London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Fulham 1929
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Fulham]
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| (b) | Number of dwelling-houses in respect of which Closing Orders were made | - |
| (c) | Number of dwelling-houses in respect of which Closing Orders were determined, the dwelling-houses having been rendered fit | - |
| (d) | Number of dwelling-houses in respect of which demolition orders were made | - |
| (e) | Number of dwelling-houses demolished in pursuance of demolition orders | - |
Mr. J. Rowbotham was appointed Housing Inspector
during 1929 and commenced duty on 12th August.
This work consists of house to house inspection of
houses occupied by the working classes under the Public
Health and Housing Acts, the Housing (Consolidated)
Regulations, and the London County Council Byelaws
with respect to houses divided into separate tenements.
The procedure is to inspect every house in the
street in sequence. The exterior and the interior of each
house are subjected to careful scrutiny, every room in
the house is measured in its three dimensions to ascertain
the cubic air space, and windows are measured in
relation to the floor space and as to the extent to which
they are capable of opening in order to decide whether
the ventilation and lighting are sufficient. The number
of occupants of each room, the age, sex and status,
(whether landlord, tenant or lodger, etc.), are noted.
Houses coming within the definition of lodginghouses
under the London County Council byelaws are
recommended to the Public Health Committee for registration;
owners are notified that it is proposed to register
the houses and are given the opportunity of stating any
valid reason why the house should not be registered.
The details of the complete inspection are too numerous
to describe but the above general outline will give an
indication of the method adopted.
House to house inspection involves a large amount
of record keeping which was done partly by the inspector
himself and partly by the office staff. In the course of