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large proportion were found to be dirty from want of whitewashing.
The total number inspected was 125. There was not
any instance of the bakehouse being illegally used as a sleepingroom,
or any lad employed contrary to the provisions of the Act.
The number of bad overcrowding cases discovered this year
was by no means large, viz. 32, and but few were of an indecent
character. Now considering that we annually inspect above 6000
houses, and enquire as to the number of inmates in all, this is a
very small number. The worst cases were as follows : at No. 4,
Union Row, Kingsland, the first floor was occupied by three
sisters, between 17 and 22 years of age, and two brothers, one 23
and the other 11; this room was large enough for three people
only. In a small room in Frederick Terrace, Fox Lane, there
slept and lived two women, not related, and a man. In a room
which had the cubical capacity for accommodating only a grownup
person and one child, there lived and slept the father, mother,
and three children under 10 years of age. There were living and
sleeping in another room in Palatine Houses, which was large
enough only for two persons and a child, the father, mother, and
four children, the eldest a girl being 13 and the others younger.
In a room at Homer Place, Hackney Wick, there were living and
sleeping the father, mother, a son of 19, a daughter of 13, and
two young children. In a four-roomed house in Duncan Square
we found no less than twenty-one grown-up persons, so that
there were five persons in each of three rooms and six in another.
At Church Road, Homerton, we discovered a widow and six
children living and sleeping in a room only large enough for a
grown-up person and two children under 10 years old. In a
room which contained only 678 cubic feet of air, and therefore
only large enough for a grown-up person and one child, we found
a man, his wife, and four children living and sleeping. The
other instances of overcrowding were not so bad.
If we consider the number of our population, and especially
the number of houses under twenty pounds a year rental (about