First report of her Majesty's Commissioners for inquiring into the housing of the working classes.

Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First report of her Majesty's Commissioners for inquiring into the housing of the working classes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    10/134 (page 10)
    Shaftesbury Act, 1851. Shaftesbury, 3, 23, &c. ‘ Owen, 349. Shaftesbury, 4, 218. Owen, 375, &c. Torrens’s Acts. OweD, 305, &c. Owen, 307, 308, seq. to make regulations for houses let in lodgings or occupied by members of more than one family; and by sec. 47 of the Sanitary Law Amendment Act of 1874 (37 & 38 Viet. c. 89.), the Local Government Board may declare the enactment to be in force in any part of the metropolis, and in the district of any sanitary authority, the powers of the Secretary of State in this matter having in the meantime been transferred to the Local Government Board. The Local Government Board having in November last declared the enactment in force in the whole of those sanitary districts of the metropolis in which it was not already in opera- tion, the vestries have the power to make rules for securing, in the case of these houses, the observance of provisions as regards ventilation, separation of the sexes, cleansing, draining, ancf the prevention of overcrowding. The Acts above referred to are still in force in ihe metropolis, but as regards England and Wales, exclusive of the metropolis, those Acts were repealed by the Public Health Act, 1875 (38 & 39 Viet. c. 55). That Act, however, includes provisions similar to those above alluded to. Turning to legislation on the subject of the demolition of unhealthy houses, and the construction of improved dwellings, it is found that as far back as 1851, Lord Shaftesbury conducted through both Houses of Parliament, he having been a member of both Houses in the course of that year, the Labouring Classes j Lodging Houses Act (14 & 15 Viet. c. 34.). This piovides, as regards the metropolis, that the Act may be adopted in any parish with a population of not less than 10,000 at a meeting specially ; convened for the purpose on the requisition of ratepayers. The resolution of adoption must be passed by at least two thirds in value of the votes on the question. When the Act has been j adopted the vestry may appoint commissioners, who need only be ■ ratepayers, to borrow money on the mortgage of the rates for the erection, purchase, cr lease of lodging-houses for the working classes, to be managed under byelaws made and enforced by the | Commissioners. This Act also contains provisions for its adoption I in populous districts outside the metropolis. The Act, however, : seems to have been a dead letter, for reasons to which Your j Majesty’s Commissioners will have to refer when they proceed to i make suggestions for the amendment of the law. In 1868, Mr. Torrens’s Act (31 & 32 Viet. c. 130.) was passed. ] With the amending Acts of 1879 (42 & 43 Viet. c. 64.) and of i 1882 (45 & 46 Viet. c. 54.) if provides for the gradual improve- I ment or demolition of dwellings of the working classes, and for the building and maintenance of the improved dwellings. These * Acts apply to single tenements, or comparatively small groups of houses, and in the metropolis are administered by the vestries and district boards. They affect houses unfit for human habitation and also obstructive buildings which stop ventilation or conduce to make neighbouring buildings unfit for habitation. The first step to be taken under them is for the medical officer to report to the local authority whenever he finds premises dangerous to health so as to be unfit for human habitation. He may do this on the