my attention to the sanitary clauses which it contains, and I regret to