And the Medical Officer of Health for Whitechapel wrote (1865):—
“Here I would remark, that a uniform system of inspection of all the houses in the several districts in London which are let out in separate tenements should be repeatedly and systematically adopted; for if all the Vestries and local Boards do not act together in this important matter, hotbeds of epidemic diseases will remain undiscovered which will serve as centres from whence such diseases may emanate, and extend over the entire metropolis. The whole population of London, therefore, is interested in the prompt removal of nuisances.”
Immediately on the passing of the Act some of the Vestries made efforts to deal with overcrowding under the Section which enacted that—
“Any house so overcrowded as to be dangerous or prejudicial to the health of the inmates” is to be considered a “nuisance.”
That, however, was only a temporary remedy, and affected only overcrowding. Section 35 went to the root of the matter when it insisted that in addition to the prevention of overcrowding, the house in which the people lived should be kept clean and in sanitary condition.
“The very foundation of our sanitary structure,” wrote the Medical Officer of Health for St. George-the-Martyr, “depends upon the right housing of the poor.”
The Section 35 was promptly put in force by a few of the Vestries—Chelsea and Hackney being the first to make Regulations and to enforce them.
Under the Regulations, whenever the Vestry deemed it desirable to put them in force in respect to any house let in lodgings or occupied by members of more than one family, the number of persons allowed to live in that house was fixed on a basis of 300 cubic feet of air for each adult for sleeping, or 350 for living and sleeping, and the owner had to reduce the number of lodgers to the number so fixed on receiving notice to that effect.
The Regulations further directed that—