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95
MISCELLANEOUS.
Overcrowding abated in 7 premises
Dead bodies removed from 3 „
Animals, kept so as to be a nusiance, removed from 4 „
Accumulation of dung and rubbish removed from 13 „
Smoke Nusiances abated in 1 „
Making a total of 5434 separate nusiances, dangerous to health, abated
in 1137 dwellings.
In addition to the ordinary notices served for the abatement of nusiances
519 letters have been written.
To show the character of the work done during the year a few cases are
given in detail, as follows:
Nos. 62 to 80, WILMER GARDENS.
These houses were reported to the Sanitary Committee to be unfit for
habitation, and were viewed by the Committee, by whom I was instructed
to communicate with the owner, with a view to secure the demolition of
the premises. In reporting this Case I venture to direct attention to the
principal points in the history of these houses, as they well illustrate the
Sanitary evils attendant on the present leasehold system.
(1). In promotion of Ground Rents, ten houses were crowded on a frontage
measuring 120-ft. 7-in. which gave an average of 11 feet between
the walls in each house, a w1dth utterly inadequate for dwellings.
(2.) The houses were built of the most inferior bricks and wood, consequent
upon the building owner's interest in the houses he erected, being
limited to a term of years, and being thereby subject to a reduction
of value year by year.
(3.) Consequent on bad material, bad workmanship, narrow frontages, and
smallness of apartments (none of which afforded elbow room for family
life) there has been for many years past, and probably from the day
when they were first occupied a process of disintegration going on,
which it has been very difficult for the successive leaseholders to cope
with.
It has therefore been necessary repeatedly to serve notices to repair
dilap1dations upon the owners, and thus, a few years ago under Sanitary
Notices, walls and ceilings, floors, stairs, &c., were repaired and the yards