“The owner of such house shall cause the walls and ceilings of every room, and of the staircase and passages, and yards of such house to be well and sufficiently coloured or limewashed, or otherwise thoroughly cleansed once (at least) in every year.
“He shall cause every room and the passages to be ventilated.
“He shall provide such accommodation for washing, and such a supply of water for the use of the lodgers as shall be satisfactory to the Vestry’s Officers;” and sundry and numerous minor directions.
The Medical Officer of Health (Chelsea), after the first year’s work, reported that the number of houses in the parish inhabited by two or more families was very great, and in many cases their condition was deplorable, and it was found necessary to embrace whole streets as well as courts and alleys in the registration.
By 1869 the registration in Chelsea had been completed, and in 1870 the Medical Officer of Health wrote: “I have seen no reason to alter my opinion of the beneficial action of the measure by which we have been able to bring under direct and constant supervision the majority of the houses occupied by the poorer classes in this parish….”
The most satisfactory results followed also in Hackney.
Its Medical Officer of Health reported in 1867 that nearly 5,000 houses had been measured and examined, and in a large proportion of cases the numbers of persons allowed to inhabit them had been fixed. And as to the result of the enforcement of the Regulations, he wrote (1869): “A very large number of families now occupy two rooms who formerly lived and slept in one. The gain in health and morality has therefore been considerable.”
Poplar was another of the District Boards which made and enforced the Regulations. The Medical Officer of Health for the north part of the District reported (1868):—
“Extensive improvements have been already effected, but the work must still be systematically continued, for even when every house in the district has been put into good sanitary state (which is far from being the case as yet), it will be necessary to maintain a constant and watchful system of re-inspection to ensure their being kept in order.
“Of the 1,610 houses inspected nearly all required more or less sanitary improvement, and 630 were registered as containing more than one family, and therefore coming under the Board’s regulations as to registration.”