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district of the Holborn Board of Works, and that
sanitary authority had just taken proceedings at
the Clerkenwell Police Court in respect of a similar
complaint. Both sides were represented by Counsel,
and the Magistrate ultimately adjourned the
matter for three months, on a statement that
defendants were about to remove their business
from the premises in question. Under these circumstances,
the Vestry also adjourned the further
consideration of the subject for three months.
Housing of Working Classes Act, 1890—Union
Place.—In May, 1895, the Vestry received from the
Medical Officer of Health a certificate that the
houses, 1 to 7, Union Place, Clerkenwell Close,
were in a condition dangerous to health so as to be
unfit for human habitation, and that the Court is
entirely deficient in the ordinary elements of health,
there only being a mean space of 7ft. Gin. between
the houses, the staircases being dark and dangerous.
The entrance to the Court is only 3ft. 3in. wide
and is closed above by a house. The houses have
no back ventilation. The closets are hemmed in
by a wall 3ft. distant, the locality forming a true
back slum. The Vestry thereupon directed that
notices be served upon the owners of the houses
specified in the above representation to make the
houses fit for habitation under the provisions of
section 32 of the Housing of the Working Classes
Act, 1890, and that in default of compliance with
such notice, proceedings be taken at the Police
Court for prohibiting the use of the premises for
human habitation. The owner, Mrs. Suffield,
thereupon wrote to the Vestry, stating that the
place should be immediately put into a proper state
of repair, and asking that the requirements of the
Vestry be more definitely stated, and was informed