View report page

21
Law to build upon the Cemetery if no bodies were interfered with.
The lessee made his plans with a view of meeting the letter of the law.
The Metropolitan Board of Works made, in 1879, Bye Laws under
sec. 16 of the Metropolis Management and Building Acts Amendment
Act, 1878.
One of those Bye Laws is—
"No house, building or other erection, shall be erected upon any site or portion of
any site, which shall have been filled up, or covered with any material impregnated
or mixed with any fœcal animal or vegetable matter, or which shall have been filled up
or covered with dust, or slop, or other refuse, or in or upon which any such matter or
refuse shall have been deposited, unless, and until such matter or refuse shall have been
properly removed by excavation or otherwise from such site."
By the Act under which the Bye Law is made, the word "site" is
defined as the space occupied by such house "between the level of the
bottom of the foundations and the level of the base of the walls."
If the word "site" in the Bye Law is to be construed according to
the definition of it in the Act, it would appear the Metropolitan Board
could not interfere, even if the soil below the level of the bottom of the
foundations consist entirely of animal matter.
Mr. Chambers, the lessee, has made a formal commencement of
building, and the Metropolitan Board of Works have taken proceedings
against him for infraction of the Bye Laws.
The attempt to build a large number of houses on ground in which
about 20,000 bodies have been buried, closely packed, and up nearly
to the surface, has naturally attracted much attention, and excited
indignation. It was not supposed that a thing so dangerous to health
was possible, or that such "desecration of the dead" could not
instantly be stopped. The Appeal in the case of Foster v. Dodd, which
showed that an Order in Council was of no avail in such a case as
that of Peel Grove, was decided so long ago as April, 1866. A Bill
to prevent building on disused Burial Grounds, brought in by Mr.
Hollond, one of the members for Brighton, is, at the date of this
Report, before Parliament.
RE-NUMBERING AND RE-NAMING STREETS.
During the year, orders have been made by the Metropolitan Board
of Works for
Re-numbering Approach road.
Ditto Sewardstone road.
Ditto Eandon road.
Ditto Ely place.
Ditto Hague street.
Ditto Gibraltar walk.
Ditto Northampton street.