I should not deal completely with the subject if I did not state what has been done by past legislation, especially since the outbreak of cholera in 1831, in attempting to remedy some of these evils in London.
In 1844 the Metropolitan Building Act was passed, and among other things it placed cellar- dwellings under the district surveyors.
In 1846 and 1855 were passed the Nuisances Removal Acts, which checked to some small extent the mischief of over-crowding, and put down many nuisances.
In 1846 and 1847 the Baths and Wash-houses Acts were obtained, which enabled parishes to build for these purposes, and to obtain advances from the Loans Commissioners. In 1848 the Public Health Act followed. From this the metropolis was excepted, but it benefited indirectly by the establishment of the General Board of Health.
In 1849 came the second great attack of cholera, in which 4,000 people perished; and that again awakened public attention to the necessity of some measure for improving the dwellings of the poor. It was at that time that Lord Shaftesbury, then Lord Ashley, took an important step in that benevolent movement of which he had made himself the leader for improving the dwellings of the poor in London, and introduced Bills which subsequently became the Common Lodging House Acts of 1851 and 1853.
The effect of these Acts was that lodging-houses were required to be approved by the police, then registered, and thoroughly cleansed and lime-whitened twice every year, in April and October. These Acts are now working well in London, although the common lodging-houses I have visited seem to me to be seriously over-crowded, while they often form parts of courts that are not fit for the habitation of human beings.[1]
In 1862 was passed the Metropolis Water Act, which enabled vestries to oblige householders to lay on a supply of water, while the source of that supply was altered.
- ↑ The price of a bed per night in these common lodging-houses is 3d. or 4d. For such a payment much better quarters could be given. A house much resorted to, with 100 single beds, may obtain a rent of 10l. a week, or about 500l. a year. The owners of these places often make quite a fortune from their traffic in what, after all, is but miserable accommodation. In a low, ill-ventilated room, as many beds are crowded as it can possibly hold, without any separation between them, even in the houses appropriated to women. Decency suggests that there should be partitions between the beds with sufficient space for dressing in privacy, and that the closets should bear some proportion in number to the people housed, and should be properly and conveniently situated. The police rules need revision.
