The London health laws : a manual of the law affecting the housing and sanitary condition of Londoners, with special reference to the dwellings of the poor / issued by the Mansion House Council on the Dwellings of the Poor.

Date:: 1894

Credit: The London health laws : a manual of the law affecting the housing and sanitary condition of Londoners, with special reference to the dwellings of the poor / issued by the Mansion House Council on the Dwellings of the Poor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$be made to the London Comity Council; and tliat body, if satisfied tliat the complaint is well groimded, may (a) either supersede the local autliority as to the particular defaults, and execute the work for it at the local author- ity's ' expense ; or (6), in a case of great default, may complain to the Local Grovernment Board, who may then inquire into the matter, and, if it seems expedient, take proceedings for the supersession of the sanitary authority. Up(m the whole, it is open to question whether or not matters were better before 1891, inasmuch as an appeal could be made directly to the Local Grovernment Board, and an inquiry could usually be obtained with little delay, while now the circuitous route through the County Council, on which sit representatives of the defaulting autliority, is apt to be longer and affords less publicity to the Inquiry. Examples of Nuisances. Unhealthy Premises. We have ascertained what a nuisance within the Public Health Act of 1891 really is, and have seen what are the ways and means by which such a nuisance can be dealt with. It now remains to inquire somewhat more closely into the several matters which come within the definitions already given (see pp. 19, 20). Any prernises in such a state as to he a nuisance, or injurious, or dangerous to health. At the Thames Police Court, an owner of property in Lime- house was summoned at the instance of the Limehonse District Board of Works for neglecting to comply witli a notice of the Board served n]Don him requiring him to malvC the premises fit for human habitation. The premises consisted of a shop and three rooms. All the walls and ceilings were in a most filthy condition, and the floor-boards were rotten and broken—the latter on the earth—and there was no through ventilation. The shop Avas used as a rag-shop, commonly known as a ' dolly-sho]),' and on the floors in the shop and rooms there was an accumulation of old under- clothing, boots, shoes, and rags, and the shop was so full that the inspector was \inable to get through it. The sanitary inspector obtained access to the other rooms by means of a ladder, on which he stood, and was then able to look into them. When he came away he foiind something he did not want on his clothes.^ The$