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first floor, second floor, and sometimes a third floor and fourth floor. There are two rooms on
each floor and generally a slip room on one or two floors. With the exception of the slip rooms,
the rooms are of good dimensions. Difficulties arise, however, owing to these houses, which were
originally intended for one family, having been let to three, four, five or six families.
Houses let in furnished rooms constitute the most unsatisfactory and undesirable form of
housing accommodation, and it is therefore pleasing to note that the number of dwellings of this
type in the Borough is gradually diminishing. In 1912 there were 187, and at the end of 1927 the
number was reduced to 50. These 50 are situated in the following parts of the Borough: —
Norland Ward 22
St. Charles Ward 9
Pembridge Ward 9
Golborne Ward 10
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The average rent of a furnished room is 7s. per week including the use of such furniture as the
owner provides.
There are in the Borough about 13,000 basements used for dwelling purposes. The number
of these dwellings with ceilings at or below the street level is approximately 640, the number in
which the width of the front area does not exceed three feet is 1,233, and the number in which the
width of the front area exceeds three feet and does not exceed four feet is 2,087.

In the early part of 1928 the Common Lodging House at No. 194, Kensal Road was sold and
is at present empty and for sale as a dwelling house.
BY-LAWS FOR HOUSES LET IN LODGINGS.
There came into operation in 1926 a new series of by-laws for houses let in lodgings,
which rescinded those which had been in force for many years previously. They are a
distinct advance on the old code and are of much value to the Council in securing even better
results than those noted in recent years. The clauses of the new by-laws under which the Council
can require considerable structural alterations so as to provide more satisfactory lavatory and
washing accommodation and accommodation for the storage, preparation and cooking of food, do
not come into operation until six months after the Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Acts
and continuing enactments thereof cease to be in force.
The new by-laws have made a very important amendment in the definition of a "house let in
lodgings." Hitherto, any house which was occupied by members of more than one family of the
working classes came within the scope of the by-laws, but under the new code a house will not be
regarded as let in lodgings if the tenant resides in the premises and not more than two persons in
addition to the tenant and his family lodge therein. In other words, a tenant renting the whole
house can accept two lodgers without the dwelling becoming subject to the by-laws.
Further, the Minister of Health, in his Certificate of Confirmation of the by-laws, added a
rider that they should not apply to any house in which the tenant resides and not more than one
family is lodged. This Certificate of Confirmation by the Minister excludes from the category of
a house let in lodgings a dwelling which has been let wholly to one tenant who has sublet one or
more rooms to not more than one family. This exception does not apply to a house in which the
owner lets part to one family and part to another.