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and other erections, and the sites of houses, buildings, and other erections
to be constructed after the passing of this Act, and the mode in which the
materials with which such foundations and sites shall be made, formed,
excavated, filled up, prepared, and completed, for securing stability, the prevention
of fires, and for purposes of health. The Metropolitan Board has power,
under the 16th section, to make bye-laws with respect to sites and foundations.
A restriction, however, is placed on the action to be taken by the
Board, under their proposed bye-laws, to the effect that they shall not be valid
until they are confirmed by one of Her Majesty's principal Secretaries of
State, and not until the expiration of two months after a copy of the byelaws
has been published by the Board.
The Board has power, under the 11th section, in certain cases, to
require proprietors of theatres and certain music halls, at the time of the
passing of this Act, to remedy such structural defects as may occasion
special danger from fire to the public frequenting the same.
The short-comings of this Act, to all persons interested in the promotion of
public health, are most painfully manifest, and especially so when we consider
that Bills for amending the present Building Act have, for several successive
Sessions, been brought in by the Metropolitan Board of Works, which contained
valuable provisions for providing adequate open spaces at the rear of dwellinghouses.*
It is certainly much to be regretted that such provisions did not
form a part of the new Act. The practice of building houses back-to-back,
without providing any open space, either at the side or rear of each
house whereon to erect suitable conveniences for the occupiers, may still be
perpetuated. The omission of sections in this Act relating to open spaces
at the rear cf certain houses, is the more surprising, when the Local
Government Board, in 1877, published a Code of Model Bye-Laws for the
use of urban sanitary authorities, relating among other things to NEW
STREETS AND BUILDINGS. The 54th clause in this series of Model
Bye-laws, sets forth that, " every person who shall erect a new domestic
building, shall provide in the rear of such building an open space exclusively
belonging to such building, of an aggregate extent of not less than
one hundred and fifty square feet, and free from any erection thereon, above
the level of the ground, except a water-closet, earth-closet, or privy, and an
ashpit.
He shall cause such open space to extend laterally, throughout the
entire width of such building; and he shall cause the distance across such
open space, from every part of such building, to the boundary of any lands
or premises immediately opposite or adjoining the site of such buildings, to
be not less, in any case, than ten feet.
* The 29th section of the Building Act, 1855, provides for an open space at tho
rear of a certain class of dwelling houses, but both the spirit and letter of this section
are so frequently evaded by builders as to render the same nearly useless.