Report to the Sewers and Sanitary Committee of the parish of St. Giles, Camberwell, on houses let in lodgings.

  • John Syer Bristowe
Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the Sewers and Sanitary Committee of the parish of St. Giles, Camberwell, on houses let in lodgings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the requirements are in some cases tyrannical and indecent; and, lastly, the means by which the regulations shall be brought into operation in respect of any house, and shall be maintained in respect of that house (a matter of the greatest practical difficulty), is not even touched on; while, on the other hand, there are introduced a number of practically useless euquiries which would entail an enormous amount of wholly uuremunerative clerical labour. I proceed to justify the charges I have just made. 1st. As to their diffuseness. I need only refer to the unneces- sary repetitions in Clauses 3, 4, 5, and 6, all of which relate to the cubic feet of air-space to be allowed to each lodger; and to the numerous like repetitions in the many Clauses dealing with clean- liness of rooms, closets, cisterns, &c. 2nd. They concern themselves with a multitude of small details it would be impossible for any local authority to enforce. By Section 34 every lodger is required to cause every window of every sleeping apartment to be kept fully open for two hours every day; and by Section 21 he is required to cause the floor of every room, which shall be let to him, to be thoroughly swept at least once in every day, and thoroughly washed at least once in every week. It is at least as desirable that he should wash himself from head to foot every day, and that his clothing should be frequently changed and cleansed; but for these desiderata no provision has been made. Now, no one will doubt the importance of domestic cleanliness, and the desirability of having the above regulations, and like regulations contained in other sections, carried out. But it is surely obvious that, though a Vestry might recommend, it could never enforce, such enactments as these. 3rd. The apportionment of duties between the different persons concerned in lodging houses is faulty and unworkable. The persons who are made responsible for the performance of duties pre- scribed in the regulations are the landlord and the lodger. But. the term landlord is so defined as to mean solely tlio person letting lodgings, or the person on whose behalf they are let; and
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