View report page

13
It will be observed that under this section.it is not necessary
tor an official representation to be made by me in any of the
above cases, but I might say that on November 19th in one of
111 ordinary fortnightly reports to the Sanitary Committee I
brought to their notice the closeness, and narrowness, and bad
arrangement, and bad condition, of the buildings, known as
Lomas Buildings as the following report will show.
To the Committee appointed under the Housing of the
Working Classes Act 1890.
I beg to bring before your notice the insanitary condition of
the houses known as Lomas Buildings.
These buildings consist of two rows of houses, fifteen on each
side, situated between Ben Jonson Road and Mary Street in
the Centre Ward.
The entrance from Ben Jonson Road is by means of a
covered way with a dwelling house over it.
The footway between the two rows of houses is 10 feet wide.
Taking first the fifteen houses on the West side each house
consists of two small rooms 011 each of the two floors, a larger
one in front, and a scullery behind 011 the ground floor, and two
bed-rooms above.
The front living rooms are 10 feet long 10 feet wide and
6 feet 9 inches in height, the floor boards are on the ground, no
ventilation beneath, so that in many of them the floor boards
are rotten and damp, the walls in most of them are filthily
dirty, the rooms are dark, and suffer both from want of light,
and air, owing to the close proximity of the houses opposite ;
the yards are very small, and few have dustbins, the houses
are mostlv occupied by costermongers with families.
On the East side the rooms are rather larger than those on
the opposite side, these rooms suffer from want of light and air,
the walls are more or less dilapidated, in several of them the
walls are damp and in five the floor boards are laid on the
ground, without proper ventilation underneath, so that looking
on these buildings as a whole, they are so situated that by their
closeness, narrowness, bad condition of the houses, and also by
their want of light and ventilation, they are in my opinion in
such a condition as to be prejudicial to the health of the inhabitants,
I would suggest to you the necessity of taking into
consideration the report, with a view of treating the property,
under the 39th section of the Housing of the Working Classes
Act 1890, for if we have any insanitary areas in the Hamlet,
this certainly is the first one that should be remedied.
The Sanitary Committee have surveyed these buildings and
are of an opinion that an improvement scheme ought to be
carried out, they have the matter at the present time under
discussion.