“Lodging-houses for the lowest class of persons abound in Birmingham. They principally exist near the centre of the town, many of them in courts; but great numbers of front houses, in some of the old streets, are entirely occupied as lodging-houses. They are generally in a very filthy condition; and, being the resort of the most abandoned characters, they are sources of extreme misery and vice. These houses may be divided into three kinds,—mendicants’ lodging-house, lodging-houses where Irish resort, and houses in which prostitutes live, or which they frequent.
“We find it stated in Mr. Burgess’s return, that in 47 of these the sexes indiscriminately sleep together. In the day time the doors of these houses are generally thronged with dirty, half-dressed women and children; and if visited in an evening, the inmates are found to be eating, drinking, and smoking. Such houses are, for the most part, occupied by beggars and trampers, but many of them are the resort of thieves. Some idea may be formed of the description of persons who frequent some of these abodes, by stating that in two of them, one of which was situate in John-street and the other in Thomas-street, a chain, fastened at one end by a staple and at the other secured by a padlock, was placed on the outside of the door, at the foot of the staircase which led to the sleeping apartments. Upon asking the mistress of the house for what purpose that was required, she stated that she employed it to lock in the lodgers until she released them in the morning, as they would otherwise decamp, and take away whatever furniture or moveables they could carry with them. Some of these houses are occupied exclusively by foreigners. In a court in Park-street we visited one which was inhabited by Italians, men and women, with their stock of musical instruments, monkeys, and other small animals. We are informed that there is another Italian lodging-house in Lichfield-street, as well as one which is frequented only by the Flemish or German broom-girls.”
In whatever part of the kingdom these receptacles are examined they exhibit common characteristics. Dr. Jenks, in his report on the sanitary condition of the labouring classes in Brighton, gives the following account of the lodging-houses:—
“Nottingham-street is the well-known haunt of tramps and beggars; Egremont-street of the lowest prostitutes and thieves. Both streets are on elevated ground, with good surface drainage, sufficiently wide and commodious, and might easily be preserved in a decent state; but all manner of disgusting refuse is thrown out of doors, and but seldom removed by the scavengers. In Nottingham-street there are eight or nine lodging-houses. Lodging-keepers have commonly three or four houses, for each of which they pay 2s. 6d. per week. The following is a description of one of them, and may serve as an instar omnium:—The keeper of the lodging-house rented four of these small tenements. One room, common to the whole of the inmates, who amounted to 30, including the children, served both as kitchen and sitting-room. This room was crowded when I visited it in company with the chief police-officer, Mr. Solomons, with not less than 17 people covered with filth and rags. In the largest of the sleeping-rooms, 16 feet by 10 feet, by 7 feet high, there were six beds, five on bedsteads and one on the floor, to accommodate twelve people of both sexes, besides children. Each person paid 3d. per night. Those who could afford more could be accommodated with a small room with one bed. * * * In a word, the streets in this neighbourhood have for many years been an intolerable nuisance to the town at large. They are the resort of tramps, begging impostors, thieves, and prostitutes of the lowest description, who daily and nightly take their rounds through the town.”
The following account of the lodging-houses in Manchester is from the report of Dr. Baron Howard:—
“The pernicious effects resulting from the vitiation of the atmosphere by the congregation of many persons in a confined space are lamentably illustrated in the common lodging-houses of the poor; the crowded, dirty, and ill-ventilated state of which is, I conceive, without doubt one of the most prolific sources of fever in Manchester. To those who have not visited them, no description can convey anything like an accurate idea of the abominable state of these dens of filth, disease, and wretchedness.
“The great prevalence of fever in these houses during the severe epidemic of 1837–38 attracted the especial notice of the Board of the House of Recovery, who passed and transmitted the following resolution to the churchwardens on the 3d of January, 1838:—‘It appearing that a great number of cases of fever originates in the common lodging-houses of the poor of the town, the Board begs to suggest to the churchwardens and sidesmen the desirableness of appointing proper persons to inspect the same, in order to prevent, as far as possible, by cleanliness and ventilation, the increase and spread of this malady.’ In consequence of this suggestion the parochial authorities did immediately cause some of the most filthy of these establishments to be cleansed and whitewashed; but it is evident that temporary exertions of this kind, however praiseworthy, are quite inadequate to effect much permanent improvement.
“In some of these houses as many as six or eight beds are contained in a single room; in others, where the rooms are smaller, the number is necessarily less; but it seems to be the invariable practice in these ‘keepers of fever beds,’ as the proprietors were styled by Dr. Ferriar, to cram as many beds into each room as it can possibly be made to hold; and they are often placed so close to each other that there is scarcely room to pass between them. The scene which these places present at night is one of the most lamentable description; the crowded state of the beds, filled promiscuously with men, women, and children; the floor covered over with the filthy and ragged clothes they have just put off, and with their various bundles and packages, containing all the property they possess, mark the depraved and blunted state of their feelings, and the moral and social disorder which exists. The suffocating stench and heat of the atmosphere are almost intolerable to a person coming from the open air, and plainly indicate its insalubrity. Even if the place be inspected during the day, the state of things is not much better. Several persons will very commonly be found in bed; one is probably sick, a second is perhaps sleeping away the effects of the previous night’s debauch, while another is possibly dozing away his time because he has no employment, or is taking his rest now because he obtains his living by some night work. In consequence of this occupation of the room during the day, the windows are kept constantly closed, ventilation is entirely neglected, and the vitiated atmosphere is ever ready to communicate its poisonous influence to the first fresh comer whom habit has not yet rendered insensible to its effects, an exemption which seems to be in some degree acquired by habitual exposure, and which accounts for the immunity frequently enjoyed by the keepers themselves of these houses, whilst their lodgers are attacked in succession. This circumstance, which was particularly noticed by Dr. Ferriar, I have often observed. Where cellars are occupied as lodging-houses, the back room is generally used as the sleeping apartment; and as this has often no window, and can only receive air and light through the door opening into the front room, the utter impossibility of ventilation renders the ravages of infectious fevers particularly destructive when they once find entrance.
“The beds and bedding, being seldom washed or changed, are generally in the most filthy condition, and consisting usually of those porous materials to which contagious vapours are especially liable to attach themselves, the danger of sleeping in them may be well conceived. Even if a bed has been occupied by a fever patient who has died, or been removed, it is often immediately used by fresh lodgers, without having undergone any purification.
“The disgraceful state of these lodging-houses has been dwelt upon at some length, because I consider their evils of a most serious and extensive nature, and I feel quite satisfied they are the most malignant foci of infectious fevers in Manchester. Indeed it is my decided opinion that the vitiation of the atmosphere by the living is much more injurious to the constitution than its impregnation with the effluvia from dead organic matter; and certainly all I have observed in Manchester induces me to consider the ‘human miasms’ generated in overcrowded and ill-ventilated rooms as a far more frequent and efficient cause of fever than the malaria arising from collections of refuse and want of drainage. I have been led to this conclusion from having remarked that fever has generally prevailed more extensively in those houses where the greatest numbers were crowded together, and where ventilation was most deficient, although the streets in which they are situated maybe well paved, drained, and tolerably free from filth, than in those where there was less crowding, notwithstanding their location in the midst of nuisances giving rise to malaria. This inference is also supported by the fact of the higher relative proportion of fever to other diseases which has been shown to exist in the collegiate church district, where the number of crowded lodging-houses and confined courts, the closely compacted state of the buildings, the narrowness of the streets, and consequent density of the population and absence of ventilations, are most remarkable.”