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Strand District Board of Works
REPORT
OF THE
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
ON THE AREA
Represented to the London County Council under
THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES ACT.— PART I.
In February, 1894, I reported to the Strand Board of Works
that I had carefully examined during the previous twelve months
a large number of houses in the District, and that I had found
many in such a state as to be unfit for habitation. This report
was considered at a meeting of the Health Committee; and I was
specially authorized to take such steps as might be necessary to
obtain rectification of sanitary defects or closure of the houses,
and for that purpose to put in force the provisions of the Housing
of the Working Classes Act, 1890, and the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891.
A number of premises have been dealt with, but there are
serious difficulties in the way of carrying out those instructions
unless some scheme for the reconstruction of certain areas and
for re-housing of the people can be devised. The owners of many
of the houses in the neighbourhood of Drury Lane are willing to
do their best to render their houses more fit for habitation, but
they are precluded from doing this by the fact that the space of
ground occupied is already so covered over that no improvement
in the way of providing more air and light can be effected, while
if they pull down with a view to re-build, the space at their