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45
One room each in three houses in Cable Street was overcrowded and
illegally occupied, all the three rooms being underground.
The same applied to a house in Grove Street, Walden Street and three
houses in Princelet Street. The rooms had no proper ventilation, and the
walls were damp in the three latter.
One room in a house in Wilkes Street was occupied by a man and wife
with 7 children—3 children in excess.
A room in Hogarth Houses was overcrowded and illegally occupied, a
man and wife with 2 children occupying one room only, which was underground.
A room in Sutton Street was occupied by 8 persons, having 3 adults and
2 children in excess.
The same thing occurred in Dora Street—8 persons occupying one room,
Anchor Street—8 persons occupying one room, and Red Lion Street—8
persons in one room.
In Commercial Road, 3 persons occupied one room which was entirely
undergorund with no means of ventilation into the open air and no light except
artificial light.
The above, as well as others, were considered by the Public Health Committee.
If the Statutory notices were followed by Police Court proceedings, it
was felt that no good would result therefrom. If the Magistrate made an
Order to abate the overcrowding, the people would have no place to go to
except the Poor Law Institution. They could not be accommodated in any of
the Borough Council or London County Council flats as the wages of the heads
of the families, if at work, would not be sufficient to pay for the flats. The
wages were possibly sufficient to pay rent for houses in Becontree but the nature
of their employment would not permit them to live so far away from their
work. In the majority of the cases the families were receiving out-door relief
on account of unemployment.
General Sanitary Work.
40,023 inspections were made to houses.
45,634 re-visits were made by the Inspectors to supervise the abatement
of the nuisances found in 14,965 houses. 10,832 statutory notices were
served; 102 summonses were taken under the Public Health (London) Act,
1891.
3,446 drains were tested with smoke, 483 of which were found to be
defective, and 142 were re-tested; 1,516 drains were either constructed or
re-constructed, cleansed or repaired; 169 were trapped.