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Memorandum of Overcrowding in Single Booms, and in Houses
let and sub-let by absentee Landlords*
In accordance with the request of the Sanitary and Public
Health Committee the following is a brief summary of the
grounds upon which I believe the Vestry ought to adopt the
35th Section of the Sanitary Act in the Parish:—
I have strong reasons for believing that when a proposition of
this kind was brought before the Vestry in 1867, it was withdrawn
from want of due appreciation of the advantages which
the poor as well as ratepayers would derive from it, perhaps also,
in some measure, from misrepresentations and alleged injustice
towards landlords of tenant house property.
The Sanitary records of this and other Vestries, prove that
houses let out in single rooms, or to several families, have
endangered the life of people, Extreme density of population
favors the spread of contagion, and is a prolific source of pauperism
and degradation.
The ordinary systematic Sanitary inspection once a year is
not a sufficient remedy, for although we generally succeed in
abating nuisances when discovered, it is much easier to prevent
their frequent recurrence, by registration and inspection of the
worst houses. This is what is wanted.
The stringent rules proposed for adoption in this and other
Parishes four years ago, resulted I believe, in failure, from
requiring too much supervision in carrying out Sec. 35 of the
Sanitary Act, and from trespassing somewhat upon the supposed
rights of property and liberty of the subject; therefore it is
that I now conceive a more simple set of rules may be adopted,
which in no way can be complained of as unreasonable towards
either landlords or tenants.
It cannot be denied that it is only in certain house property to
which we now refer, that dangerous and immoral overcrowding
occurs; these houses are inhabited by the lowest class of
people, and amongst them is the largest proportion of sickness
and pauperism. There are persons who let out rooms to weekly
tenants that take in, as a rule, a class of persons not to be tolerated
in respectable tenant houses kept by a responsible landlord or
landlady. The drinking and dirty people, for instance, seek out
the former kind of house, where there is no resident landlord, and
prefer it to any other. The Parochial Medical Officers and the
Relieving Officers of Unions are able to show that they have on
their books applicants always on the verge of pauperism, who
chiefly live in back rooms and kitchens, paying rent under the
most unfavorable sanitary conditions.
* Reprinted from Quarterly Report (No. 18) to the Vestry of Paddington, by
W. IIaudwicke, M.D., Medical Officer of Health.